A Tentative Study On Strategy-based College English Instruction

Second language acquisition (SLA) research made its appearance in the early 1970s. Researchers have been working hard for its development for 30-odd years since then. Among many topics relevant to SLA, the one with regard to learning strategies is a most heated one. Researchers hold the assumption that given effective learning strategies, language learners could be in a better position to solve their problems in language learning. Then appears strategy-based instruction (SBI) which seems a helpful way to train students to improve learning strategies in their study. Although some western researchers have made investigations into the effectiveness of SBI, there are few empirical studies in China that can demonstrate that SBI has irrefutable benefits.In order to investigate the effectiveness of strategy-based instruction (SBI) as a way of strategy training and the effect of language learning strategies on SLA, a study is carried out to six classes of non-English majors at Chuzhou College. The subjects are 120 non-English students who are divided into two groups—the experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG). In the study, a ten-month SBI training on learning strategies is conducted to the experimental group, while the control group are kept intact, that is, not offered with any kinds of learning strategy training. In the SBI training, the teachers fully integrate the typical kinds of strategies of learning vocabulary, grammar, listening, speaking, reading, and writing into teaching materials to the experimental group in ordinary English curriculum.Three instruments have been used in this study: (1) questionnaire based on Oxford's Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL); (2) a pretest and a post-test and (3) interviews.The results indicate that: (1) the SBI training is helpful in improving the students'L2 achievements; (2) the SBI training can also raise students' consciousness ofemploying language learning strategies; (3) there exists a positive relationshipbetween the employment of strategies and L2 achievement and (4) some strategies,...