A Probe Into Chinese Minority English Learners' Learning Strategies A Longitudinal Case Study

China claims that it has the largest population of English language learners in the world but few of the Chinese minority English learners can be said to be successful, not even those in colleges and universities. Although they have learned English for several years or even more than ten years, most of them are still unable to communicate properly in English, either orally or in written form. The failure is believed to result from many factors, such as history, economics, circumstance, teaching methodologies and learning strategies.The research on learning strategies has becoming more and more important in the fields of applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, and especially in English language learning and teaching, but most of the studies have been done in the Western countries. Little has been done in the Chinese context. So far as we know, the most famous systematic study in China on learning strategies is conducted by Wen Qiufang, who investigated the learning strategies used by Chinese learners of English, presented the theoretical framework and suggested the application of learning strategies in Chinese context.The importance of the study and application of learning strategies is seen and understood by more and more people in the field of English language teaching (ELT) in China. Therefore, based on the findings of the previous researches on learning strategies both at home and abroad, the present study, a long-term investigation of the learning strategies one Chinese minority student has employed, aims at revealing the effectiveness of learning strategies in English learning for Chinese minority students, and trying to find out ways to improve their foreign language competence.This thesis consists of the following five chapters:Chapter One is an introduction, which is concerned with the background of the present study, its objectives, hypotheses and the important related concepts.Chapter Two explores the relevant literature. It first introduces the previous researches on learning strategies both at home and abroad, and then outlines Oxford's classification of learning strategies, and finally summarizes the correlation of learning strategies and ELT, and the factors influencing languages. All these serve as the theoretical foundation for the research.Chapter Three deals with the design and implementation, and describes the subject, instruments, procedure, data collection and analysis of this study.Chapter Four is chiefly concerned with the results and the discussions. The findings show that there is a close relationship between learning strategies and English language learning..Chapter Five presents some suggestions and the implications of this study. Based on the findings of this research, it tentatively offers the following suggestions: (1) monitoring students' learning styles and learning strategy uses; (2) widening students' learning styles and learning strategies; (3) strengthening normal university students' understanding of learning styles and implementing "learning strategy instruction" training.Besides, it also mentions the limitations of the present study and some proposals for further research in this field.