A Study On Non-english Majors’ Grammar Learning Perception And Strategy At Tertiary Level Colleges

Grammar is essential for English learning, even for those non-English majors,because the reality shows that most of them, especially those from tertiary levelcolleges, are very poor in grammar, which severely prevents them from makingprogress in other aspects of English learning. But how to learn grammar remains avery controversial topic at college. Some experts have done some researches onexploring grammar learning strategies. This study joins the efforts to aim at helpingtertiary level non-English major undergraduates learn grammar more easily andeffectively. Importance of grammar, grammar learning methods, importance oflearning strategy, classification of grammar learning strategies and variables affectinglearning strategies are discussed in the thesis.The study was conducted in Jiangxi Traditional Chinese Medicine TechnicalCollege in the autumn academic year of2012. Both quantitative and qualitativeanalyses were used to obtain data.136sophomores from three classes which theauthor was teaching were investigated with a grammar test, two anonymousquestionnaires and an interview to seek answers to the following three researchquestions:1. What are the students’ perceptions of grammar learning and teaching?2. What grammar learning strategies are the students using?3. What’s the relationship between grammar proficiency and grammar learningstrategies?The data gathered from the questionnaires and the grammar test were put intocomputer and analyzed by SPSS17.0:1. Descriptive statistics was employed to describe the mean of every item in thetwo questionnaires in order to compare the mean differences.2. Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship betweengrammar proficiency and grammar learning strategy，as well as role of interest, gender,motivation in grammar learning strategy use and grammar proficiency.3. Independent sample t-test was used to check the differences in perceptions andstrategy use between high proficiency students (HPS) and low proficiency students(LPS).The findings of study show: 1. The students’ grammar proficiency mainly stays in the low level.2. The students know the importance of grammar, but do not want to studygrammar intensively，and do not like grammar on the whole.3. The frequency of overall strategy use is at the low level, and strategy use hassignificant correlation with grammar proficiency.4. There are significant differences in perceptions and strategy use between HPSand LPS.The study suggests that grammar teaching and learning should be taken moreseriously at tertiary level colleges. Without solid grammar knowledge, the Englishcourse offered at college will end up as a total waste of time. The study also suggeststhat grammar teaching and learning should be more concerned about improving thestudents’ learning interest and strategy use, because both have significant correlationswith grammar proficiency.