The Relationships Among Tolerance Of Ambiguity, Learning Strategies And Learning Achievement In College English Learning

Ambiguity is one of the main features of foreign language learning process, during which learners will inevitably face the novel, foreign, unstructured or vague linguistic and cultural phenomenon. Tolerance of ambiguity is one of the most important learner differences which will predict the language learning outcomes to some extent. In language learning, the use of learning strategies is another learner characteristic that is closely related to tolerance of ambiguity. The present research aims to identify the relationships among tolerance of ambiguity, language learning strategies and language learning achievement. The subjects in this study are162freshmen in business and trade department, Hubei University, Zhixing College. Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale (SLTAS) constructed by Ely (1995) is used to measure the tolerance of ambiguity. The use of language learning strategies is measured by Oxford (1990)’s Strategies Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and CET4tests are used to measure language proficiency and language achievements. The experimental research design concerns three natural classes, one control group, one experiment group1which receives the instructional intervention of tolerance of ambiguity, and one experiment group2which receives both instructional intervention of tolerance of ambiguity and training of language learning strategies. Based on the data analysis, several findings are summarized as follows:(1) In general, college non-English majors have medium level of tolerance of ambiguity and they sometimes use the six learning strategies. The higher the tolerance of ambiguity, the more frequently learners use the learning strategies. There are gender differences in learning strategy use between group with high tolerance of ambiguity and group with low tolerance of ambiguity.(2) There are significant correlations between language learning strategies and tolerance of ambiguity, and the level of tolerance of ambiguity influences the choice of language learning strategies.(3) Both tolerance of ambiguity and language learning strategies is significantly and positively correlated with language learning achievement.(4) Instructional intervention of tolerance of ambiguity improves the language learning outcome significantly but doesn’t cause significant change in learning strategies. The instructional intervention of tolerance of ambiguity and the training of language learning strategies have significant influence on tolerance of ambiguity, learning strategies and learning outcomes. According to the research results, it is strongly recommended that the language teacher can facilitate language learning and teaching by carrying out proper instructional invention of tolerance of ambiguity and training of language learning strategies.