An Experimental Study On Oral English Learning Strategy Training For Adult Learners

Language learning strategy and English learning have long been two hot topics for the English researchers. An increasing concern on the relationship between English learning strategies and English learning has emerged. Meanwhile, the researchers have identified commonly the importance of language learning strategies in making language learning more efficient. Extensive investigation has also shown that language learning strategies can produce positive effect on learners'language use. However, the focus of strategy research has been on the effect and influence of the English learning strategies on English listening, reading and writing skills. Few studies have been carried out on oral English skills employed by the adult English learners who have worked for many years. Little attention has been paid to the relationship between the oral English learning strategy training and the adult English learners'oral English. The present study is undertaken to find out the relationship and try to improve the adult learners'oral English proficiency through strategy training.This experiment is conducted in the CNPC International Personnel Training Center. The selected students in two classes are workers from the China National Oil & Gas Development Company (CNODC). One is the experimental class and the other is the control class. After eight weeks of the training, the author compares the differences between the two classes on the English proficiency. As far as the scores in the post-test are concerned, the experimental class has a higher score than the control class. First, the t-test value is 2.218 (df=38,p=0.033<0.05) which is calculated from the scores on the final oral English test. Second, the average scores of the two classes after the experiment are 87.45(the experimental class) and 79.95(the control class), and the mean difference is 7.5. Though the average score in the control class is 0.2 higher than that in the experimental class before the training, the average score in the experimental class surpasses the one in control class and the gap (7.5) between the two average scores is 7.7, which indicate the effective influence of the strategy training. Besides, the author classifies the students of the two classes into high, middle and low level and finds the percentage of the high level students in the experimental class (70%) is much higher than in of the control class (30%). Not only the relationship between the oral English learning strategy training and English oral test scores is observed, the author analyzes the effect and influence of the strategy training from the aspect of three oral English dimensions– fluency, accuracy and complexity. On reviewing the fluency in English for the learners, the author analyzes the fluency from another three aspects. The experimental class performs better than the control class from the point of disfluency pauses (with 0.9 and 1.8 times per sentence separately) and self-repetition/repair (the former 0.43 times per sentence and 0.7 times for the latter), except that there are not significant differences on the aspect of pause fillers between the two classes (0.47 and 0.57 times per sentence). On considering the English accuracy, another two aspects are concerned. The one is about the pronunciation errors with the frequency of 0.15 and 0.3 times per sentence in both the experimental and control class. The other is about the grammatical errors. With the frequency of 0.54 and 0.88 times per sentence occurred in both classes, the benefits received by the students from the training are shown naturally. Furthermore, 0.46(the experimental class) and 0.30(the control class) complex sentences take place in every sentence with regard to the English complexity. In a word, the strategy training has all-round effective influence on the adults'oral English improvement.The implications for English teachers to adult learners are that special attention should be paid to the oral English learning strategy adopted by adult learners and that the strategy training may be integrated into English teaching to improve the adult learners'English proficiency and enable them learn English better and more effectively.