An Empirical Study On The Relationship Between College Students’english Speaking Learning Strategy Use And Speaking Ability

College English curriculum Requirements(2007) pointed out that the goal of college English teaching is to develop students’English comprehensive application ability, especially listening and speaking skills, make them communicate effectively in English in the future study, work and social activities. Therefore, to cultivate and improve students’speaking ability is particularly significant.Some relevant literature shows that learning strategies, as one of the most dynamic factors affecting learners’abilities, have a certain influence on learners’ abilities. Thus they have been attracting the attention of educators at home and abroad. Although there are many studies on learning strategies abroad and in China, not many studies have been done to explore the speaking learning strategy use in spoken English learning and the predicting ability of speaking learning strategy on learners’speaking ability, the gender and level differences in speaking learning strategy use are not studied further. Therefore, it is necessary to do empirical study on this field in order to improve students’speaking ability efficiently and offer some guidance for the spoken English teaching.This research is mainly devoted to the following questions:1. What is the real situation of the college students’speaking learning strategy use?2. Are there gender and level differences in the college students’speaking learning strategy use? What are the differences?3. Whether the use of the speaking learning strategy can predict the college students’speaking ability or not? If yes, which speaking learning strategies are more predictable?The participators are the freshmen who come from Grade2013, Non-English majors from College of Science and Arts, Yangtze University.A questionnaire based on SILL (Oxford,1990) and an oral English test paper from PETS were employed in this study, some necessary modifications were made to suit the real situations of Chinese college students. All the participators were tested by an oral English test paper from PETS and their speaking abilities were evaluated by the researchers firstly, and then they were required to finish a questionnaire associated with English speaking learning strategies to know how they used speaking learning strategies in their spoken English learning. All the valid data information were collected by the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS17.0) and were analyzed to give answers to the proposed questions.The Study shows that:1) Most of the students can sometimes use speaking learning strategies in spoken English learning, but not very frequently. The memory strategies and the compensation strategies are the most commonly used strategies, and then followed by cognitive strategies and meta-cognitive strategies, affective and social strategies are least commonly used. Only a small number of students use strategies frequently, no one never or seldom uses learning strategies.2) There are differences between male and female students in speaking learning strategy use. Male and female students are not different from each other in most speaking learning strategies, but female students use affective and social affective strategies more frequently than male students. However, male students are good at using compensation strategies to make up for their shortage of vocabulary and low speaking ability. The results are reasonable, because we usually consider women are more talented in language learning. Female students prefer to make dialogue with study group members in English and practice oral English more bravely, and willingly take part in the English corner activity more often than boys.What’s more, there are differences between high-level speakers and low-level speakers. High-level speakers use a variety of strategies more frequently than the low-level ones, there are apparent differences on the meta-cognitive strategies and social strategies use between them. This reflects the high-level speakers are clearer about their own learning goals, their learning attitude is positive, and they can make learning plan and evaluate the effect of their oral English learning, summarize effective study methods, and are more effective in cooperative learning. 3) The use of the speaking learning strategies can predict the college students’speaking ability. The students who can use meta-cognitive strategies and social strategies more frequently are likely to be high-level students; female students tend to use affective strategies and social strategies more frequently and efficiently than male students. The study shows that these three strategies can predict the students’speaking ability more accurately.The first result is similar to most of the previous studies, it demonstrates that college students can use corresponding speaking learning strategies in spoken English learning, and results in this research show that memory and compensation strategies are the most commonly used in college students in this survey.The second result demonstrates that there are gender and level differences in the speaking learning strategy use as most of the previous studies, and it also shows that female students use affective and social affective strategies more frequently than male students while male students are good at using compensation strategies to make up for their shortage of vocabulary and low speaking ability.The third result is the same as Si Donghong’s study result, it shows that the more frequently the college students use the strategies, the higher their speaking abilities are. And it also shows that meta-cognitive, social and affective strategies can predict the students’speaking ability more accurately specifically.Based on the results of the study, the author posed relevant suggestions on use of English speaking learning strategies and how to improve students’speaking English ability through the corresponding strategy training.Firstly, teachers should provide extensive English speaking learning strategy training for college students. Most of the college students use speaking learning strategies unconsciously, it is necessary to offer extensive English speaking learning strategy training for the students in order to help them become independent and effective learners.Secondly, teachers should help students set up study groups and to carry out the cooperative learning. Compared to adult students who have already entered society, college students prefer to use memory strategies rather than social strategies. But social strategies are considered to be one of the most practical and effective strategies to improve the speaking ability and they should be employed efficiently.Thirdly, teachers should encourage students to speak and hold the right attitude towards students’speaking errors.Fourthly, teachers should create more opportunities for the students to speak English and take a variety of oral practice activities.