A Study Of Language Learning Strategies Used By Higher Vocational College EFL Learners

This paper reports on a study of learning strategies employed by second-year non-English majors in an attempt to reveal higher vocational college students' individual differences in their employment of learning strategies. Both quantitative and qualitative researches were carried out in this study. A total of 187 non-English-major students from four classes in Qingdao Technical College participated in the quantitative study. The participants completed two sets of self-reported questionnaires, including Background Questionnaire and Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) (Oxford, 1990). Of the 187 questionnaire subjects, 12 were selected for an in-depth qualitative study. Diary studies and interviews were used in the qualitative study. The findings of the study were generalized as follows: (1) The subjects used each of the six strategy categories at medium frequency according to Oxford's (1990) Profile of Results. (2) The individual students varied significantly in their use of language learning strategies by proficiency. For those high-level students, their strong linguistic competence enabled them to make a frequent use of language learning strategies. (3) Evidence was found for more strategy use by the social science students than by the science and engineering students. (4) Females reported significantly greater use of the SILL strategies than male counterparts in various categories. Based on the findings, the pedagogical implications were drawn and discussed from two aspects. The first is how teachers can assess their students' strategy use and then carry out learning strategy training through strategy training programs or through weaving learning strategy training into regular classroom teaching. The second is how teachers can promote their students' strategy use by diversifying their teaching methods. In the end of this study, some suggestions for future research were given.