Research On English Learning Strategies Of Chinese Graduate Students In American Universities

Since the 1970s,the concept of learning strategy has gradually been introduced into language education.With the deepening of the idea of autonomous learning in language education,research about foreign language teaching has transferred their focus from "how to teach" to "how to learn",the significant roles of learning strategies in the process of autonomous learning have been accepted gradually.A number of research results show that the employment of ELS can be influenced by language environment.Without the target language environment,English learners in China probably ignored certain effective learning strategies.Based on Oxford's learning strategy theory,through the research methods of questionnaires and interviews,this paper makes a survey about the situations of ELS used by 60 Chinese graduate students who are studying in American universities,with the aim of investigating the situation of their employment of ELS in English-speaking environment,analyzing the variations of ELS use in terms of different genders and English proficiencies,and exploring the influences of the environmental factors on English learners' employment of ELS.In the process of data analysis,the descriptive statistics,the independent-samples T test and the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient analysis are involved.The findings are as follows:1)In English-speaking environment,the overall proficiency of ELS used by the whole group of Chinese graduate students falls in the medium range.As to the six SILL categories,compensation strategies were used the most frequently while memory strategies were used the least frequently.2)In English-speaking environment,female graduate students have a higher frequency of the overall strategy use than male graduate students,but there are no significant differences between male and female graduate students.As to the six SILL categories,the significant differences only exist in the employment of memory strategies,meta-cognitive strategies and affective strategies between the female and male students:male learners have a higher frequency of memory strategy use than female learners while female learners have a higher frequency of meta-cognitive strategy and affective strategy use than male learners.3)In English-speaking environment,there are significant differences in the overall strategy use between students in different English proficiencies:the group with high English proficiency have a higher frequency of the overall strategy use than the group with low English proficiency.As to the six SILL categories,the group with high English proficiency relied more on social strategy and compensation strategy while the group with low English proficiency are more inclined to use memory strategy.4)Both the classroom environment and the living environment outside classroom in the English context have influences on Chinese overseas graduate students' employment of ELS.Based on the above findings,the research will provide several references for students who are planning to study in English-speaking countries and play enlightening roles for domestic English learners as well as teachers in colleges and universities,such as developing autonomous learning,changing teachers' roles,conducting learning strategy training with purpose,creating environment for learners' independent learning and cooperative learning.