The Study Of Junior High School Students’ Foreign Language Learning Strategies And Leaning Styles

On the basis of Oxford’s Language Learning Strategies Theory and Reid’s Perceptual Learning Style Theory, this thesis adopts quantitative and qualitative research methods to study Junior High School students’ foreign language learning strategies and learning styles and the relationship between them. As we all know, many learner factors have an influence on foreign language learning. As far as these factors are concerned, foreign language learning strategies and learning styles seem to play a very important role. In addition, these two factors don’t work separately. Learning strategies can not work individually without the coordination of learning styles which can also affect and restrict learning strategies as well(Cohen, 1998). Up till now, researches about those two learner factors have chosen the college students as the objects. Researches about Junior High School students’ learning strategies and learning styles have been rarely seen in this research field at home. Under this kind of background, the research results are useful for teachers to instruct students according to their aptitude and help students develop their English learning abilities to be efficient learners.This thesis mainly focuses on five issues, they are:(1) What is the overall level of Junior High School students’ language learning strategies use?(2) Which language learning strategies do Junior High School students prefer to use?(3) What is the overall level of Junior High School students’ learning style preference?(4) Which learning style are Junior High School students prone to?(5) What is the relationship between Junior High School students’ language learning strategies and learning styles?Through analyzing the collected data quantitatively and qualitatively, the finding are:(1) Junior High School students’ language learning strategies use belongs to the intermediate level;(2) the frequency of Junior High School students’ foreign language learning strategies use ranging from high to low is compensation, social, affective, metacognitive, cognitive, and memory strategies;(3) though, it implies that Junior High School students have more than one learning style when studying English, they do not have an outstanding learning style;(4) Junior High School students’ learning style preference ranging from high to low is auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, group, visual, and individual learning style;(5) auditory learning style is moderately related to the social strategies; kinesthetic learning style is moderately related to the cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective and social strategies respectively. Apart from the correlations between individual learning styles and memory, cognitive, compensation, and social strategies which do not have statistical significance, there are weak correlations between other learning strategies and styles.On the basis of the research results, suggestions for Junior High School English teaching are proposed in the following three aspects:(1) strategies-based English teaching;(2) involving learning styles in English teaching;(3) styles- and strategies-based instruction(SSBI) in Junior High School English class.