Comparative Study Of English Learning Strategies Between Achievers And Underachievers In Senior High School

The existence of underachievers is a common phenomenon faced by English teachers in senior high schools.According to the related researches at home and abroad,the inappropriate use of learning strategies has become one of the major reasons for students' difficulties in learning English.Through years of teaching,the author notices that the serious polarization between underachievers and achievers occurs because many underachievers cannot employ strategies to learn English autonomously.In order to find out the correlation of students' use of learning strategy and their learning effects,this thesis made a comparative study of strategy use between underachievers and achievers in English learning.The research aims to find out how strategy use affects learning effect and what are the specific differences between underachievers and achievers in using learning strategies.This research was done through a questionnaire investigation.The questionnaire was designed according to Cheng Xiaotang and Zheng Min's classification of learning strategies,which involves cognitive,metacognitive,affective,social and resource strategies.In the research,136 students from Yanshi Senior High School and 136 students from No.8 Senior High School in Luoyang were randomly chosen as subjects.After that,the author collected the questionnaire and analyzed the data by SPSS.The findings can be summarized as follows:Firstly,there exist significant differences between underachievers and achievers in adopting all the learning strategies.Compared with achievers,underachievers are poor in strategies use.Achievers can use strategies frequently to learn English autonomously,while underachievers seldom use strategies.Secondly,in specific strategies use,achievers and underachievers differ the most in affective strategies,followed by metacognitive and cognitive strategies.Achievers can use learning strategies comprehensively,while underachievers' application of strategies is sole.They relatively apply more affective and metacognitive strategies,and seldom use resource and social strategies.Thirdly,the application of learning strategies has a significant effect on learning effect.For instance,in cognitive strategies,achievers usually acquire knowledge by understanding,while underachievers rely too much on mechanical memory,usually leading to an incomplete understanding.In metacognitive strategies,underachievers are in a blind,passive state.In affective strategies,most underachievers lack confidence and positive attitude in learning English.In social strategies,underachievers seldom communicate with others in English.In resource strategies,most underachievers cannot acquire knowledge beyond a dictionary.Meanwhile,the research also found that most students in the area are poor in using social strategies.According to the results,the author suggests that teachers should value the learning strategies in English teaching.For underachievers,teachers should guide them to adopt various strategies,especially affective,metacognitive and social strategies,so that they can cultivate autonomous learning ability and improve their English level by mastering learning strategies.