Research On Relation Between Extracurircular English Learning Style And Learning Strategy Of College Students

At present, college students are not so autonomous in planning,self-evaluation, multi-channel learning and application of English as theyare supposed to be. For the limitation of class teaching, it is impossiblefor them to get knowledge and foster their abilities through limited class.Thus, it is needed to rely on the development of autonomous learningafter class. But over reliance on teachers doesn’t help the students findthe effective learning strategies for themselves. Therefore, the study ofthe cultivation of autonomous learning after class and learning methodsand strategies becomes more and more valuable under circumstances thatresearches on relation between extracurricular English learning style andlearning strategy of college students are rare in our country, this paper iswritten to satisfy the above needs, aiming at forming personalizedlearning method and developing independent learning capability of thestudents.This paper mainly adopts the method of quantitative study throughclosed questionnaires, supplemented by the method of qualitativeinterview to collect data. SPSS18.0 is used to statistically processdescriptive average value, standard deviation, and their correlation, andcarry out qualitative analysis on individual half-opened interview data, and try to discuss the following problems: What kind of extracurricularEnglish learning strategy do college students owning certain learningstyle adopt? What kind of learning style do college students owningcertain learning strategy adopt? Is there a link between learning style andextracurricular English learning strategy? What kind of significantimplications for extracurricular English independent study we can getfrom the link between learning style and extracurricular English learningstrategy?Firstly, the method of random sampling is used to extract fiveuniversities- Hunan University, Central South University, ChangshaUniversity of Science and Technology, Hunan Normal University andChangsha University from Hunan province, and 500 samples areextracted from college students of non-English major of Grade 09 asresearch object. 452 effective questionnaires have been got among thedistribution of 500 questionnaires. Secondly, SPSS software is used toprocess and analyze data gained from questionnaires, and similarities anddifferences in learning strategies among participants with differentlearning styles are found out, thus probing into the correlation betweenlearning style and language learning strategy. Finally, through individualinterviews, the conclusion which is drawn from questionnaires is checkedand revised.Quantitative research instruments are used with the help of scales of learning style in line with the characteristics of Chinese college studentsdesigned by Liu Runqing(Liu Runqing, Dai Manchun, 2003). This paperadopts the questionnaires measurement instruments to make statisticalanalysis of learning style of research object, and then qualitative paperdiscussion is given. The conclusions can be drawn as follows:1. Currently, most of the learning styles of college students arevisual, independent, individual-oriented, analytical, serialist and reflectivelearning, among which the types of serialist and independent learning aremost frequently adopted by college students.2. The usage of various learning strategies of participants outsideclass is not high, especially cognitive strategy and social strategy. Thelearning strategies are ranked, according to usage frequency from high tolow, as compensation strategy, affective strategy, meta-cognitive strategy,memory strategy, cognitive strategy and social strategy.3. Learning style preferences have certain correlation with usage ofextracurricular English learning strategy. Analytical learning style uselearning strategy most widely. Auditory and hand-on learning styles havepositive correlation with social communication strategy. Extroversivelearners prefer practice and cooperative strategy. Thinking-type learnersare objective and calm, and they are good at logical analysis that they usereasoning strategy in their language learning more often. Intuitivelearners pay attention to the relation and significance of the objective, so that they prefer the strategy of summarizing language rules. Judginglearning style has greatest influences on the learners’determination ofstrategies. Natural preferences of learners of analytical learning style fororganization, structure, planning and systematization directly affectlearners’choice of meta-cognitive strategy. Visual and auditory learnersprefer practical strategy.Finally, the author mainly discusses the enlightenment andsuggestions for teaching gained from this investigation. The influences onextracurricular English learning strategy from learning style are discussedfirstly. Then the problem how to unify English learning style and learningstrategy is discussed, which means that the effective collocation of thetwo will contribute to the results of English learning and cultivation oflearning ability.