A Study Of Oral English Learning Strategies By The Adult Learners In Shanghai

Since the 1960s, with the advent and advancement of modern cognitive psychology, people have had a fundamental change in their views towards the cognitive process, thus providing a theoretical basis for the learning strategy studies. As one of the frontiers of applied linguistics, the research on language learning strategies has not been a long history (starting from the mid-70s in the last century), but many fruitful findings have been made during this short period. The studies on second language learning strategies emerged from efforts to try to identify the learning strategies applied by the "good language learners" while learning a second language (Rubin, 1975; Naiman et al., 1978; Stern, 1975). These research efforts aroused great concern and interests among researchers in the field of applied linguistics, and thus more and more people engaged in studies on language learning strategies (Wenden & Rubin, 1987; Oxford, 1990; Cohen, 2000; O'Malley & Chamot, 2001). The fruitful research of language learning strategies in the West has cast light on the similar research in China. For the past two decades, there appeared some volumes that thoroughly introduce the theory of English learning strategies (Cheng Xiao-Tang & Zheng Min, 2002; Wen Qiu-Fang, 2003). There are also empirical studies on English learning strategies: some on preferences and developmental patterns in beliefs and strategies of English learners in China, some on the relationship between differences in strategy use and the English proficiency level, others on more specific skills such as listening comprehension strategies, word attacking strategies, reading strategies in English learning and so on (Wen Qiu-Fang & Wang Li-Fei, 2004). It is worth noting that most of the present studies are about university students: either English majors or non-English majors. There are few studies on adult learners' learning strategies, and there are even few studies on their oral English learning strategies. So a study of oral English learning strategies by the adult learners in Shanghai will be the focus of the present paper.This study was conducted from May to November in 2006. The subjects involved were 78 learners randomly chosen from language training centers and companies in Shanghai. 78 subjects were given an oral test as well as an oral English learning strategies questionnaire. SPSS (12.0) was used to analyze the data. Results show that: ①Most of the learners use diverse learning strategies in their oral English learning. As for the six groups of strategies, what they most prefer to use are memory strategies and compensation strategies; ②there are significant differences in strategy use among learners of different age groups. Learners of age 21 to 28 employ strategies more often than learners of the other two age groups; ③most learners have strong instrumental motivations, but there is no obvious distinction between them in terms of types of motivation; ④there are significant gender differences in the using frequencies of metacognitive strategies and affective strategies; ⑤there are no significant differences in scores of the elements composing the oral proficiency; ⑤ compensation strategies and cognitive strategies are found to be positively correlated with oral proficiency.Based on these findings, this thesis explores some implications on oral English learning for adult learners. Learning through practice is found to be the most effective way to improve one's oral proficiency. It is also necessary for adult learners to cultivate interest and build self-confidence in learning, find peers or more proficient speakers to cooperate, have the courage to speak and have a positive emotion in speaking.