A Study On College English Learning Strategy Training Of Art Majors

The studies on language learning strategy (LLS) have always been hot topics infields of Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching. Many researchers and scholarshave already made some achievements on language learning strategy; what's more,LLS training has also got some attention in scientific researches. However, most of thestudies were focused on non-art-major college students and few were taken onart-major students, especially studies of LLS training. Therefore, the author selectedart-major students as subjects in the present study, with the instrument of Oxford (1990)SILL learning strategy questionnaire as a quantitative research, aiming at exploring thelearning strategy use of art majors and making a suitable strategy training planaccording to the results. The present study demonstrated the procedure of LLS trainingand the result of the experiment, hoping to offer some useful inspirations andsuggestions to all the educators and English teachers in China.In the present study, the author chose Oxford (1990) SILL learning strategyquestionnaire as an instrument and made an investigation in90art majors inChongqing Normal University. According to the results, the author designed anEnglish learning strategy training plan and conducted an experiment of one teachingsemester to test its effect on students' English proficiency.After the whole process, a conclusion was given as follows:Firstly, on the whole, art majors' English proficiency was relatively low than othernon-art majors'. Besides that, their language learning strategy use was not so good,which still needed a further promotion.Secondly, language learning strategy was one of the important factors thatinfluenced students' learning proficiency. The questionnaire showed that,compensation strategies were used most frequently among all the other strategies.Affective strategies and cognitive strategies were much more frequently used thansocial strategies and memory strategies, while metacognitive strategies were the leastfrequently-used strategies. Thirdly, it was necessary for the teacher to have a preparation to investigate artmajors' features and needs analysis before the training. Having a better understandingof students' learning information was helpful for the teacher to make a more suitableand complete training plan.Finally, as the experiment result revealed, language learning strategy training didhave a positive effect on art-major students' English proficiency. The effect of basicskills strategy training was obvious. Moreover, communicative classroom activitiesbased on task-based teaching approach were also proved to be effective and acceptable.To draw a conclusion, language learning strategy training could improve art-majorstudents' learning ability. All the English teachers should know that, it was better toteach students learning approaches and techniques than English language itself.Teachers should help their students become the real center of learning and learn to uselearning strategies effectively in their study. On the other hand, students' attitudestowards English were also important in study. English teachers should help studentsarouse their' learning interest and rebuilt their confidence in order to realize theultimate goal of study---autonomous learning and life-long learning.