An Investigation Into The Correlations Between English Learning Strategies And PETS Achievements Of Secondary Vocational Students

As one of the important learner factors in second language acquisition(SLA),language learning strategies have been studied from different perspectives in recent years,and it's discovered that language learning strategies play a prominent part in language achievements.However,relative studies concern not so much about secondary vocational students.Therefore,in order to seek out possible resolutions to help improve students' English proficiency in secondary vocational schools,a study concerning secondary vocational students' language learning strategies and their English achievements is carried out.The study chooses 215 students from four secondary vocational schools in Guangzhou as survey subjects and 8 of them are invited for a later interview.The research aims to answer three questions:(1)What is the general situation of language learning strategies use of secondary vocational students?(2)Are there correlations between secondary vocational students' language learning strategies and Public English Test System(PETS)achievements?(3)Are there any differences between high language achievers and low language achievers in the case of language learning strategies choice? The translated version of the questionnaire Strategy Inventory for Language Learning(SILL)is employed as an instrument for the research.There are some major findings of the research.Firstly,secondary vocational students' overall language learning strategies use is at the medium level.In terms of each dimension of language learning strategies,compensation strategies are the most prevailing strategies among secondary vocational students,followed by cognitive strategies and meta-cognitive strategies.The three language learning strategies are all above the average level.Affective strategies and memory strategies are relatively less employed by secondary vocational students.Social strategies are the least used strategy type among secondary vocational students.Secondly,there are significantly positive correlations between memory strategies,cognitive strategies,compensation strategies,meta-cognitive strategies,affective strategies,social strategies and secondary vocational students' PETS achievements,which means the more secondaryvocational students use language learning strategies,the higher they will achieve on PETS scores.What's more,the six language learning strategies together can help to predict the variance in the students' PETS achievements,with memory strategies playing the most important positive predicting role.Thirdly,high-achieving students differ from low-achieving students on overall language learning strategies use.In addition,high-achieving and low-achieving secondary vocational students also demonstrate obvious differences on all the six categories of language learning strategies,i.e.memory strategies,cognitive strategies,compensation strategies,meta-cognitive strategies,affective strategies and social strategies.Pedagogical implications for English teachers of secondary vocational schools are also discussed.What's more,limitations of the research and possible suggestions for future researches are also offered.