A study of English learning strategies and styles of Chinese university students in relation to their cultural beliefs and beliefs about learning English

This study investigated the strategies and styles preferred by Chinese university students learning English as a foreign language in China in relation to their beliefs about learning English and cultural beliefs about learning and teaching in a formal situation. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between the students' major learning strategy/style preferences and Chinese culture by analyzing their choice of learning strategies and styles, their beliefs about learning English, and their cultural beliefs about learning and teaching in general. A total of 369 Chinese university EFL students participated in this study, who were selected from six universities in a large city in China. Four major survey inventories were used for this study: the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), the Learning Style Survey (LSS), the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) and the Beliefs about Learning and Teaching (BALAT). Data collected by means of these surveys were quantitatively analyzed with the Statistic Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).; The major strategies that Chinese university students preferred to use for learning English fell into three types as measured by the SILL: metacognitive, cognitive, and compensation strategies. Two styles chosen by more than 60% of the subjects on the LSS were determined as the major preferences of Chinese university students for learning English: individual and kinesthetic learning. The study also showed that Chinese university students were highly motivated for learning English, a language which seemed not difficult for them; and that they retained cultural traits in their beliefs about learning and teaching in general: book-based learning, theory-oriented learning and teaching, and strict school discipline.; In the determination of the relationships between the cultural beliefs and learning strategy/style preferences of Chinese university students, this study found that the cultural beliefs were related to the preferences for learning styles but not to the strategy preferences.