A Study On Gender Differences Of Learning Strategies In English Writing Of Senior High School Students

Foreign language learners' acquisition and application of language learning strategies is a key indicator of autonomous learning ability as well as the foundation of life-long learning.In primary and secondary schools of our country,cultivating students' learning strategies is an effective way to enhance learning effectiveness and change the time-consuming but ineffective learning phenomenon.English writing,as an important indicator to measure applied competence of English,is receiving more and more attention among teachers and students in the actual English teaching.The aim of English writing teaching is not only to improve students' writing proficiency,but also to foster students' competence of autonomously and effectively using learning strategies in English writing.The employment of the learning strategies in writing can be influenced by many factors,such as gender,age,intellectual level,etc.This paper attempted to explore the overall picture and the gender differences of senior high school students' English learning strategies in writing,analyzing the causes and proposing corresponding suggestions by using both of qualitative and quantitative research methods,so as to provide references for students to appropriately choose and employ learning strategies,and for teachers to more specifically teach English writing.In terms of the current situation and concepts above,the author used interviewing outline designed based on previous studies and a questionnaire designed according to the theoretical framework of O' Malley and Chamot's classification of learning strategies,to conduct an investigation among part of the Senior Two students in a senior high school in Yichang city of Hubei province,which was aimed at exploring the overall picture of using learning strategies in English writing,as well as the gender differences and its causes form perspectives of meta-cognitive strategies,cognitive strategies and socio-affective strategies among senior high school students.The results of the questionnaire indicated that the use of learning strategies inEnglish writing was on the average level.Moreover,there were significant gender differences between senior high school students and the girls were even better than boys at application of the strategies on the whole.Through the interviews of some students,the author found that the causes of it were not only the existence of gender itself,but also the learning style,learning motivation,cognitive style and other factors of senior high school students.Based on the conclusions above,the author proposed corresponding suggestions from the perspectives of teachers' teaching and students' learning,which aimed to help teachers more rationally when teaching and training learning strategies in writing and to promote their English writing skills ultimately.