Gender Differences In The Use Of English Learning Strategies And Language Achievements Of Vocational College Students

Many researches have proven that female learners outperformed male learners. Some studies also indicated that there is a connection between language learning strategies and language achievements. But relatively less researches investigated the relationship between gender and language learning strategies in college students with a vocational background. This paper reports on the language learning strategies adopted by learners learning English as a Foreign Language(EFL)in a vocational college in China. These students are lower in English proficiency level than general university students, and the research is intended to find the different preferences in using language learning strategies by different gender.A total of180students from a vocational college were invited to finish the questionnaire adapted from Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning(SILL) to test the students’ use of strategies. And independent T-test was used to compare the learning strategies used by different genders. And some useful findings are found in the study:Firstly, there is obvious gender difference in English learning achievement, which can be concluded from the results of the English proficiency test done by students; Secondly, successful learners in the study adopted some learning strategies more frequently than the less successful learners; Thirdly, female students more frequently used those learning strategies than male students. That may be the reason why they did better in English proficiency test.As a result, we can make a conclusion of the study that there are some language learning strategies related to English achievements. And female students are active users of the language learning strategies. We should take these factors into account in our teaching and it can also give some hints to further studies in the future.