A Comparative Study Of The Use Of Language Learning Strategies By Oral English High Ahcievers And Low Achievers In Vocational College Cooperative Learning Situation

This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of cooperative learning on the use of language learning strategies by the oral English high achievers and low achievers in vocational college CL situation. The purpose of the study is to find out the overall use of English learning strategies by those students, to analyse the similarities and differences with respect to their use of learning strategies and to explore the underlying factors responsible for their different and similar choices. The subjects were the English major freshmen from the Yangzhou Institute of Education. The research questions to be addressed in this study are as follows:1. What is the overall use of English learning strategies by oral English high achievers and low achievers in vocational college cooperative learning situation?2. In what ways are they different from or similar to each other in their respective use of language learning strategies in such cooperative learning situation?3. In what ways does CL approach influence the oral English high achievers and low achievers in their choice of such LLSs?This study, with constructivism, humanism and social interaction theory as its theoretical framework, was a comparative study conducted both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative design is a survey and the qualitative design is an interview. The quantitative study involved 70 Englsih major freshmen, including 35 oral English high achievers and 35 oral Enlishg low achievers. High achievers are those students whose scores are above 85 in the school eaxm. Low achievers are those students whose scores are below 65. And for the qualitative study, 12 interviewees were randomly sampled out of the 70 subjects, with 6 from the group of high achievers and 6 from the group of low achievers.The major findings of the present study could be summarized as follows:1. In vocational CL situation, oral English high achievers use more LLSs and use them more frequently than oral English low achievers. The most significant difference lies in the use of affective strategy, followed by that of social strategy and compensation strategy; the three are much more used used by high ahcievers than by low ahcievers. Significant difference also lies in the use of cognitive strategies and metacognitve strategies. Only the use of memory strategy does not increase but decrease.2. CL is favored by students with high English proficiency because they could have more opportunities to practice oral English, which leads to more frequent use of LLSs. By contrast, oral English low achievers'use of LLSs is not so satisfactory for the reason that they are not used to the new teaching mode.3. Of the six LLSs five are used more frequently by high achievers. The use of memory strategy does not change much. The reason is that different from the traditional teaching mode, CL gives more time to group discussion and presentations which involve interaction among students. Such interaction is more favored by high achievers, which in turn promotes the use of language learning strategies.4. Metacognitive strategy and cognitive strategy are used more frequently by high achievers although the difference is not so significant as that of social strategy, compensation strategy and affective strategy. This occurs also because of the enhanced motivation to learn.5. Memory strategy is the only strategy with its mean of strategy use decreasing. But the difference is not significant. The reason is that in oral English class communication is most emphasized, so the high achievers are likely to pay less attention to the use of memory strategy. If they could not think of one word or phrase in communication, they could use compensation strategy, that is, they use other similar words or phrases as substitutes.The results of the present study also have strong pedagogical implications.Firstly, the present study shows that teaching mode has great effect on the learning of language in many aspects. Proper teaching mode can enhance the students'motivation, improve the relationship between the teacher and the students and make learning more pleasant.Secondly, CL, as a new teaching mode, should be carried out properly in order to get satisfying result, including students'proper use of LLSs. Before the implementation of CL, the teacher should explain to the students the principles and purpose of this new teaching mode to get them psychologically prepared. In CL class, the teacher is the organizer, facilitator and"learner among learners". Although in CL class, the teacher is not the only authority, he has more duties than in traditional class. Thirdly, this study also shows that LLSs can be taught and should be taught. Language teaching should include both the convey of language knowledge and the guidance of the use of LLSs. It is especially the case for vocational college English teaching for the English level of the students in vocational colleges is not as high as that of the students in univerisities, so the introduction and guided use of learning strategies will be of greater importance.