English Learning Strategies And Their Relationship With English Achievement By Senior High School Students

With the increase of interaction among nations, people have gradually developed the awareness of the importance of foreign language as a tool for global communication. Language learning strategies have been found to be prominent among various factors affecting foreign language learning by language researchers and language teachers. Both domestic and foreign researchers have conducted substantial research on learning strategies ever since 1970s. However, domestic researchers focus their study on students at the tertiary level, whereas studies targeted at senior high school students are scarce. Additionally, Research findings by both domestic and foreign researchers have suggested an association between language learning strategy employment and English achievement among learners of English, yet there is no strong consensus.The purposes of this study are to investigate the characteristics of English learning strategies used by senior high school students, to detect the differences in strategy use between high and low achievement groups, and to examine the correlation between their learning strategy employment and English achievement, in the hope to explore the contribution of English learning strategies to English achievement. The data are collected mainly through a written questionnaire, and partly by means of group interviews. After both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data, the researcher yields the following research findings:1. In general, students sometimes employ English learning strategies. Among the six learning strategy categories investigated, compensation strategies are employed the most frequently, and are followed by social, cognitive, metacognitive, and affective strategies. The least frequently used strategies are memory strategies. The characteristics of learning strategy employment may be attributable to many factors, such as the test -oriented nature of English teaching in senior high schools, physiological features of senior high school students, and their EFL learning context.2. Students with high English achievement have a better command over English learning strategies than those with low English achievement. Firstly, the former employlearning strategies more frequently than the latter. Secondly, there exist significant differences in the use of memory, cognitive, metacognitive, and social strategies between them.3. All the six learning strategy categories except compensation strategies significantly correlate with English achievement. Learning strategies as a whole possess a moderate predictive power on English achievement. Moreover, memory and metacognitive strategies are positive predictors with statistical significance. In the end, the researcher discusses pedagogical implications yielded from the above findings, and limitations of the present study.