| Since the 1970s, studies on learning strategies used by L2 learners have been growing. The main reason lies in that, in the field of L2 teaching, researchers and teachers have always tried to find out effective ways to improve their students' proficiency in a second language. But their efforts were greeted with unsatisfactory results. Although many new teaching methods emerged one after another, learning efficiency of L2 learners was not improved greatly. Gradually, it has been realized that only making research on teaching is not enough, and more attention should be paid to students' learning, especially to learning strategies.This thesis consists of seven parts, including the introduction and the conclusion. The introduction presents the research background of learning strategies, the main issues involved in the research and the importance of studying the effect of learning strategies on English learning at the preliminary stage of primary school.Chapter One deals with the theoretical underpinning of research on learning strategies. In the first place psycholinguistic theory and cognitive theory are adopted to account for the nature of language comprehension and language production and the necessity of conducting learning strategy research, then learning strategies are described in the framework of cognitive theory and presented as cognitive skills which begin as declarative knowledge and can become proceduralized through cognitive, associative and autonomous stages of learning. By employing appropriate learning strategies, L2 learners can greatly improve their languagecomprehension and production.Chapter Two copes with studies of learning strategies. Research history of learning strategies are presented and various definitions and classifications of learning strategies are reviewed. The frames of learning strategies given by those most influential linguists, such as Oxford (1990), Cohen (1998), O'Malley and Chamot (1990), are presented in detail. As the studies of good language learners constitute one of the most important parts of learning strategy research, the researcher makes a brief review of the good language learner studies in this chapter.Chapter Three deals with the main factors which affect choice and application of learning strategies in L2 learning. These factors can be divided into two broad categories. Various learner factors, such as learners' beliefs about language learning, age, sex, motivation, personal background, language aptitude, personality and learning style, are included in one category, and the other category is composed of different situational factors such as learning setting and learning tasks, etc..Chapter Four copes with the importance of learning strategies to English learning at the preliminary stage of primary school with reference to the psychological and cognitive traits of the pupils. The researcher adopts the scheme of learning strategies given by O'Malley and Chamot (1990) to illustrate the significance of using learning strategies in English learning, mainly in listening and speaking activities which are dominant in English classes at the preliminary stage of primary school. Various metacognitive, cognitive, social and affective learning strategies are presented in this chapter.Chapter Five is a report of the study on the learning strategies employed by young learners and the effect of strategy training on English learning at the preliminary stage of primary school. It consists of twosections. Section One reports a descriptive study on the learning strategies used by young learners (defined as pupils at the preliminary stage of primary school). The instruments used in the investigation are interviews with young learners and a questionnaire. This investigation is conducted at the Primary School Attached to Shandong Teachers' University and it yields some results which prove that young learners do employ some simple learning strategies and high-level learners are more active in using learning strategies than those low-level learners. Secti...
|
PDF Full Text Request