An Empirical Study On English Grammar Learning Strategies By English Majors In China

Since the 1970s,research emphasis in the field of second language acquisition has shifted from teachers' teaching to students' learning in order to develop students' learning ability that is vital for students not only at school but also afterwards.Up to date,macroscopically or microcosmically,great progress has been made in empirical studies on English learning strategies that are still essential issues in second language acquisition.Among many empirical studies on English learning strategies by Mainland Chinese scholars over the past two decades,vocabulary learning strategies,reading strategies,writing strategies,listening strategies,etc.are well studied,but there are few or not empirical studies on grammar learning strategies.It is well known that grammar is an important part of language and is necessary and helpful to language acquisition.Therefore,the thesis aims at exploring English grammar learning strategies used by Chinese English majors learning English as a foreign language(EFL).It attempts to address the following questions;(1)What types of strategies do English majors tend to employ in learning English grammar?(2)What are the relationships between English grammar learning strategies (EGLS)and English grammar leaning outcomes(EGLO)?(3)What kinds of English grammar learning strategies have predictive power over English grammar leaning outcomes?(4)How different are English grammar learning strategies used by high-proficiency students(HPS)from those used by low-proficiency students(LPS)?The present study adopts quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate learning strategies of English majors in grammar learning.The data are collected through the Likert Scale questionnaire of English grammar learning strategies,the English grammar test,and the semi-structured interview.One hundred and twenty second year English majors from foreign language school in Nanchang University participate in this investigation.The questionnaire is administered to them in order to elicit data concerning students' strategy use.Students' achievements in the English grammar test administered at the end of the semester are used to assess students' grammar learning outcomes.The interview is used to elicit qualitative data regarding students' facts or statements about learning English grammar.SPSS(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences)13.0 is employed to analyze the quantitative data from the questionnaire and the test;(1)descriptive statistics are computed to summarize the students' responses to strategy items;(2)Pearson correlation analysis is conducted to examine the relationship between English grammar learning strategies and English grammar leaning outcomes;(3)multiple regression analysis is used to determine the predictive power of English grammar learning strategies for English grammar leaning outcomes;(4)independent samples t-tests are carried out to check the differences between high-proficiency students and low-proficiency students in the use of English grammar learning strategies.The final results indicate;(1)the frequency of overall strategy use of English majors is at the medium level;(2)cognitive strategies,metacognitive strategies, affective strategies,social strategies and the overall strategy all demonstrate positively significant correlation with English grammar learning outcomes;(3)the overall strategy is significantly predictive for English grammar learning outcomes to some limited degree.Only cognitive strategies and social strategies are statistically positive predictors of English grammar learning outcomes,while metacognitive strategies and affective strategies statistically have no predictive power over English grammar learning outcomes;(4)high-proficiency students use strategies at a higher frequency than low-proficiency students.These findings suggest that effective English grammar learning strategies will facilitate English grammar learning and the teachers should provide strategy-based grammar teaching and help students to become proficient in the use of effective English grammar learning strategies.