An Experiment On The Effectiveness Of SBI Guessing Strategy Training In Classroom Context At Senior High School

Since the middle of1970s, learning strategies research abroad has becomepopular in the field of Second Language Acquisition. The research does not onlyconcentrate the general theoretical descriptions, but also focus on its practicalapplication, learning strategy training.Strategy training can be conducted in a number of ways. Among variousapproaches, strategies-based instruction (SBI) is generally regarded as the mostefficient and advocated by some scholars. Yet, while acknowledging the promisingstrengths of SBI, Wenden (1987) also warns that fully integrated training (SBI) maynot necessarily produce unprompted, autonomous learners, as “learner training, likelanguage training, becomes a teacher-directed activities”. In other words, theoutcome totally depends on how the training is carried out. It is clear that furtherstudies are needed, possibly with subjects at different proficiency levels, on all sortsof learning strategies, under diverse learning conditions, so as to assess theeffectiveness of SBI. But up to now, very few studies on strategy training withbeginning-level learners adopted SBI design. This scarcity of research on SBI makesit difficult to assess its effectiveness and make necessary improvement so as tointroduce it to the classroom setting at different levels. In view of this, the presentstudy set out to assess the effectiveness of SBI-designed strategy training in SeniorHigh School English classroom.Although strategies-based instruction (SBI) is highly advocated by somescholars as one of the best ways of carrying out language learning strategy training,empirical studies adopting a SBI design are relatively few in number.Based on Oxford (1990) and O’Malley and Chomat’s (1997) language strategyframework with necessary modification, this paper first reviewed the background,significance, and some related questions to be solved in this study.Secondly, one hundred and sixty seven Chinese senior high students were testedbefore and after the guessing strategy training, and then surveyed by means of a questionnaire on their beliefs and guessing strategies use. Then using data gatheredin a classroom experiment on guessing strategy training, the present study set out toassess the effectiveness of SBI-designed strategy training ate Senior High SchoolEnglish classroom.Hereafter via SPSS, analysis of the Guessing Strategy Questionnaire, students’answers to the Word Guessing Test, their self-reported guessing clues and follow-upinterview revealed that explicit guessing strategy training in classroom context hadbeen effective in general, and SBI design was more fruitful than traditional intenselecture-based training. The students’ awareness of strategy use was also raised, theyreported more strategies use, and began to develop a balanced view on the role ofguessing strategy.Until the end, the study suggests that SBI can be well fitted into classroomactivities, and textbooks have a greater role to play in enabling students to benefitfrom systematic strategy training on a large scale.