An Empirical Study Of English Learning Strategies Training Of Students In Primary School

More and more researches show that learning strategies are the most essential factors among all factors affecting English learning.Therefore,the research focus also has shifted to studying students’ learning from studying teachers’ teaching.English Curriculum Standards clearly requires that every teacher should strengthen the guidance of students’ English learning strategies and draws up specific requirements on ELS goals at different phase of studying.As far as primary school students are concerned,they should master eleven specific learning strategies according to English Curriculum Standards.Through reading related literature,the author found that most English learning strategies researches chose college students and high school students as research subjects.The English learning strategies researches with primary school students as research subjects are few.Considering the insufficience of the previous researches,the study tries to answer the following questions:(1)After experiment,does students’ ELS consciousness of Experimental Class improve?(2)What effects does ELS training have on students with different academic achievements?(3)What effects does ELS training have on English achievement?Two classes of sixth grade from Mingde Primary School were chosen for experiment.One class was conducted ELS training while the other was taught as usual.The experiment lasted one term.In order to obtain the more detailed data on research questions,questionnaire was used and drew the following conclusions:(1)After a semester’s English learning strategies training,the learning strategies consciousness of Experimental Class had significant difference compared with pre-questionnaire and the frequency of using English learning strategies was improved to the range "usually use the strategy" from "sometimes use the strategy".Control Class didn’t have any change.The frequency of the four strategies was respectively control strategies,resource strategies,cognitive strategies and communicative strategies.The frequency of using cognitive strategies,control strategies and resource strategies belonged to the range " usually use the strategy" while the frequency of using communicative strategies belonged to the range " sometimes use the strategy".In the four strategies,cognitive strategies,communicative strategies and resource strategies all had significant difference except control strategies.(2)The frequency of using four kinds of strategies by good learners all belonged to "usually use the strategies" and it didn’t have significant difference after ELS training.The learning strategies used by average students had got greatly significant difference after ELS training.As far as four specific learning strategies were concerned,cognitive strategies,communicative strategies and resource strategies had significant difference while control strategies didn’t have significant difference.The frequency of using learning strategies by average students belonged to the range "usually use the strategy".To be Specific,the frequency of using cognitive strategies,control strategies and resource strategies rose to the range "usually use the strategy" while the frequency of using communicative strategies remained in the range "sometimes use the strategy".The ELS consciousness of poor learners didn’t have significant difference after training.However,in the four specific strategies,cognitive strategies training had significant difference.The frequency of using learning strategies by poor students belonged to the range "sometimes use the strategy".Through comparison between different types of students,we concluded that good learners’ use of ELS had significant difference at 0.05 level when compared with poor learners.(3)There was significant difference in English achievement between Experimental Class and Control Class after a term’s systematic English learning strategies training.