An Analysis Of English Language Learning Strategies By Junior High School Students Of International Schools In China

Since the mid-seventies, more and more scholars and teachers in English as a Second Language (SL) have turned their attention to student’s usage of English Language Learning Strategies (ELLS) during the process of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). English Language Learning Strategies are important factors that affect students’ learning quality. Most previous SILL (Strategy Inventory for Language Learning) research has made by comparing and analyzing the entire survey or in terms of the six strategy categories and has stressed that the language proficiency is interrelated with other variables, such as gender, grades, age, cultural backgrounds, etc. However, most research took universities or college students as the subject of study, in the matter of junior high students the research findings are limited. In a common sense, junior high school students are a special group as they are experiencing great changes both in physiology and psychology; it is also a transition period that is vital in a person’s education. It is easy to observe that they lack emotional stability. They can be easily influenced by external and internal factors. Based on the results of the previous findings about effect on Second Language Acquisition (SLA), the author found that junior high school students have the following negative factors such as boredom, anxiety, hopelessness, inhibition and low self-confidence in their English learning. Therefore, the teaching in the junior high schools is quite different from that of universities or colleges and the junior high school students have their own peculiar methods of learning.Students at Maple Leaf International School have many accesses to chatting with native English speakers in English activities outside the classroom. However, the actual usage of English is finite, English can not become student’s diction when they graduated from junior high school, which means they have no idea of "how to learn" English outside the classroom, therefore, the time they spend in studying English outside the classroom is rare. Inside the classroom, They have three courses relevant to English (they have11courses per day); the first one is English which is taught by Chinese teachers, in this course teacher speaks50%English, and the course contents strictly accord with the syllabus stipulated by education department; the second one is Sciences which are taught by Chinese teachers studying abroad who speaks75%English during the class; the third one is SLA which is taught by foreign teachers, in this class, students are grouped for many English activities, such as interviewing someone, debating a hot topic or just chatting in general. In China, teachers concentrate their attention on various teaching methods and English activities to instruct the knowledge of English language itself to students without teaching "how to learn" English. In other words, teachers are seemingly unaware of all the variables affecting the SLA process. This is teacher-centered approach instead of learner-centered one. By this approach, learners are used to accepting knowledge from their teachers rather than directing and summarizing their own learning skills. Naturally, individual differences appear. In addition, since "how to learn" English rarely taught inside the classroom, they can not apply it accordingly outside the classroom by themselves, which in turn leads to the result of the current situation of inefficient adoption of SLA in China.In order to resolve the major conundrum in SLA, teachers should improve the efficiency of EFL (English as a foreign language) education in China, especially at the junior high school level, it is of vital importance to language learning that English teachers should penetrate ELLS into teaching courses based on students proficiency level.Language Learning Strategies are reflected by the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL, ESL/EFL Student Version), and L2proficiency is determined by the scores of English Midterm Examination (EME) of the second semester on May12,2012and also reflected by students learning level (i.e. Grade Seven, Grade Eight, Grade Nine). The subjects are students of three respective grades enrolled at Dalian Maple Leaf International School in Dalian, Liaoning Province.The present subjects of the study are159male and female students still studying on Dalian Maple leaf International School Junior High Campus, among them,109are Chinese,18Korean,18Japanese, and14of them are Russian. This study presents a quantitative analysis of correlation between English Language Learning Strategies (ELLS) and learner’s language proficiency, it also examines different variables (such as:gender, grades and cultural background) affecting students SLA by means of SPSS and EXCEL and at last, advocates some teaching methods that distinctly address the needs of junior high school students.Like previous researches, the author found that successful learners show greater use of ELLS. As for gender, girls perform well in the application of ELLS than boys. The analysis, however, revealed more complex patterns of use than have appeared in previous studies. On Dalian Maple leaf International School Junior High Campus, there are not only Chinese students, but also overseas students. For this reason, it offers the author a chance to study the effects of different cultural backgrounds in determining strategy preferences.This study reveals the general pattern of language learning strategy employed for junior high school students and the differences in grades, gender and cultural background affecting L2proficiency. In Dalian Maple Leaf International School, junior high students use the English language learning strategy from medium to high frequency. And that the highest rank is for compensation strategy while the lowest rank is for memory strategy. It is concluded that the relationship between LLS and proficiency level of the students is a direct relationship, that is, the more proficient the students are, the greater the number of strategies they use. As for the differences in grades, students in Grade Eight use English Language Learning Strategies most frequently while Grade Nine use the least. With regard to gender, girls significantly surpass boys at all strategies especially in their use of compensation, cognitive and social strategies. Concerning cultural background, students from European group has superiority over students from Asian group in ELLS, and different backgrounds prefer different learning strategies and use particular kinds of strategies at different levels of frequency.Based on these findings and the previous studies in the field of Language Learning Strategies show that, English language learning strategy use is closely related to the students’academic performance, thus teachers can assist learners of language by promoting language learning strategy awareness and use. Therefore, teachers in junior high school should realize the importance of using ELLS and design teaching method for students to be better absorbing strategies that are beneficial for them on the basis of the differences in their character. Only by combining ELLS with the teaching content appropriately can teachers achieve satisfactory teaching results. In addition, the researcher recommends more practicing should be given in using metacognitive, affective and memory strategies by embedding them in regular classroom activities and at the same time, take advantage of the resources that there are many foreign teachers at this school. Therefore, more English activities should be organized for students to be with foreign teachers.