A Study On The Impact Of Learning Strategies On Vocational English Educational Majors' Speaking Proficiency

Nowadays, scholars, researchers and teachers become concerned about language learning strategies. However, by studying the research literature on learning strategies, the author finds that there are few empirical studies on the correlation between learning strategies and speaking proficiency in Vocational College. In this study, the author makes an investigation on the strategy used and adopted by vocational English educational majors and finds out the relationship between learning strategies and speaking proficiency. This study contains the following research questions:(1) What kind of learning strategies do English educational majors like to use?(2) What is the relationship between learning strategies and students'speaking proficiency?(3) What patterns exist in the strategies used by students of different English levels? These three research questions are answered by the aid of English learning strategy questionnaire and a speaking proficiency test. The author chose 50 English Educational majors as the subjects and adopted Beijing Oral English Certificate (BOEC) as the test paper. The result analyzed from this study shows that there is significant correlation between learning strategies and speaking proficiency. This thesis analyzes these findings respectively and comes up with some practical and theoretical implications. The author hopes to do much further study to help the English Educational majors improve their speaking proficiency in the future.This paper includes five chapters:Chapter 1 is introduction, which mainly provides information of the present problem of learning and teaching spoken English in vocational college, and introduces the necessity and significance of this research.Chapter 2 is literature review, which introduces the definition and the classification of language learning strategies, and speaking proficiency's assessment criteria.Chapter 3 introduces the methodology of the research, expounding on the research process, detailed question designing, subjects, procedure and methods to be used.Chapter 4 analyzes the data. The result shows that the highest one is management strategies, while language learning strategies is the least one. And there is obvious difference in their speaking proficiency. And there is no obvious difference between the high level and intermediate level. The statistically significant difference is found in the use of language learning strategies, social/affective strategies and communication strategies.Chapter 5 is conclusion. The study finds that learning strategies are feasible to be applied in improving students'speaking proficiency, and it is also worthy of promoting in other vocational English teaching fields. The author also points out the implications and the limitations of this study.