The Impact Of Strategies-Based Instruction On Chinese EFL Learners' Oral English Performance

With the change of focus shifting from"teaching"to"learning"since the 1970s, foreign language classrooms have tended to be more"learner-centered"rather than"teacher-centered". Foreign language learning strategies have since gained ever-growing attention.This thesis attempts to explore the impact of strategies-based instruction (SBI) on Chinese EFL learners'oral English performance. Three research questions are raised in this thesis. Firstly, how does explicit instruction in language learning and use strategies affect students'speaking proficiency? Secondly, what is the relationship between reported frequency of strategy use and ratings of task performance on speaking tasks? Thirdly, how do students characterize their rationale for strategy use while performing speaking tasks?The significance of this research is manifold: First, speaking has received relatively little attention in the research literature in the area of strategies-based instruction at home and abroad. SBI has mainly been applied to listening, reading and writing, while little research has been done on speaking. Secondly, what limited research in this area available so far is restricted to such strategies: metacognitive, cognitive, social-affective ones (O'Malley & Chamot 1990); or three communication strategies: topic avoidance and replacement, circumlocution, and fillers and hesitation devices / stalling device (D?rnyei 1995;王立非2002). Thirdly, little work has been done on English majors in the area of SBI with a focus on speaking at the junior college level in China. Gao & Yuan (高晓芳&袁瑀 2004) in China give an introduction to the idea of SBI and make some practical suggestions as to how to conduct strategies-based instruction on non-English majors at the university level instead of putting their ideas into practice. The experiment about SBI on speaking in Minnesota University (Cohen, Weaver & Li 1997) proves to be successful with English speakers speaking French or Norwegian. Therefore, based on other researchers'findings, this thesis attempts to explore the contributions that...