A Study Of Developmental Changes In English Learning Strategies Of Non-English Majors In Xinjiang Agricultural University

The learning strategy has become a heated discussion in domestic research field over the past 20 years. In the existing accomplishments, there are many researches about specific strategy choice or the correlation between learning strategy and learning outcome, and most of the research is cross-sectional, studies on developmental changes of the college students'strategy use are rare, not to mention the study of ethnic minority students. With that purpose it is necessary to investigate the general situation and developmental patterns of college students in Xinjiang for it can broaden students'strategy horizon and provide them with more strategy choices to improve students'learning efficiency.Altogether the same 102 students in Xinjiang Agricultural University were investigated twice in the study respectively during their first term and the third term. Among them, 60 were Han students of grade 2009 and 42 were ethnic minority students of grade 2007. The study attempted to identify the strategies frequently used by college students, and to reveal the developmental rules of their English learning strategies. The author first used the descriptive statistics of frequencies to get the general situation of what kind of strategies the students preferred to use in their first year and second year. Then the Paired-sample T-test compare means was used to test the developmental changes of their learning strategies. As for the instrument, the author used a questionnaire adopted from Wen Qiufang (1993) and an interview as a complementary. Data of the study was analyzed by SPSS17.0. Research findings were listed in the following:1) The college students, both Han and ethnic minority students,both Art students and Science students all preferred Mother-tongue strategies most and Meaning-focused strategy the least in 2009.2) In different learning periods, their use of language learning strategies did have some changes, but the change were not in the same amount and direction. The college students give Mother-tongue strategy an advantage to any other three strategies in their first year, however, in the second year for Han students management strategy becomes the most frequently used strategy while for minority students Mother tongue still remains the top one choice.3)The general developmental pattern is that more management, form-focused and meaning-focused strategies were used, but after one year study less mother-tongue strategies were used with the development of their foreign language proficiency.The research findings to some extent enrich the study of language learning strategy, especially with the study of Xinjiang ethnic minority students'strategy preference and their developmental changes. The research is of help both to language teachers'teaching and students'learning. For teachers, knowing students'strategy preference and their developmental changes can guide students to choose, manage and improve their learning strategy; for students, changes of their learning strategies can enhance their study.