Strategies And Genders: A Study Of Differences Between Male And Female Students In The Use Of Language Learning Strategies

With the development of economic globalization and worldwide communication, the role of English language education played in the national educational system of China is more and more important. However, the researches carried out in these domains had been out of proportion, with much investment and achievement on the process of teaching but the students'efforts of learning lagging far behind. So the author tries to draw more attention to the significance of investigation into the learning strategies students applied to facilitate their language learning and the gender difference occured in their use of learning strategies.Learning strategies are steps taken by students to enhance their own learning. Strategies are especially important for language learning because they are tools for active, self-directed involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence. Appropriate language learning strategies result in improved proficiency and greater self-confidence. A range of factors that have been found to affect strategy choice. This study employs a quantitative research approach to explore the relationship between gender and the language learning strategy use by college EFL learners, including the overall difference among the whole participants and the specific differences between two genders on the use of language learning strategies.Specifically, this study attempts to answer the following research questions:(1) Are there any gender differences in the use of language learning strategies among non-English majors?(2) How do gender differences in language learning strategies affect their performance in CET-4?These questions were answered by employing questionnaire method.98 participants joined in this study. They were all non-English major sophomores in Shaanxi Normal University and took part in the examination of CET-4 in June,2009. After the test, all the datas were keyed into the computer and analyzed by the Statistics Package for Social Science (SPSS 16.0). Descriptive statistical analysis was applied to check the overall use of learning strategies by participants. Independent sample t test is carried out to examine the significant differences on language learning strategy use by different genders. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to see the relationship between particiants'scores in CET-4 and their use of learning strategies.The findings of this study indicated the following:(1) Gender differences really existed in the use of language learning strategies among non-English majors.(2) The mean score of females in CET-4 is higher than that of males, but according to independent sample t test, there is no statistical difference. Nevertheless, with Person correlation analysis, it indicated a close relationship between participants'scores in CET-4 and their use of learning strategies.Based on the results and discussion,. some implications on English teaching are proposed. Limitations of the present study and suggestions for future study are also put forward.