A Contrastive Study On The Use Of English Learning Strategies By Chinese Non-english-major Postgraduates In China And Britain

With the rapid economic development in mainland China, an increasing number of Chinese students are pursuing study at the universities in English-speaking countries. However, there is scarce research which focuses specifically on Chinese non-English-major postgraduates'dynamic strategy use, particularly in a predominantly naturalistic context. Even fewer attempts have hitherto been made to explicitly explore the differences in strategy use of Chinese non-English-major postgraduates in the home and the native contexts. The present study is a contrastive research on language learning strategy use of 100 Chinese non-English major postgraduates in both home and native contexts. It seeks to investigate the strategy use by the two groups and to identify significant differences in their strategy use. This study also aims to provide some evidence of the role of learning context in their strategy use.The overall structure of the study takes the form of six chapters.Chapter one intends to introduce the research background and to show the significance and purpose of the current study.Chapter two reviews the previous literature in the area of language learning, concentrating particularly on four main areas:learning context and strategy use. two principal studies concerning Chinese learners'shifting strategy use in the target language context, the socio-cultural approach. Oxford's strategy classification schema.Chapter three is concerned with the design of the whole research. The subjects. instruments and research procedure are presented in detail in this chapter.Chapter four presents the results of the study. Statistical analysis reveals significant differences between the groups in general strategy use. The home group is engaged in more frequent use of language learning strategies than the overseas group. This finding goes against the common belief that language learners exposed to the target language environment generally show a higher overall strategy use. In addition, the home group reports very frequent use of memory and cognitive strategies but the least use of meta-cognitive and social strategies. In contrast, the overseas group reports opposite strategy use patterns. This finding is in general compliance with findings in previous studies in this area. Interview data further reveal the non-personal factors that may influence subjects'strategy preference, including learning objectives, assessment methods, teaching arrangements and language environment. Informants'accounts also suggest their attitudes toward their learning contexts and point out the possible improvements that can be made in the contexts.Chapter Five offers an in-depth discussion of the findings in relation to previous research. Under the socio-cultural framework, the study discusses in great detail about how learning context exerts tremendous influence on subjects'strategy use in both contexts via three mediating factors (mediating discourses, mediating objects and mediating agents). This study also supplements socio-cultural perspective by identifying the critical mediating effects of language environment in subjects'strategy use. Furthermore, based on subjects'narratives, it offers recommendations concerning the improvements that may be made in both contexts.Chapter Six summarises the major findings of the current study and identifies the implications as well as limitations of the study. Future research with larger sample sizes and different research approaches are strongly recommended.