A Correlation Study Of Learning Goal Orientations, Learning Strategies And Performance

Though students are exposed to the same input, instruction and learning environment, some students succeed in learning English well with ease, while other meet with total failure. The scholars at home and abroad have published a lot of constructive papers on individuals' learning differences over the recent ten years, but most of the researches are about English majors or high school students. The study of relationships of learning goal orientation, learning strategy use and results of non-English college majors' English learning lacks enough attention.In this study a total of 210 second-year non-English majors from Hunan Traditional Chinese Medicine College participated in the questionnaire. The main purposes of the present study are, firstly, to identify and to develop insights into these subjects choice of language learning goal orientations and use of different language learning strategies, and secondly, to explore how close the relationships are between language learning goal orientations, learning strategies and their performance on the Practical English Test for Colleges Level-A (PRETCO Level-A) for college non-English majors. In other words, to what extent we can predict the performance on PRETCO Level-A in our sample from the goal orientations and-the use of language learning strategies.Through a detailed analysis of the use of strategies and goal orientations utilized by college non-English majors, the study tried to find the characteristics of their choice of language learning goal orientations and use of language learning strategies. And the study used quantitative methods to examine the relationships between language learning goal orientations, strategies and performance on PRETCO Level-A for college non-English majors. This dissertation consists of the following five parts: In the introduction part, the background of the present study and the purposes are introduced.Chapter One explores the relevant literature. The author makes a brief review of the research on (1) theoretical foundation for the present study, (2) goal orientation theory, (3) learning strategy theory, (4) relationships between students' learning goals, strategies and their performances.Chapter Two deals with the design and implementation. The questionnaire survey was used to collect data. The samples were recruited from Hunan Traditional Chinese Medicine College. The instruments involved were English learning performance on PRETCO Level-A, Oxford's Strategy Inventory for Language Learning and a learning goal orientation scale made by the author herself. The data were analyzed through Chi square test, multivariate analysis of variance, Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis, by using SPSS version 11.5 in the computer.Chapter Three is chiefly concern about the datum analysis and the discussion. The findings show that:(1)The specific predictive powers of learning goal orientations (mastery, ego-social, work-avoidant) on performance are: 006, 005 and-041 respectively.(2)Mastery goal orientation is positively correlated with all the six categories of learning strategies (except cognitive). All the three categories of learning goal orientations are positively correlated with affective and social strategies.(3)The specific predictive powers of strategies (memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective and social strategies) on performance are: .074, .070, .040, .042, .031 and .019 respectively.(4)The-six categories of learning strategies are only partially significantly associated with performance of PRETCO Level-A. However, the author finds better use of learning strategies among successful learners. This means a good control and frequent use of learning strategies can lead to success in language learning.(5)Mastery goal orientation exerts direct regressive effects on five learning strategy categories, i.e. memory, compensation, metacognitive, affective and social strategies, and the path coefficients (Beta) are positive; However, ego-social goal orientation has no direct regressive effects on learning strategies; Work-avoidant goal orientation exerts direct regressive effects on two learning strategy categories, i.e. compensation and affective strategies, and the path coefficients (Beta) are also positive.Chapter Four attempts to provide the implications and suggestions. Based on the findings, the suggestions, which served as the implications of Chinese non-English college majors' English learning and teaching, were proposed.Finally, the limitations of the present study were pointed out and the suggestions of the future work in this field were offered for reference.