The use of language learning strategies by Chinese-speaking international ESL program students and their self-perceived social distance with the target language group

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of language learning strategies by Chinese-speaking international ESL program students and their self-perceived social distance with the target language group. Twenty Chinese-speaking international students who were enrolled in three different ESL programs in the city of Houston were recruited to be participants. A semi-structured interview was employed in this study. The interviews were tape recorded and then transcribed by the researcher for further analysis. On average, an inter-rater reliability of 84% was established.; The results indicated cognitive strategies were the most frequently used strategy type followed by metacognitive strategies and social-affective strategies. Among the individual strategies used by the participants, "questioning for clarification" was the most frequently used. This finding suggested the participants needed more communicative strategies to cope with language barriers in the target language surroundings. In addition, the results also indicated that the participants preferred using linguistic and non-linguistic cues to guess meaning when they encounter unknown expressions in listening and reading. Memorization was another frequently used strategy to gain knowledge in learning a second language. Furthermore, the study found language proficiency and the length of stay in the target language surroundings did not significantly affect the participants' learning strategy use frequency. As to the self-perceived social distance, the participants revealed that they tend to keep moderate distance with the target language group. Most of them see themselves as outsiders of the mainstream target language culture. This social distance keeps them from adapting well to the second language environment. The interview results, however, indicated that their instrumental motivation for learning English exerts more influence on their language learning goals in the United States.; By explicating the frequency of their language learning strategy use, the strategy use preference, and the self-perceived social distance, this study provides ESL program professionals with a better understanding of how Chinese-speaking international students process their language learning. With this understanding in mind, it is hoped that the findings of this study will help to facilitate successful programming and instructional design for the Chinese-speaking ESL students.