A Study On The Learning Strategies Of Native Chinese In North Thailand

This paper firstly reviews both domestic and international studies of second language learning strategies, on the basis of teaching Chinese as a second language learning strategies. It also discusses the Chinese learning strategies of 183 native Thailand Chinese-major students in ChiangMai University and Lampang Rajabhat University in terms of grade, gender, age, period of learning and self-assessment.The Chinese learning strategies questionnaire adopted Oxford(1996) "the strategies inventory for language learning"(Strategy SILL Inventory for Language Learning) and Cheng Xiaotang /Zheng Min’s(2002) the classification of language learning strategies. Based on the framework, some slight modifications were made. The Cronbach’s Alpha reached 0.9407, which proves that the questionnaire has a high reliability. By using the questionnaire, the 5- point Likert Scale, the author separately carries on the questionnaire survey to the different levels of Chinese students in Thailand, while trying to understand the students’ home, language attitude, learning methods, and Chinese achievement test. The questionnaire and the Chinese test data was analyzed by using SPSS19.0 software package, including independent samples test, correlation analysis, variance analysis, correlation analysis and multiple regression unit.The results showed that:(1) For Thailand university students who learn Chinese domestically, the most commonly used strategies is the affective strategies, followed by cognitive strategies and meta-cognitive strategies, the least used is the communicative strategies.(2) With gender, the differences of learning time and different native places of Thailand students in four classes, the learning strategies differences were not significant, but there were significant differences in specific learning methods. There was no significant difference between the results of study of high and low level students, but in specific language learning strategies, some learning methods were frequently used by the high score group, while these methods were seldom used by the low score group.(3) There was no significant correlation between the four types of language learning strategies and Chinese achievement in regard to their original country, but some specific learning methods had a significant correlation with their Chinese scores.(4) There were distinctive differences of Chinese learning strategies related to different grades in term of total scores and cognitive strategies, meta-cognitive strategies, as well as affective strategies.(5)Thailand students who with different years of Chinese studying were apparently different from each other with learning strategies in total score and cognitive strategies, meta-cognitive strategies, and communication strategies.(6)The Chinese self-assessment levels of Thai students presented a positive correlation with all dimensions and learning strategies, that is to say, as more the Thai students improve their Chinese self-assessment levels, the more related learning strategies they are taking.(7)There were great differences between Thai college students of high academic performances and low academic performances. Compared to students of low academic performances, students of high academic performances ranked their adopted learning strategies in sequence as communication strategies, meta-cognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, and affective strategies.(8) The Chinese learning strategies and all dimensional strategies of Thai students were highly in positive correlation with academic performance. The more related learning strategies they students are adopting in learning Chinese, the better their academic performances are.(9)The age limit of Chinese learning for Thai students was in negative correlation with self-assessment, that is to say, as the age limit of Chinese learning increases, the self-assessment level decreases; The age limit of Chinese learning for Thai students was also in negative correlation with cognitive strategies and meta-cognitive strategies, which means as the age limit of Chinese acquisition increases, the less cognitive strategies and meta-cognitive strategies the Thai students are adopting.