A Study On The Developmental Pattern In Using English Learning Strategies

With the shift of the researching focus from teachers and teaching to the learners and learning in the field of applied linguistics, second language learning process has been widely emphasized. And the adoption of language learning strategies is one of the essential elements. This paper mainly explores the developmental pattern of their usage. This paper mainly adopts Oxford's 50-item Strategy Inventory for Language Learning which is the most often used strategy scale around the whole world. Through the investigation of the students from the junior and senior middle school and the university, this paper mainly adopts SPSS 9.0 to reveal the developmental pattern of the language learning strategy use and the influence of gender and language proficiency on their usage.Chapter One is the introduction. It firstly introduces the background of this study, then it discusses the theoretical and practical significance of the strategy use, and lastly it describes the overall structure of this thesis, so that we can have a better understanding of this research.Chapter Two is the literature review. It first introduces the definitions and classifications of language learning strategies, then it presents the studies in this field both abroad and at home, and it also gives a summary of these researches. Through this chapter, we can have a better understanding of the theories and developments of this field.Chapter Three is the research methodology. It introduces the research questions, subjects, instruments, procedures and the data collection and analysis. Through this chapter, we can know how our research is going on step by step.Chapter Four is the results and discussion. In accordance with the research questions, it firstly discusses the developmental patterns of the general use of the English learning strategies. We find that Chinese students only sometimes adopt learning strategies in their English learning, and the junior middle school students adopt the learning strategies most frequently. As for the influence of gender on the learning strategy use, we find that female students adopt the strategies more frequently than males, and their differences in the strategy use are significant in junior and senior middle school stage, but in the university stage, there are no significant differences. As for the influence of language proficiency on the strategy use, we find that there are significant differences in the strategy use among students of different levels at each stage, therefore, students should try to improve their ability of using these strategies flexibly to advance their English proficiency. As this research also reflects some other problems, we also make a brief introduction of them in this chapter.Chapter Five is the conclusion. It summarizes the whole research, and also gives some suggestions of the learning strategy use. The students, especially the less successful ones, should improve their awareness of the strategy use and learn to make better use of these strategies to improve their language performances. There is no doubt that this study has many limitations, but we hope that it can help arouse people's attention of this field, and so that it can have a better development in the future.