On The Implementation Of Learning Strategies Training In College English Teaching

In the field of second langnage learning and teaching, focus of research in learning strategies has shifted from the early identification and description to the validation and training of learning strategies. In view of the controversy over the necessity and feasibility of strategies training among some English teachers in China and the fact that strategies training are far from popular in our college English teaching, this paper sets out to necessitate and validate learning strategies training in college English teaching on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Theoretically, according to Anderson's model of stagewise skill acquisition, learning strategy as a complex cognitive skill usually does not come of itself but is proceduralized from declarative knowledge via three steps: cognitive stage, associative stage and autonomous stage. In this process of proceduralization, the teacher's intervention or guidance, including describing and explaining the target strategies, modeling the use of them in specific language learning tasks, providing the learners with ample opportunity to practice the learned strategies, and offering timely feedback for their strategy use, is indispensable for the learners to master the strategies and transfer them to new learning tasks and situations. As this model highlights the importance of training in skill acquisition, it may well serve to lend confirmation to the necessity of strategies training in English teaching. Based on and expanding this model, the author presents a suggested framework for the implementation of strategies training in formal educational settings. This framework embraces the overall aim of strategies training, the general approaches to and some characteristics of effective strategies instruction, and finally, a proposed five-step model for strategies instruction. These five steps are especiallyivstressed and elaborated, hoping to provide some help for those would-be strategies trainers. These steps are: (1) preparing for the strategy instruction, including studying student factors, diagnosing the strategies learners already use, and identifying the strategies to be trained; (2) presenting the target strategy; (3) practicing the strategy; (4) evaluating the strategy use; and (5) promoting generalization.In the last chapter, a case study of reading strategies training is provided, aiming to serve a dual purpose of validating the effectiveness of strategies training within the suggested training framework and demonstrating the transferability of some reading strategies to listening comprehension. Quantitative analysis is employed in the study. The subjects are 103 college non-English majors in two natural classes, with the present author as their lecturer. One class is designated as the experimental group, the other as the control group. The research data come from their scores in the pre- and post-training tests of reading and listening comprehension. Results from statistical analysis indicate that strategies training following the suggested framework is effective in enhancing EFL reading and that the effectiveness of the training varies with L2 reading proficiency. Moreover, the study proves that learning strategies are transferable, given some similarity between two learning tasks. Based on her research, the author makes an appeal that learning strategies training should be a new ingredient added to college English teaching, especially for the benefit of the less proficient language learners.