Effect Of English Proficiency And Gender On English Majors' Use Of Language Learning Strategies In A Chinese University

The study of learning strategies has seen an'explosion of activity'in recent years. In spite of the increasing popularity of research on learning strategies since the mid-1970s, the topic of learning strategies is still a new research area in mainland China. Most previous studies in China have focused on university English majors, with little research on English majors in normal universities. Furthermore, most previous studies have made comparison across the entire survey or in terms of strategy categories. The present study tries to investigate students'strategy use in not only overall strategy use, the use of strategy categories, but also in the use of individual strategies.This study investigated the use of language learning strategies by a group of English majors in a Chinese normal university. The emphasis was on the influence of L2 proficiency and gender on learner's strategy use, aiming to look at how proficiency and gender affect the use of LLSs among normal university students majoring in English as a foreign language, and to reveal some distinctive features in normal university English majors'use of learning strategies.The study used quantitative approaches. Two research instruments were used for this study: TEM4 and SILL. One hundred and fifty six third-year English majors (male 30, female 126) in a normal university responded to a questionnaire on strategy use, and then participated in a nation-wide English proficiency test. Oxford's 50-item Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) was adapted to suit the subjects in this Chinese context. The researcher used SPSS to analyze the data as soon as they were collected. During the process of analysis, description of mean and standard deviation, the ANOVA, and the Chi-square tests were used. The study disclosed a rich pool of data, showing that the students'use of learning strategies were related to both proficiency and gender. The overall frequency of strategy use fell in medium-use range. Results from the investigation indicated that metacognitive strategies were most frequently used, while memory strategies were least frequently used.Statistical analysis showed that significant differences emerged for the use of overall strategies, cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, social strategies, and three individual strategies by proficiency level. Gender also played a role in influencing the kinds of strategy used; Female students are found to use overall strategies, six category strategies, and individual strategies significantly more often than male students. Two reasons might be attributed to this phenomenon. For one thing, females were believed to be superior to males in language learning; for another, females has dominated English classroom teaching and learning..Findings from this study have suggested a number of implications for the classroom teaching. Teachers should recognize that some strategies might be more suited to some learners than to others due to individual differences. Besides, Attention should be paid to the learners'individual strategy use as well as overall strategy use and category strategy use. The medium range of strategy use indicated that learners did not use LLSs frequently. Learners needed further training in the use of all learning strategies. More help needed to be given to male students to improve their use of LLSs.