Influence Of English Proficiency And Major On Postgraduate Students' Use Of Language Learning Strategies

The study of learning strategies has seen an'explosion of activity'in recent years. In spite of the increasing popularity of research on learning strategies since the mid-1970s, the topic of learning strategies is still a new research area in mainland China. Most previous studies in China have been focused on undergraduates, with little research on postgraduates. Furthermore, most previous studies have made comparison across the entire survey or in terms of strategy categories. The present study tries to investigate students'strategy use in not only overall strategy use, the use of strategy categories, but also in the use of individual strategies.This study investigated the use of language learning strategies by a group of postgraduate students in a Chinese university. The emphasis was on the influence of L2 proficiency and major on learners'strategy use, aiming to look at how proficiency and major affect the use of LLS among university postgraduate students learning English as a foreign language, and to reveal some distinctive features in postgraduate students'use of learning strategies.The study used quantitative approaches. Two research instruments were used for this study: English test for postgraduate entrance examination and Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). One hundred and eighty eight postgraduate students (male 97, female 91; social science100, science 88) in a university responded to a questionnaire on strategy use, and they had participated in a nation-wide English proficiency test. Oxford's 50-item Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) was adapted to suit the subjects in this Chinese context. The researcher used SPSS to analyze the data as soon as they were collected. During the process of analysis, the ANOVA, and the Chi-square tests were used.The study disclosed a rich pool of data, showing that the postgraduate students'use of learning strategies was related to both proficiency and major. The overall frequency of strategy use fell in medium-use range. Results from the investigation indicated that affective strategies were most frequently used, while memory strategies were least frequently used. Statistical analysis showed that significant differences emerged for the use of overall strategies, memory strategies, cognitive strategies, compensation strategies, social strategies, and thirty individual strategies by proficiency level. Postgraduate students'majors also played a role in influencing the kinds of strategy used: social science postgraduate students were found to use memory strategies, affective strategies and social strategies significantly more often than science postgraduate students.Findings from this study have suggested a number of implications for the classroom teaching. Teachers should recognize that some strategies might be more suited to some learners than to others due to individual differences. Besides, attention should be paid to the learners'individual strategy use as well as overall strategy use and category strategy use. The medium range of strategy use indicated that learners did not use LLS frequently. Learners needed further training in the use of all learning strategies. More help is needed for science students to improve their use of LLS.