An Investigation On English Learning Strategies Used By Zhuang College Students

Based on Oxford’s (1990) theoretical framework of language learning strategies, the present study investigates English learning strategies used by Zhuang college students, aiming to find out the students’overall use of learning strategies, the relationship between strategy use and English achievements, and the influence of gender on strategy use, and hoping to provide some implications for ethnic minority college English learning and teaching.The study adopts Oxford’s (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL, Version7.0) to measure learning strategies used by105first-year Zhuang college students from You Jiang Medical College for Nationalities and the final-term English test for their English achievements, exploring the three specific research questions as follows:(1) What English learning strategies are frequently used by Zhuang college students?(2) What is the correlation between the use of learning strategies and English achievements?(3) What is the difference in strategy use between male students and female students?The colleted data is analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and independent samples T-test with SPSS (13.0). The findings are as follows:(1) Zhuang college students’use of English learning strategies is at a medium level. Compensation strategies are the most frequently used by the students, followed by metacognitive, cognitive, social, affective and memory strategies.(2) There are significant and positive relationships between the four categories of strategies and the achievements:memory, cognitive, metacognitive and compensation strategies.(3) Significant differences exist in the use of memory, compensation, and social strategies between male students and female students. Female students use more strategies and use strategies more frequently than male students.Based on the findings from the study, some implications are provided:(1) it is necessary to train the students to use language learning strategies;(2) it is significant for teachers to monitor students’strategy use, help them understand advantages and disadvantages of their strategy use preferences, and encourage them to widen the range of learning strategies and integrate various types of learning strategies to promote English learning;(3) English teachers should pay attention to learner individual factors in English learning so as to diversify their strategy instruction to satisfy students’needs for instructing them to use the strategies effectively to facilitate their English learning.