A Study On The Transition Of English Learning Strategies From Junior To Senior Middle School

The learning strategies have been a hot topic in both fields of foreign language teaching and general education. In 2001, learning strategies were put forward for the first time in The New English Course Standard for the Basic Education Stage in China as one of the comprehensive abilities of language use, and their functions in the process of language learning were much emphasized. In the past few years, plenty of researches have been conducted in China on the use of learning strategies by the middle school students, yet not much has been done on the differences of the learning strategies adopted by students of the junior and senior middle school. English in the senior middle school is much more difficult than that in the junior, which will most likely lead to differences in the use of learning strategies.The present study makes an investigation on 320 students (including junior and senior) in Xiangtan No. 1 Middle School and Xiangtan New World Yizhi Experiment Middle School. The investigation asks the students to answer 25 questions according to the four learning strategies included in the The New English Course Standard for the Basic Education Stage in China, namely cognitive strategy, managing and evaluative strategy, resource strategy and communication strategy. Based on the results of the investigation, the study makes a comparative analysis of the similarities and differences employed by the junior and senior middle school students. The investigation yields the following findings:1) On the average, senior middle school students employ learning strategies more frequently than junior middle school students;2) There are differences in the order of frequency in using learning strategies. For junior middle school students, the order in frequency is resource strategy > managing and evaluative strategy > cognitive strategy, whereas for senior middle school students, the order is managing and evaluative strategy > cognitive strategy > resource strategy;3) Neither level of the middle school students is not good at using communication strategies.Finally, the thesis, based on the analysis of the problems caused by the different learning strategies between junior to senior middle school students, argues that it is necessary and feasible to implant certain training of using correct learning strategies in the English classroom teaching, and puts forward some suggestions of the principles and plans of training.