| During the last several decades, influenced by Behaviorism psychology, the emphasis has primarily been put on the part of teaching rather than on learning in the field of foreign language instruction. Meanwhile, in order to deal with examinations, traditional curricula have tended to concentrate on imparting knowledge and skills to students, neglecting the teaching of how to learn. All that has led to students'ineffective learning. But now, more and more educators and psychologists have gradually realized that the fundamental goal of education is to make students become independent, autonomous and efficient learners. Learning to study effectively will help to improve the language learning proficiency .In China, the Education Ministry has set the main goal of English teaching and learning as"developing the students'language learning strategies"for the basic education. Research on language learning strategies has been a key issue in foreign language teaching in the recent thirty years. Especially in some western countries, the concern with teaching and learning has shifted from the teachers'teaching to the students'learning. At the same time, many researchers in China or abroad have engaged in the study of this field and some achievements have been obtained. However, the study of English learning strategies on Students of Secondary Vocational Schools (SSVS) still remains at an early stage.Based on the theories of language learning strategies by O'Malley and Chamot, language learning strategies are grouped into three categories, metacognitive, cognitive and affective/social strategies and a survey was done on 201 students of English major in three Secondary Vocational Schools on the Seaboard of Guangxi (Qinzhou Normal School, Beihai Normal School and Fangcheng Normal School). The contents of the survey include: (1) The overall use of language learning strategies among SSVS. (2) The application of metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective strategies in respective circumstances. (3) The comparison between more successful students and less successful students. The research methods used in this survey include questionnaire and interview.The analysis of the data collected through the investigation show that although some SSVS have the sense to use learning strategies, most of them are still lack of the knowledge of learning strategies and incapable of applying them; students'self-management ability is far from enough; their learning methods are still traditional and mechanical; SSVS have less interest and low confidence in English learning and students'with frequent use of strategy are more successful in English learning than students without using strategies. Teachers in this survey reported having inadequate knowledge about language learning strategies and low consciousness of guiding students to use language learning strategies. So some problems existing in the use of language learning strategies among SSVS can be concluded as: (1) Lacking the knowledge and having little choice of learning strategies. (2) Not so conscious of autonomous learning and being accustomed to accepting knowledge from teachers. (3) Having single cognitive methods and lacking the surroundings of input and output of the target language. From the investigation, we also find out that the most influential factors to the existing problems are lower proficiency, incorrect concepts, the lack of motivation and rigid teaching models.Based on the above findings, some instructional suggestions on strategy training are put forward in this thesis: (1) SSVS should be provided with strategy training so as to make students independent, autonomous and efficient learners. (2) Teachers ought to participate in the training of learning strategies in order to deliver effective learning strategy instruction to students.(3) Teachers should adjust their roles in strategy training in order to help their students become more independent, more responsible for their own learning.The investigation shows that strategy application is of great importance with the continuous development of foreign language education nowadays. It accords with the views of scientific development and the demands of humanistic education. It is a requirement for us to raise the educational quality. So the study is significant. It will help to improve the efficiency of Secondary Vocational Schools English teaching, and lighten the SSVS pressure in English learning. However, further studies are expected to assess the usefulness of different techniques for strategy training.
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