A Study On English Learning Strategies Of English Learners With Learning Difficulties In Junior Middle School

In the 21st century, people have to learn all their lives. Education has developed from the traditional and closed school education into a kind of open, multiple-functional and lifelong activities. Nowadays it becomes more and more important for the learners to grasp the learning strategies."How to learn"is being paid more attention to than"how to teach". Learning strategies are a series of conscious measures to develop the efficiency and good results. It is an important link to cultivate and pay special attention to learning strategies of middle school students. Exploring and reviewing the positive and effective English learning strategies is an important way to lessen the burden and improve the quality of students and education.In this thesis, the author first defines the learning strategies and reviews the current relevant literature and research at home and abroad. And it also has a discussion of the students with English Learning Difficulties. After that, a questionnaire on English learning strategies is chosen to get information from the students in Guiyang N0. 18 Middle School. The following study has been done: 1. the use of English learning strategies among the students; 2. the problem of the use of the English learning strategies and the decisive factors.According to the results, the study comes to the following conclusion. First, the middle school students use some of the English learning strategies mentioned in the questionnaire; but the frequency at which they use these strategies are low. Second, the major problems with using learning strategies are: lacking the knowledge of English learning strategies and having little choice of learning strategies. Among the four of the English learning strategies, the affective strategies had the highest mean, followed by social strategies and cognitive categories, with metacognitive least used. Third, the students with English Learning Difficulties realize the importance to learn the English learning strategies. Finally, the elements which affect the use of English learning strategies include teacher's beliefs to the students, English level and teaching methods.After a detailed discussion on the results, the paper provides the following suggestions for English teaching and learning:It is important for students to learn to use appropriate English learning strategies. For teachers, they need to have the power to identify more effective learning strategies for the students and focus on teaching them so that students can learn English efficiently both in classroom and outside classroom.