The Practical Study Of English Learning Strategies Adopted By Uigur Middle School Students

The study of learning strategies in second language acquisition is influential in the field of applied linguistics and psychology. Since 1960's, many studies regarding learning strategies have been conducted. In the field of second language acquisition study, A.L Wenden, O'Malley, Chamot, and Oxford have made substantial contributions. From 1980's, a number of studies in this area have also been carried out in China. However, the studies most regard Han school students while studies regarding ethnic minority students are limited. In such a background, this study becomes meaningful not only for overall language learning at the middle-school level, but in particular also for the reform of English teaching in the middle schools of ethnic minority areas. This paper analyses the survey conducted to investigate the English learning strategies and the language abilities of the minority middle school students in XinJiang. It intends to present the problems existing in Uigur students'English learning and provide suggestions on possible improvement.This study takes a complete investigation on the situation of the practice of Uigur middle school students. The author's questionnaire surveyed 169 Uigur students from No.66 Middle School, No. 15 Middle School and No. 56 Middle School in Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang. The questionnaire is based on Oxford's version. The study analyzed the awareness and application of learning strategies by Uigur middle school students in Urumqi. The study is undertaken to investigate the present situation of Uigur middle school students English learning strategies and to see if the strategy training can improve the learning ability of students. The conclusions are as follows:1 The idea on how to use strategy and the choice of learning strategy is significantly related. It means that when a student thinks some strategies are more important he is more likely to use it.2 In general, the strategy level of the Uigur students is low (average score is lower than 3. 0). The Uigur middle school students do not make use of the English learning strategies much and they do not possess the ability to apply various strategies flexibly to their English studies.3 Compared with the Han nationality students in their schools, Uigur students have some advantages in language learning. The main reason is that they have the experience of learning the second language for a long time. It has a positive influence on the learning of the foreign language.4 Most Uigur middle school students use the learning strategies when they study English. But the difference is not significant. Among all classes, the students tend to use form strategies (e.g. reciting, copying, drill practice etc). The frequency of using cognitive strategy is higher than meta-cognitive strategy in the junior high school.5 There is positive relationship between individual learning strategies and English achievements. The students whose scores are high tend to use strategies more often than students whose scores are low.6 After strategy training, students are able to use their favorite strategies more often than before. Strategies-based training of reading can improve the reading proficiency in English study. This lends evidence to the issue that strategies are trainable or teachable.From this study, the writer gives some advice on training learning strategies. In the process of strategy training, the teachers are supposed to use his influence positively. From theory to practice, the author tries to provide some advice for teachers and for ethnic minority middle school students in their actual teaching and learning activities, with functional training approaches and concrete suggestions in developing learning strategies of middle school students. According to the findings in the questionnaire, the models of strategies-based training in language teaching are discussed. Then some suggestions on how to train the strategies and how to improve our future English teaching in the ethnic minority areas middle school are given. Finally, major findings, limitations of the present study and recommendations for further study are presented at the end of the thesis.