Research On Application Of Learning Strategies In Senior High School English Cloze Test

The cloze test originally developed by Taylor based on the Gestalt psychology.Researchers at home and abroad generally believe that cloze is an efficient and practical test technique.Since 1987,cloze has been applied in all large-scale exams in China.The score of the cloze test accounts for 20% in National Matriculation English Test(NMET).Due to the large score proportion,the high degree of difficulty level,the high points-losing rate as well as the high requirements on students’ integrated language proficiency in the NMET.The cloze is generally a major obstacle in the exams for both teachers and students.Therefore,Enhancing the learning and teaching efficiency in cloze test is becoming an urgent need.Scholars at home and abroad have made an in-depth study of cloze test but they focused more on the validity and difficulty level of cloze test,less attention was given to cloze test-taking processes from examinees’ perspective to guide cloze learning and teaching.What’s more,“developing students’ ability to use learning strategies” is an important items required by English curriculum standard for senior high school(2017 edition).Although scholars began studying language learning strategies from the mid-1970 s,previous researches focused more on the reading strategies,listening strategies and writing strategies.The strategies applied in cloze are few to some extent.Besides,researches conducted quantitative surveys mainly on college students,however,learning strategies used by senior high school students has not been well studied.Thus application of learning strategies in the process of cloze test-taking in senior high school is relatively needed to be discussed for cloze learning and teaching.Aiming to improve the learning and teaching efficiency of the cloze test in senior high school,this thesis investigated the application of learning strategies and endeavored to answer: 1)What strategies are used by senior high school students in cloze test? 2)What is the correlation between strategies application and the cloze test performance? 3)What is the difference between high and low level students in the application of strategies?A mixed-method approach combined by questionnaire and think-aloud protocol was tentatively employed.104 grade-one students in senior high school from Huanggang city were invited to the survey.Secondly,the average scores of the participants’ last two cloze test were collected and analyzed for dividing the students into different level groups.Next,a thinking-aloud experiment was conducted to record the participants’ thinking-processes in cloze test-taking to understand the application of strategies of the two groups further.Finally,SPSS 23.0 is applied to analyze quantitatively the data from the questionnaire and the author processed qualitatively the data from thinking-aloud protocol.The findings revealed as following: 1)The application frequency of senior high school students’ learning strategies(M=2.88)in the cloze test is not high.2)The correlation(R-value=0.703)shows that the learning strategies application has positive effects on students’ cloze performance.3)The frequency of strategies application in different level groups is different.The application of cognitive strategies among students is most obvious.The findings above provided important implications for cloze learning and instruction in senior high school.Strategies-training in cloze test should be given to students in English class teaching.Thus this thesis proposes corresponding strategies-training suggestions in cloze learning and teaching so as to make cloze teaching and learning more efficient.