The Impact Of Strategies-based Instruction On College Art Majors' EFL Reading Proficiency

The research of language learning strategy began in the mid-1970s, language learners and the individual characteristics became the focus of study. The research emphasis of foreign language learning and teaching shifted from"how to teach"to"how to learn". Learning strategies is required as one of the main components in the College English Curriculum Requirements. In recent years, with the further study of foreign language teaching, learning strategy training has been attached more and more attention from researchers. Most researchers agree with strategy training, and strategy training imbedded in language teaching is regarded as the appropriate approach. Teachers present strategies in combination with content of language learning. Students practice using strategies in the process of performing learning tasks.Since the mid-1980s, some Chinese researchers have begun to study language learning strategies in foreign language teaching. There have been many research achievements of language learning strategy theory and research situation abroad, as well as correspondent empirical study of Chinese learners. However, few studies have been conducted on college art major students. The English proficiency of college art major students is generally lower than other major students. And they have differential personality and learning feature.This thesis has made an empirical study to explore the impact of strategies-based instruction on college art majors'reading proficiency. The following two research questions are to be answered:1. How does the strategies-based instruction affect college art majors'reading proficiency?2. After the strategies-based instruction, what's the influence of reading strategy using on college art majors?The subjects consisted of 109 sophomore majoring in art in Xihua University. Among them, 54 students, who had been taught by the author, comprised the experimental group. They received twelve-week strategies-based instruction, including meta-cognitive strategies, cognitive-strategies, and affective/social strategies. The other 55 students, who had been taught by the author's colleague, served as the control group. They received the normal teaching, without strategy learning. Both of the experimental group and the comparison group had filled out a pre-training questionnaire and a post-training questionnaire. All of the subjects took the pretest and posttest.Through careful analysis of the collected data, it has been found: 1. After the strategies-based instruction, the reading proficiency of experimental group has improved significantly. Though the reading proficiency of comparison group has improved, it is not statistically significant.2. Before the SBI, the frequency of college art majors'use of learning strategy is medium (sometimes used). The descending order of frequency of learning strategies is: cognitive strategy, affective/social strategy, meta-cognitive strategy. After the SBI, the frequency of experimental group use of learning strategy is significantly improved, meta-cognitive strategy is the most obvious, cognitive strategy is the second, and affective/social strategy is the third.3. The correlation between all the three reading strategies and reading proficiency is positively significant. Cognitive strategy is the first related, and meta-cognitive strategy is the second, affective/social strategy the third.4. The interview after the post-test indicates college art majors are positive about reading strategy training. And they become more autonomous in language learning.