British Students Learning Chinese And Chinese Students Learning English: A Comparative Study Of Their Learning Strategies

This thesis focuses on a comparative study of learning strategies employed by Chinese secondary students learning English and British secondary students learning Chinese in an attempt to reveal the differences and similarities in learning strategy use between Chinese students and British students.The subjects involved in this study were 90 British Year 8 students from Chafford Hundred Campus, Notly High School and Furtherwick School in Essex and 92 Chinese students in Grade one from Suzhou Lida Middle School. Based on Oxford's SILL (1990 Version 7.0), a quantitative research was conducted on Oxford five-point frequency scale. Then four students from each level were interviewed individually in the case studies. The data analysis includes the tendencies of learning strategies used by British students and Chinese students. By means of independent t-test, differences and similarities in learning strategy use were analyzed as well. The further case studies are aimed at in-depth explanations.The major findings are as follows: First, Chinese students and British students "sometimes" use learning strategies on learning a foreign language, with low medium frequency. Chinese students use learning strategies a little more frequently. Second, the differences lie in the preferences of leaning strategies. From the most frequently used to the least frequently used strategies, the frequency order by British students is social strategies, compensation strategies, metacognitive strategies, memory strategies, affective strategies and cognitive strategies. The frequency order by Chinese students from the most frequently use to the least is compensation strategies, metacognitive strategies, memory strategies, social strategies, cognitive strategies and affective strategies. Third, British students and Chinese students differ greatly in social strategies and cognitive strategies. To be more specific, British students use social strategies more frequently than Chinese students. Chinese students use more "reasoning and analyzing" in cognitive strategies than British students. Fourth, both groups of students seem to be unwilling to employ affective strategies in learning a foreign language. Neither of the groups is using memory strategies effectively. The major pedagogical implications, especially the concrete measures about the guidance of learning strategies in foreign language learning are put forward for EFL teachers and exchange Chinese teachers.