A Study On The Correlation Between Language Learning Strategies And English Proficiency Of Learners In The Middle School

Learning is a lifelong task for every one. The study of learning has always been a heated topic in the education field. The researchers realize that the essential goal of education is to make the students become independent, autonomous and efficient learners. In the mid 1970s, there has been a shift in focus from exclusive focus on the improvement of teaching to an increasing concern on how learners go about their learning tasks in a second or foreign language. Because language teachers and researchers began to realize that no single language teaching method guaranteed success for every student. The researches of learning strategy centered on the following topics: (1) strategies and other features presumed to be essential for all'good language learner'(2) comparative studies of successful and unsuccessful learners (3) the relationships between the use of English learning strategy and English performance(4) factors affecting the language learning strategy use (5) language learning strategy training and its effect. Domestic researches about language learning strategies dated back to 1980s. However, they focused their study on students at the college level, and studies targeted at middle school students are scarce.The purposes of the study are to investigate the characteristics of English learning strategies used by middle 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, metacognitive strategies are employed the most frequently, and are followed by social, cognitive, affective, and compensation 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 middle schools, physiological features of middle 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 employ learning strategies more frequently than the latter. Secondly, there exist significant differences in the use of memory, cognitive, metacognitive, affective, and social strategies between them.(3) All the six learning strategy categories significantly correlate with English achievement. Learning strategies as a whole possess a moderate predictive power on English achievement. Moreover, cognitive strategies are positive predictors with statistical significance.The present study, therefore, by investigating the correlation between language learning strategies and English proficiency of learners in the middle school, aims to generate information for comparison of strategy use and proficiency of middle school students and points out implications for EFL language teaching and learning according to the research findings.Such findings may provide teachers with a better understanding of the types and frequency of learning strategies used by middle school students and help them to incorporate effective strategy training into classroom practice for more autonomous and effective learning. Findings here also indicate that it is important to recognize that some strategies may be more suited to some learners than to others. The more teachers know about such factors, the more readily they can come to grips with the nature of individual differences in the classroom. In order for students to become autonomous learners who take charge of their learning, the students must learn to use appropriate language learning strategies. Of course, students should also be made aware of the broad range of strategy options available to them and it is equally important for students to employ strategies flexibly by selecting those strategies that are appropriate for performing a particular learning task.