A Study Of The Relationship Between English Learning Strategies And Academic Achievement Of Senior High School Students

Since the 1960 s and 1970 s,with the rise of humanistic psychology and the progressively in-depth study on second language acquisition,people have gradually realized that learners are the subjects of language learning and their academic achievement mainly depends on themselves.With the advent of this school of theory,some researchers have shifted their attention from “how to teach” to “how to learn”.People become aware of the fact that the key to success in learning is the learners' subjective initiative,such as their subjective control of modifiable factors like motivation and strategy.Learners' individual differences and application of language learning strategies are so important in second language learning that they have attracted extensive attention from language researchers and educators.The National English Curriculum Standards for General High School also explicitly incorporates learning strategies into the curriculum content and clarifies the significance of English learning strategies to students.Therefore,it is worth a systematical exploration of the relationship between senior high school students' employment of English learning strategies and their English academic achievement.Accordingly,this research compiles the English learning strategy questionnaire for senior high school students with reference to relevant literature.Taking senior high school students as research subjects,this paper adopts questionnaire survey,descriptive statistics analysis,correlation analysis,regression analysis and structural equation model analysis as research methods for the purpose of understanding the status quo of senior high school students' use of English learning strategies and exploring the relationship between English learning strategies and academic achievement,which aims to make contributions to the teaching of English learning strategies.The research findings are interpreted as follows.(1)In terms of the use of English learning strategies,students use English learning strategies at the moderate level.They employ using-mother-tongue strategies the most and use memory strategies the least.Female students use English learning strategies more than male students at a statistical significance level except for compensation strategies and social strategies.Students in Senior Two use metacognitive strategies and social strategies more than students in Senior One do.Students with high academic achievement employ English learning strategies more frequently than those with low academic achievement;(2)In terms of the relationship between English learning strategies and academic achievement,the results of correlation analysis show that there is a significant positive correlation between them in Senior One with metacognitive strategies having the highest correlation.The results of regression analysis show that the use of metacognitive strategies,using-mother-tongue strategies and compensation strategies could significantly predict students' English academic achievement in Senior One,among which metacognitive strategies have the strongest predictive power;(3)The use of overall English learning strategies by students in Senior Two is positively correlated with their academic achievement,among which memory strategies,cognitive strategies,compensation strategies and metacognitive strategies show significantly positive correlation with academic achievement,with compensation strategies being the most correlated with academic achievement.In Senior Two,students' use of compensation strategies could significantly predict their academic achievement.Therefore,for students in both grades,compensation strategies could significantly predict their academic achievement;(4)The results of structural equation model analysis via SmartPLS show that indirect English learning strategies have an indirect effect on English academic achievement.In detail,indirect strategies have an indirect positive effect on English academic achievement through the mediator of direct English learning strategies.Based on the above findings,this research offers the following suggestions on English teaching and learning:(1)English teachers should cultivate students' awareness of applying English learning strategies in English learning process,widen their options of English learning strategies and integrate the teaching of learning strategies with daily teaching activities and pay particular attention to the teaching of memory strategies;(2)Teachers should guide Senior One students to apply metacognitive strategies so that students can learn how to arrange,plan,monitor and evaluate their learning process.In addition,learning English by using Chinese as a reference could help students in Senior One learn English.However,teachers need to be aware of the specific stage of application of using-mother-tongue strategies and decide whether to apply these strategies according to students' actual English proficiency and the learning circumstance;(3)Besides,teachers should instruct students to make educated guesses in English input process and try to overcome the limitations of English knowledge in English output process by applying compensation strategies in English learning;(4)By combining indirect English learning strategies with direct English learning strategies,teachers can instruct students to manage and coordinate their learning process and raise their efficiency of direct English learning strategy use for the purpose of improving their English academic achievement.