Research On Training Effect Of Grade8Students’ English Learning Strategies

It has been observed by many teachers from their classroom teaching that English learning strategies are a very tough job for Grade8students in general, which poses a great challenge to the young learners who have just finished their primary school study and are turning a new page in their learning career. In order to help these students out of trouble and facilitate their English learning in junior high school, the author of this thesis has conducted an empirical study on the basis of some relevant theories in an attempt to explore an effective English strategy training model for the junior high students.To maximize the practicality and validity of the training model, the researcher has divided the project into three phases:pre-training, training and post-training. In the pre-training phase, a survey is conducted to investigate into the students’beliefs in English learning and their use of learning strategies. Based on the research findings of the first phase, a detailed plan for the major training program is designed, which has the meta-cognitive strategies as the major target items and some cognitive and social/affective strategies are chosen as the supplementary ones. In the training phase,78Grade8students from an ordinary school in Yixing are used as the subjects receiving the planned training for as long as one school year in order to testify the validity of the training model. In the post-training phase, data of the training program are collected and analyzed as a basis for a detailed discussion on the merits and demerits of the model in hopes of finding some insights into the future research.The research has the following major findings:1) The learning strategy training has a positive effect on improving the Junior2students’learning. The strategy training program helps enhance their strategy consciousness and frequency of strategy use. In some ways, it also stimulate students’learning interests and cultivate the student’s learning ability.2) It is practical and effective to train the students in the meta-cognitive strategies with some cognitive and resources/communicative strategies as supplementary ones.3) The strategy training helps both the English high achievers and the English low achievers to improve their marks.4) The3-phase model proves to be an effective training model deserving more attention from the classroom teachers. The research finding of the resent study may throw some insights into English language teaching and learning in the Chinese classroom. The author proposes that teachers should intergrate the strategy training into classroom teaching to let the students know how to fish when they get fish. Teachers should focus on improving the students’ meta-cognitive strategies and mastering specific cognitive strategies. Teachers should implement layered training for different students in order to cater to the needs of the trainees. Teachers should constantly summarize, reflect upon and adjust the training plan during and after the training and thus make the training more effective.