A Survey Of Language Learning Strategies Used By Junior High School Students

This study investigates the English language-learning strategies used by Grade 2 students in Fengtai No. 2 Junior High Middle School in Beijing. A total of 320 junior high school students participate in this study. They are divided into two groups— high-scoring group and low-scoring group according to the average scores in two examinations. 50 are chosen from each group by random sampling. The basic instrument is the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL, Oxford, 1989). And 87 out of 100 questionnaires are valid. The data is analyzed with the aid of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) 11.0 for Windows.This study aims to find out whether there exist differences in the use of language learning strategies between the high-scoring and low-scoring junior high school students, and to explore the relationships between the language learning strategies and the English scores of the two groups.The results are as follows: (1) For the frequency of the strategy use, the high-scoring students use the language learning strategies at a medium to high level, with the cognitive strategies being the most frequently used and the affective strategies being the least frequently used; the low-scoring students use the language learning strategies at a low to medium level, with the compensation strategies being the most frequently used and the affective strategies being the least used. (2) There is a significant difference in the use of the cognitive strategies, compensation strategies and metacognitive strategies between the high-scoring and low-scoring students. However, there is no significant difference in the use of affective strategies and social...