A Study Of Language Learning Strategies Employed By Chinese Distance EFL Learners

Recent research on language learning strategies has witnessed profile and vigorous growth in both second and foreign language contexts. Numerous studies around the globe, including significant efforts by prominent researchers, have heightened the world's awareness of language learning strategy use and of factors affecting learners' strategy choice. Most studies have focused on adolescent and adult learners. However, the voice of EFL learners in distance mode has not yet been heard. This research therefore provides learning strategy study of EFL learners in distance education in China, shows strong relationships between strategy use and success in distance learning and presents that meta-cognitive strategies may have an enhanced role for the learner of a language at a distance.The thesis is made up of six chaptersChapter One introduces the development and significance of distance education in China, the characteristics of distance EFL learners and a need for learner autonomy and self-regulatory learning.Chapter Two makes a brief review of the studies on language learning strategies. Theses studies mainly concentrate on the definition, features and classification, and importance of LLS in distance language learning.Chapter Three makes an analysis of the factors that affect the choice of language learning strategies. There are two kinds of factors in general: situational factors and learner factors. The former can be subdivided into social setting, school setting and learning tasks, while the latter can be further divided into learners' learning performance, gender difference, motivation and attitude, learning styles.Chapter Four designs survey questions aiming at finding out the learning strategies used by Chinese distance EFL learners and to what extent are these gender-related, any difference in strategy use between good and poor distance EFL learners, and the factors affecting success in distance EFL learning.Chapter Five concludes the results and discussions of the surveys. Different LLSgroups are investigated and factors affecting the success in distance EFL learning are analyzed by using SPSS software and Excel software.Chapter Six is concerned with strategy instruction. Research about LLS instruction and two approaches to LLS instruction and principles for carrying out effective strategy instruction are introduced. The goal of the LLS instruction is not only to sharpen learners' strategy awareness, but also to help them to become self-responsible and self-directed learners with high autonomy in their learning process.