Relationship Of Language Learning Strategies And Test Performance In The Context Of Student Personality

This study investigated the relationship between language strategy preferences and proficiency in the context of student personality among Chinese non-English-major university students.At present, there are 23 million Chinese university students learning English, which composes the largest English-learning group all over the world. More than half of them are pursuing studies in the universities of science and engineering. Although most of them spend lots of time learning English, they still find it hard for them to learn English well. At the same time, Chinese State Ministry of Education has carried out reforms of College English Teaching Syllabus and corresponding evaluation system. It is urgent for teachers to revise teaching mode to improve students' ability of practical use.To achieve the goal, it is necessary to introduce language learning strategies to students. Language learning strategies are very useful for university students, for they can employ them consciously during the learning process to improve learning outcome, even after graduation. In fact, owing to the influence of traditional Confucianism, Chinese students have features in their personalities, which explains unique phenomenon in Chinese classroom. Their personality types influence their choice of learning strategies. In most cases, it has an effect on students' learning outcome. If these factors were considered in our English teaching, the outcome would be much better. Therefore, the author conducted the research study, with an aim to explore the relationship between language strategy preferences and proficiency in the context of student personality among Chinese non-English-major university students, hoping it would contribute a little to reforms of College English Teaching.Participants consisted of 216 third-year university students at a university in Hefei, Anhui Province. They were selected at random. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and College English Test Band Four (CET Band 4) were administered as measures of personality types, language learning strategy preferences and test performance. A multivariate analysis ofvariance (MANOVA) and univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to examine the relationships among different personality types and language learning strategies. Results of this analysis revealed that there was a strong association between personality types and language learning strategies. The extroverts used cognitive, affective, social and metacognitive strategies more than the introverts did. Pearson Correlation Coefficient was the method to examine the relationships among language learning strategies and test performance. Results indicated that Language proficiency (tested by examination scores) was positively correlated with language learning strategies, especially cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective and social strategies. The higher strategy scores were, the higher level the language proficiency would be. The effects of gender were analyzed by conducting T test. Results indicated that compared with male students, female students tended to be more extroverted, used some strategies (social, affective, metacognitive, memory and compensation strategies) more, and hence higher test grades.What's more, for multivariate analysis, Structure Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test theoretical models that construct causal relationships among a set of observed variables. Our theoretical model has four factors: a personality latent factor, a learning strategy latent factor, a gender factor and CET Band 4 score factor. Results are consistent with those mentioned above.Finally, an additional recommendation was advanced. In English teaching, all these factors influencing learning strategy preferences and test performance should be taken into account. At the same time, the introduction to learning strategies may be incorporated into teaching, so that the students' ability of self-learning will be enhanced, which will result in the improvement of their language use proficiency.