Investigation On Learning Strategies Of English Learners In Web-based Autonomous Learning Environment

Since the beginning of the21st century or even earlier, foreign language teaching has witnessed a dramatic shift from using computer simply as a source of supplementary learning materials to adopting it as a platform where effective language teaching and learning can be promoted. In recent years, language teachers show a growing interest in exploring learner autonomy by using computer and Internet technology to assist their teaching. Web-based autonomous language learning has emerged as a new research field in second language acquisition.In2007, the Ministry of Education of China officially issued the College English Curriculum Requirements which advocated the new language teaching model based on modern information technology. Following the guidelines of the Requirements, an increasing number of colleges and universities in China have built up Web-based autonomous learning centers (WBALC), including Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU). The traditional unitary teacher-centered model of foreign language teaching has been changed into computer-and-classroom-based teaching pattern. Although the new learning environment is expected to bring favorable conditions to autonomous learning, students’performance and learning effect in WBALC are far from satisfaction. Therefore, research in this regard is urgent so as to solve the existing problems. In China, there are a few empirical studies concerning language learning strategies in Web-based autonomous environment so far, and they were mostly carried out either by employing the original version of SILL or with minor modifications on it.In order to investigate the language learning strategy use of non-English majors in the Web-based autonomous language learning environment, so as to offer factual information for college English teachers, this paper made an empirical study at Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU). The current study aimed to explore the learning strategies used by students in WBALC and the use frequency of these strategies. It also examined how individual differences such as students’ language proficiency, gender and family area affected their strategy use.On the basis of the data from a preliminary questionnaire, which was designed on the ground of the theoretical framework of language learning strategies in literature, interviews with students, as well as valuable suggestions from several college English teachers, a strategy inventory under Web-based autonomous learning context was obtained and distributed to1,072non-English majors. Then the collected data were processed with the software SPSS19.Through a principal factor analysis, seven strategy categories have been extracted. Furthermore, results show that:1. All the seven strategy categories were used by participants at a medium level. Among them, monitoring strategies were the most frequently used.2. In terms of three different proficiency levels, there was a positive relationship between overall strategy use and language proficiency. However, in the framework of five proficiency levels, upper-intermediate learners were reported to be the most active strategy users.3. Female students used strategies more frequently than males for learning English in WBALC.4. Students from rural areas appeared to use language learning strategies less often than those from urban areas.5. There was a significantly positive correlation between strategy use and learning effect in WBALC.Based on these findings, this paper proposed some suggestions for college English teaching in the Web-based learning environment, including strategy instruction and teachers’ flexible guidance in learning strategies.