A Comparative Study Of English Leanring Methods Between High Achievers And Low Achievcrs In A Secondary Vocational School

Learning methods are the basic variables in the learning process;learning methods reflect the thinking level of students in the completionof cognitive tasks. It is said that the learning methods play an importantand decisive role in students’ learning results. Secondary vocationalschool students are a special group. Their English learning foundation isweak for most of them, but there are still some students who learn Englishvery well. Then what causes the differences between high achievers andlow achievers? So the purpose of the study is to make a comparative studyof them to find the differences in English learning methods, and alsoprovide some suggestions for the improvement of students’ Englishlearning and teachers teaching.Through the questionnaire and interviews, the writer has carried onthe comparative study between high achievers and low achievers of threegrades in a secondary vocational school, to find the differences of thestudents mainly in different grades and with different gender. Alsoanalyzed the reasons for the differences from the three aspects of learningmethods. From the general point of view, the study shows that the highachievers study more often in the autonomous learning method, the lowachievers more often in the cooperative learning method. From the aspectof different grades, for the high achievers, they study in the cooperativelearning method when they are in grade one; but they study in theautonomous learning method when they are in grade two and three. Forthe low achievers, they study more often in the cooperative learningmethod when they are in grade one and two, when they are in grade threethey study in the autonomous learning method. From the gender aspect,the study shows in both high achievers and low achievers, boys study mainly in the situated learning method, but for girls, high achievers in theautonomous learning method, low achievers in the cooperative learningmethod.Finally, some suggestions are made about English teaching andlearning, including: Teachers should orient to the needs of all students andat the same time pay much attention to their individual differences;Teachers should strength guidance of student learning methods andcultivate their autonomous learning ability; At the same time teachersshould create appropriate teaching situation,enhance the students’ interestin learning English and build interactive learning platform, at last teachersshould promote the development of their communicative competence inEnglish. For students, it is very important for them to change the conceptof learning and learn to use different methods.