A Case Study On English Learning Strategies Of Non-english Major Postgraduates

Research into language learning strategies abroad began in the1960s, so did the Chinese research from the beginning of the1980s. Nowadays there is a shift from the teacher center to the student center. Up to now getting a better understanding of students’ learning process and realizing how to learn is becoming more and more important. It is also a breakthrough of realizing the present situation of students’ English study.This thesis deals with a case study on the two senior postgraduate students L and Z of Capital Normal University as my subjects. Theirs studying experience are representative. They all received traditional second language teaching and gone through various English examinations. Unable to express freely in English and to understand original English books and magazines, let alone write a paper by English, therefore they are not satisfied with English proficiency. We mainly referred to Oxford’s learning strategies and used as theoretical foundation of our thesis. The experiences of students’ English learning were presented by means of interviews and observation. By analyzing the two students’ learning habits and behaviors in English learning, we found the following characteristics of the two students in language learning strategies.English learners L and Z generally use the overall strategy at the low level. Especially compensation strategies and metacognitive strategies, they scarcely used. The learning of students is all based on examination and the good study methods are that could improve the scores of examination and the students always followed what teacher said which lead them to lose the initiative of using language strategies. Their study is a passive learning guiding by teacher, which hardly stimulate the confidence of students, on the other hand they just employed the learning strategies on deal with the examination, not on the English actual using.A conclusion was drawn from it that, firstly, the study shows that the situation of the overall strategy use, especially compensation strategies and metacognitive strategies, is not ideal. Teachers should help learners realize the importance of mastering English learning strategies and put them into English studies. Secondly, I consider teacher should be professional and amiable, like this is advantageous to the students’ learning. If teacher could encourage their students and improve their self-confidence, so they are more willing to ask questions, to discuss with students and to corporate with classmates. These activities are useful to students’ active learning. Finally, Student’s attitude is the vital factor in second language learning, and this factor is often ignored unless it presents a problem. Students not only should learn English but also using English, not just for examination, which can cultivate the loving to English and improve the students’ self-confidence.