The Relationship Between The Management Strategy Use And The English Achievements: A Study Of The Higher Vocational-technical College Students

There has been the transformation of teaching method from the teacher-centered teaching to the learner-centered teaching since the 20^th century. In 1975, Rubin published his article entitled what the "good learner" can teach us? in TESOL Quarterly. Since then, the research has focused on the second language strategies in the English learning and teaching. The results of such studies indicate that proper learning strategies use improves learners' learning achievements.O'Malley (1990) points out, "[M]etacognitive strategy can also be understood as management strategy, which refers to a series of management procedures of successful language learning, e.g. making plans, monitoring the learning process and evaluating learning outcomes." In China, Professor Wen (1993) puts forward a model of learning of Chinese learner. She considers that management strategy is in a higher level and executive position. Management strategy consists of three parts: planning (e.g. setting aims, concentrating on learning, analyzing learning tasks and making reasonable schedule, etc.); monitoring (regulation and control of learning process and learning strategies as well as affective regulation); evaluation (evaluation of strategy use and learning outcomes). The difference between metacognitive strategy and management strategy lies in that: management strategy takes affective regulation into consideration. Wen's idea is more reasonable and an improved model in classifying learning strategies.This study is an empirical research on higher vocational—technical college students' management strategy use and their learning achievements. This thesis is going to answer the following three questions:1. What are the general characteristics of management strategy use among thehigher vocational—technical college students?2. Do differences exist in using the overall strategy as well as the subcategories ofmanagement strategy in terms of high-score group and low-score group?3. What is the relationship between management strategy use and English achievements? Through management strategy questionnaire, the present study collected data of 109 higher vocational—technical college students who were studying in Shaanxi Vocational and Technical College. Their English achievements were from their tests in the last three semesters. The data was then analyzed by SPSS (13.0), demonstrating descriptive analysis, independent samples T-test, paired samples T-test, correlations and multiple regression. Major findings were:1. The results show that higher vocational—technical college students' management strategy use is at moderate level (mean score is between 3.04-3.34). The management strategy use of planning is used less than the other two (mean score is 3.04), followed by monitoring (mean score is 3.24) and evaluating (mean score is 3.34).2. Independent samples T-test suggests that significant differences in the use of overall management strategy as well as the subcategories—planning, monitoring and evaluating are found between high score group and low score group (p< .001). High-score group are more frequently users in terms of monitoring and evaluating than low-score group (mean score is between 3.5-3.7 and 2.6-2.9 respectively).3. Correlation and multiple regressions indicate that: 1) Management strategies are significantly correlated with English achievements. 2) Only planning and evaluating entered the regression model and have direct predictive power on English achievements. The two variables could account for 50% of the variance in English achievements. 3) Monitoring is positively related to English achievement, but it did not enter the regression model.Based on the findings, recommendations are given to both teachers and students. Such as, 1) Teachers should help students be aware of management strategy and its function in learning; 2) Teachers should also teach students some basic strategies and provide enough chances for them to practice, the cultivation of management strategy use in language learning should be consistently imbedded in the process of classroom teaching and learning.