Employment Of English Learning Strategies By Non-English Majors Of Higher Vocational Education

Language learning strategies acquisition plays a vital role in language learning. A good command of English learning strategies (ELS) has close relationship with learners' efficiency in English learning. There generally exist such problems with non-English majors of higher vocational education as low English level, little interest in English learning and low efficiency. In order to find ways to solve these problems, the author of this thesis carried out a research of the employment of ELS by non-English majors at Xiangfan TV University.The thesis first points out the aim and significance of the research and gives a survey of some influential research in language learning strategies both at home and abroad. Then, it introduces the theoretical framework, the definition and classification of language learning strategies. The author of this thesis uses ELS questionnaire which is designed by Cheng Xiaotang as the questionnaire of her research, aiming to find out: 1. the general use of ELS by non-English majors of higher vocational education;2. whether there exist differences between the use of ELS by top and weak learner of non-English majors of higher vocational education. 3. whether there exist differences between the use of ELS by male and female learner of non-English majors of higher vocational education;4. whether there exist differences between the use of ELS by urban and rural learner of non-English majors of higher vocational education. The data collected from the research is processed by SPSS software. The results indicate: 1. the frequency of ELS employment by learners of higher vocational education is not very high. Learners only sometimes use ELS strategies in their English learning. Moreover, there are significant differences in learners' preference for the types of strategies. Among the four types (cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, communicative strategies, affective strategies), affective strategies are used most often (although the frequency is not high), whereas metacognitive strategies and communicative strategies are used least often (P<0.01);2. there exist significant differences between ELS employment by top and weak learners. Top learners usually use ELS while weak learners usually don't. Their preference for the types of strategies are not significantly different, but they tend to use different methods in the same type of strategies;3. there are not remarkable differencesbetween ELS employment of male and female learners. Among the four types of strategies, they both use affective strategies most often and communicative strategies least often;4. urban learners and rural learners are not significantly different in their ELS employment. Again affective strategies are used most often and communicative strategies least often.Finally, based on the findings of the research, the author of this thesis recommends five ways to improve ELS employment by non-English majors of higher vocational education: 1. cultivating the learners' awareness of language learning strategies;2. enhancing weak learners' abilities to use metacognitive strategies;3. training all learners' abilities to use communicative strategies;4. helping all learners to balance their choice of specific methods of affective strategies;5. developing weak learners' awareness of using cognitive strategies.