A Study Of Chinese College EFL Learners' Learning Strategies

China's unprecedented development of economy and technology has offered us more than ever substantially opportunities for global communications, which has made us more aware of the importance of English as an international language. As a result, the teaching and learning English has long been placed in a very important position in education in this country. College English, an integral part of higher learning, has long been a required basic course for Chinese college students.However, we have seen that the proficiency in English of college graduates still creates disappointment among teachers as well as students themselves due to the traditional teacher-centered teaching system. Fortunately, recent years have already witnessed a prominent shift within the field of EFL learning and teaching in Chinese tertiary education with greater emphasis being put on learners and learning rather than on teachers and teaching. In parallel to this new shift of interest, how learners process new information and what kinds of strategies they employ to understand, learn or remember the information has been the primary concern of the researchers dealing with the area of EFL learning.According to Oxford (1990), the use of appropriate language learning strategies leads to improved proficiency or achievement overall or in specific skill areas. Some findings of relevant strategy research have shown the powerful role of language learning strategies in improving learners' learning outcome. Though EFL learners' choice of strategies is influenced by many factors both internal and external, Cohen (1998) claims that learners' use of strategies can be automatized through practice and instruction, or to say strategies are teachable. As an old saying says, "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and he eats for a lifetime". Pedagogically, teaching students "how to learn" rather than "what to learn" will better serve to help them become independent, autonomous, and effective learners, which is the ultimate goal of education. Learning will be facilitated if students are explicitly trained to become more aware of and proficient in the use of a broad range of strategies that can be utilized throughout the EFL language process.