A Case Study Of The English Learning Strategies Of The Intermediate-level Students In A Senior Secondary School

Nowadays the issue of how to improve the students' English in middle schools in our country has aroused more and more attention. For many years, however, educational research and efforts have been directed almost exclusively at the improvement of 'teaching' on teachers' side, with 'learning' being neglected to some degree. By using the case-study approach, this study aims at finding out students' learning strategies. Studying learning strategies is a very important aspect of students' study and can help educators have a clear idea how students study and what methods or strategies they use in their learning processes. Thus, we can help the students with effective strategies in learning English and gain better learning results. This paper provides some detailed data about the methods or strategies the students use in their English learning processes. In this way, we can get some information for educators and researchers to explore more effective approaches to give the students strategies-based instruction and gradually reach the goal which has been set in the English Curriculum for Senior Secondary Schools in our country.In this research, a case-study approach has been used. A case study is defined in terms of the unit of analysis. That is, a case study is a study of one case. A case-study researcher focuses attention on a single entity, usually as it exists in its naturally occurring environment.The unit of analysis or the case might be a teacher, a classroom, a school, an agency, an institution, or a community, etc. The researcher may examine only one case or may choose to study several cases and compare them. The number of cases is always small and the essence of the case-study approach is a careful and holistic look at particular cases. In a case study, one goal of the researcher is to define the bounded system, todetermine the boundaries of the unit of study. Depending on the goal of our study, we determined the boundaries of this case ?the intermediate-level students in a senior secondary school. In order to obtain the information we need, we used elicitation techniques. Elicitation implies that it is the researcher who elicits information. So we gave out a questionnaire of 24 statements for students to answer.Through the investigation, we have got the empirical data. After analyzing the data, we have got the following findings. First, learning passively is the feature of the intermediate-level students in their learning processes; second, learning strategy instruction on self-management, self-monitoring and self-evaluation to the intermediate-level students is highly necessary; third, learning strategies employed by the intermediate-level students are affected by students' ages, learning stages and tasks.With the investigation, we can come to the conclusion that learning. strategies play an important role in students' language learning. Using effective learning strategies can enhance students' language learning. Only when students know how to learn, can they become successful learners.