An Empirical Study On Improving The English Learning Method Of Non-English Majors Via Learning Strategy Training

The study intended to seek a way to train the student learning strategy. The subjects involved in the study are freshmen of three different classes whom I teach. All of them are students of science of Shandong University of Technology. The study employed two types of researching designs. One is quantitative, and the other is qualitative. The aim of the study is to make the student be aware of the fact that language learning has its unique properties, which makes it different from other knowledge, therefore a unique learning method should be employed in order to learn it well. So to imbue the student with such notion is its supreme aim.The research is done during two separate period of time. The first period of the research time is from March, 2006 to July, 2006, during which three sessions of learning strategy training were given to my three classes of students and before that a questionnaire is issued in order to learn the defects the student have in learning English. The third chapter contains the contents of this period of time. The second period of the research time is from April 5, 2007 to April 7, 2007, during which four students once benefited from the learning strategy training were interviewed. The fourth chapter wrote the stories of English learning of the four students before and after learning strategy training, including the change that has taken place in their language learning notion and learning method. The first part of chapter three is a questionnaire,using a quantitative design intending to find the flaws the student have in their English learning method. The finding is really shocking, because more than 90% of the students studied failed to store language form as an essential link of language learning process. Another 58.70% students merely read for meaning, a fatal flaw and a distinguishing feature for unsuccessful language learners. The questionnaire also suggested that 73.27% of the student studied failed to understand the strategies the teacher tried to deliver to them. Therefore there is a gap between the demand and the supply. The questionnaire also revealed that the students lack problem solving consciousness. The finding of the questionnaire points to the extreme urgency to train the student learning strategy. The subsequent parts of the research employed a qualitative design. They are the three sessions to deliver student learning strategy and an interview with four students to determine the effectiveness of the strategy training, 10 months after it was delivered. The three sessions of learning strategy training are the first session of training exploration ---- An Attempt to Teach Students the Successful Learner Strategies, a lecture not very successful; the second session of strategy training ---- learning style survey and the third session of strategy training -----reinforcing your knowledge of vocabulary. In the first session of strategy training, it is found that of about 20 students only a couple of them benefit from the lecture, the rest of them have difficulty understanding terms like language form and language meaning, and one of the student said it was not interesting. Anyway the attempt to teach student the successful learner strategies proved not very successful. The second session of strategy training aims to make the student be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of their own learning style and find remedy for their disadvantages, what's more, it aims to have the student realize the special feature that language learning has as a subject and find appropriate learning method. In the second session of strategy training, of about 250 students an average of 74.13% benefited from it, which illustrated the value of the learning style survey, and it seemed to suggest that strategy training would become dead water without source if learning style survey was not included in. It also suggests that learning style survey have the students realized that successful language learner should show concern to language form as well as language meaning. The third session of style training is an opportunity provided for the students to share their vocabulary knowledge. The student seemed to learn from it. But the four students interviewed 10 months later denied its long-lasting effect on them. The interview with the four students was inspiring, because three of them have got the right language learning method and will be undoubtedly the most successful language learners. One of the students even invented a highly effective method to practice listening skills, which he has used for 10 months and now he can listen to English much clearly and can comprehend 60% of the listening for once only. The true value of the three sessions of strategy training lies not only in that but in in the fact that they find it meaningful to learn English.