A Correlational Study On English Learning Strategies And Oral English Proficiency

The importance of learning strategies in foreign language learning is drawingincreasing attention at the present time. Many researchers have highlighted theimportance of language learning strategies in making language learning more efficient.Extensive investigation has also shown that language learning strategies can producepositive effect on learners' language use. Through these studies, researchers and teachershave reached an agreement: the use and choice of language learning strategies is adecisive factor that influences the learning achievement. By studying language learners'learning strategies, enough information could be provided to teachers in order to havestrategy instruction for the learners, thus both teaching and learning could be improved.In the end, all the language learners can achieve the goal of learning by themselves.However, in the field of English teaching and learning in China, the focus ofstrategy research has been on the strategies of college students. Few studies have beencarried out on language learning strategies employed by secondary school students-especially by vocational school students. This thesis aims to study the language learningstrategies employed by a sample of Chinese vocational school students, with the hope offinding certain patterns of language learning strategy use for Chinese vocational schoolstudents and hence making strategy training and English learning and teaching moreeffective. This thesis aims at finding out the ideas about oral English proficiency and thelearning strategies related to it by using the methods of written questionnaires andinterviews in Qingdao Electronics School. The classifications of learning strategies inthis questionnaire, coming from the integrations of O'Malley & Chamot, Oxford withCheng Xiaotang & Zheng Min, are composed of cognitive strategies, metacognitivestrategies, affective strategies and communication strategies. The author first did someresearch on the overall strategy use in oral English, and then eight weeks of learningstrategy instruction. During this study, the author first wanted to know something aboutthe overall use of oral English strategies, then the relationship of oral proficiency andlearning strategy use, and finally the differences of oral English strategies betweengenders. Results show that the overall strategy use is in the medium level afterinstruction which is higher than the level before instruction;there is no significantdifference between genders, but more affective strategies are used by males while moremetacognitive strategies are used by females at the level of specific strategies;there issignificant differences between learning strategies and oral English proficiency. In thisstudy, we can see that learning strategy instruction is very useful for improvements of thestudents' strategy awareness leading to an improvement in their ability of autonomousstudy.Finally, based on the findings of this study, the author explores some implications oforal English learning and teaching. It is pointed out that both teachers and studentsshould strengthen their strategy awareness. It is also suggested that teachers provide theirstudents with more chances to speak English, and that the students themselves make fulluse of these chances and create more chances to speak English.