| The basic requirements of the English Curriculum for Chinese High SchoolStudents (2003edition) are to optimize the learning methods, to form effective learningstrategies and to improve learning autonomy. The Curriculum emphasizes that teachersshould consciously give students guidance about learning strategies, so that thestudents can acquire the learning strategies appropriate to their needs, and be able toadjust their strategies according to different situations during the process of learningand using English. Although the New English Curriculum Reform has been carried outin Luoyang since2004, in terms of English Learning Strategies, it’s unclear whetherthe students can meet the requirements of New English Curriculum Standard. So thispaper is aimed at checking the use of English learning strategies of present senior highschool students of Luoyang rural areas, hopefully to reap some new findings in orderto provide some reference for the enforcement of the reform.A questionnaire survey was conducted among367students in Xin’an No.1SeniorHigh Middle school and the data was analyzed with Software SPSS17.0.The mainfindings are as follows: the use of learning strategies of whole students is at a mediumlevel. Affective and cognitive strategies received relatively higher level of employment,while meta-cognitive, communication and resource management strategies werereported to be used less frequently; female students adopted more learning strategieswith significantly greater frequency than male students; art students use more learningstrategies than Science students, but the significant differences only exist in the use ofresource management strategies; correlation analyses show that the use of learningstrategies was positively correlated to language performance; because of differentcharacteristics, female students are good at memorizing, note taking grouping andcommunicating, while, male students prefer using deduction, analysis and inference.For the whole students, rehearsal strategies are used more frequently than elaborationand organizational strategies. What’s more, most students are not good at making plans and self-evaluation.Based on the statistical analyses and discussion, some suggestions are proposedon cultivating the students’ learning strategies. Firstly, all the people related—theleader of the schools, teachers, parents and students, are supposed to change theiropinions on English learning. Secondly, teachers’ professional knowledge and theoriesought to be improved, which can contribute to their development of personal theories.Thirdly, through embedded strategy training, students are taught how, when and whystrategies can be used to facilitate their efforts at learning and using a foreign language. |
