A Developmental Research On English Learning Management Strategies And Management Beliefs Employed By MKM Non-English Major University Students In Xinjiang

The study of English learning strategy in the western world originated in 1970s. The publishing of What Can We Learn from the Experienced Language Learners (Rubin, 1975) gave a clue that the scholars of language acquisition and research commenced focusing on the language learners themselves and the strategies they adopted to use. Further study conducted by scholars, like Stern (1983), Chamot (1987), Rubin(1987) and Oxford (1989) tried to define'Language Learning Strategy'. Nevertheless, their definitions of'Language Learning Strategy'vary more or less from each other on account of their different understandings. Scholar began to specify the categories of language learning strategies in order to facilitate the follow-up studies, O'Mally and Chamot(1990), Oxford (1990) and Cohen(1983)'s ideas are the most influential and widely accepted ones.Professor Wen is one the earliest scholars to concentrate upon the study of management strategy of English learning in China. In 1993, she proposed that the strategy of English learning could be classified into two parts, namely, learner's administration strategy and language acquisition strategy. The language acquisition strategy is under the thumb of the management strategy. Not only does the management strategy dominate the process of cognition, but controls emotional process. Learners are on the right track to study English well provided that they apply the language management strategy appropriately in the course of their study.This study is based upon Professor Wen's research framework, and typically highlights the research of the stepwise changes of the preferred English learning management strategy and belief of Xinjiang MKM non-English majors by using questionnaire and interview. The term MKM stands for the minority student who studies in minority language dominated school. They begin to learn Chinese from Grade 3 in primary school and take part in the University Enrollment examination in their mother language.This present study takes 204 students from Xinjiang Normal University, Xinjiang Agricultural University and Xinjiang Medical University as subjects. The MKM college students in Xinjiang take up a large proportion. In 2006, the number of MKM students in all the universities of Xinjiang takes up 84% of all the minority students. In order to meet the keen desire of these students for further education, almost all the universities in Xinjiang provide English course as they enter the college. The MKM college students in Xinjiang have not learned English before they come to study in the universities, so they are assigned to study English elementary course. The researcher gave out questionnaire for this group of students twice in December, 2007 and December 2008. After collecting these questionnaires, the researcher has put the statistics into SPSS software and accomplished the analysis of correlation and Paired-samples T test.The result of the first-time questionnaire survey shows that: First, Xinjiang MKM students do not have the particular preference of study beliefs ( T= 1.068,P=0.287). There are no distinct differentiations towards cognitive management planning, evaluation and monitoring strategy (P>0.05). They are inclined to adopt cognitive management strategies comparing with emotional management strategy (T= -3.103,P=0.002). Secondly, the belief is relatively correlated with emotional management strategy (0.276**, P=000) and so are the cognitive management belief and its corresponding strategy (0.370**, p=000).The result of second-time questionnaire shows that: students are relatively keen on cognitive management belief. There is slightly difference between planning strategy and evaluation strategy of cognitive management strategy, which indicates, students pay much more attention to evaluation strategy rather than planning strategy( T=3.045,P=0.003).There is no distinct difference between cognitive management strategy and emotional strategy (P=0.378).There is a slight alteration comparing with the first questionnaire research of the correlation between belief and strategy.The correlation of cognitive management belief and its strategy is higher comparing to the research of the first time (0.294**/0.312**); the correlation between emotional management belief and strategy is higher than the first time investigation (0.312**/0.276**). Comparing with the first questionnaire investigation and the second one, we can see that the emotional management strategy and cognitive management belief and becoming much more distinct.The implication of this study on teaching Xinjiang MKM non-English major college students is: teachers are advised to be clearly aware of the regular changing patterns of the students'management strategy and belief; teachers are advised to guide and scrutinize the students in forming their English management strategy and belief so that students can form good study habits.