A Research On The Correlation Between Achievement Goal And Learning Strategy In English Of Non-English Majors

In recent years,achievement goal and learning strategy are two research hotspots in educational psychology and learning psychology,which are two essential factors that affect the academic performance of students.Most previous studies have studied the correlation among achievement goal,learning strategy and academic performance,but rarely combined with English disciplines to deeply explore the influence mechanism between achievement goal orientations and English learning strategies.The middle school students are taken as the research object in most studies,but college students few involved.Based on the three-factor model of goal orientation proposed by Elliot &Harackiewicz(1996)and trinity of learning strategy classified by Entwistle et al(1979),this study combines learning strategy with English subjects.On the basis of these theories,the correlation between achievement goal and English learning strategy will be studied in this paper,and some suggestions are going to be put forward for college English teaching and studying.Among the non-English major college students of grade 2017 and 2018 from Guangxi normal University,Guilin University of Electronic Science and Technology and Guilin University of Technology,questionnaires are sent out to classes selected randomly.Adopting questionnaires are revised on the basis of the achievement goal questionnaire revised by Jiang Jingchuan(2004)and the learning strategy questionnaire compiled by Zhang Yongmei et al(1999),thus forming achievement goal questionnaire and Englishlearning strategy questionnaire.The achievement goal questionnaire consists of three dimensions,including mastery goal orientation,performance-approach goal orientation and performance-avoidance goal orientation,and the English learning strategy questionnaire including deep strategy,surface strategy as well as unorganized strategy.The score of College English Test Band 4 is used as the criterion for the classification of English proficiency.The research questions in this paper are as follows.(1)What is the status of the achievement goal and English learning strategy among college students?(2)How is the correlation between the achievement goal and the English learning strategy among college students?(3)What are the results about the group difference of correlation analysis under grades,majors,genders and English proficiency?The following findings can be drawn.(1)Mastery goal orientation and deep strategy are mainly hold by college students.(2)College students with mastery goal orientation may also hold the goal orientation of performance-approach at the same time,but it is relatively impossible to hold the goal orientation of performance-avoidance.And the goal orientation of performance-approach goal may be accompanied with that of performance-avoidance goal for the same individual.(3)There is a greatly positive correlation between achievement goal and English learning strategy.The mastery goal has the greatest positive predictive effect on deep strategy and negative prediction on unorganized strategy,while performance-approach goal has no significant predictive effect on unorganized strategy.The employment of unorganized strategy can be predicted positively by performance-avoidance goal,and the emergence of deep strategy can be predicted negatively.(4)The significant level of correlation between achievement goal and English learning strategy is different under groups.The significant level of correlation between the two is higher under lower grades,science majors,males and low-achievers.The conclusions of this paper come as follows.Firstly,the knowledge of achievement goal and English learning strategy is not mastered comprehensively by non-English majors.Then,the individual may be accompanied with multiple learning goals simultaneously when facing the task.Last but most important,it is with thecharacteristics of the same direction for the influence mechanism between achievement goal and English learning strategy,in which the significance level of the influence mechanism is higher for some students than others.Four pedagogical suggestions are put forward based on the results of the research.(1)Organizing group work to reduce performance-avoidance goal among high grade,and female students.(2)Applying diversified evaluation methods to improve mastery goal among arts students and high-achievers.(3)Creating real situations to foster deep strategy among arts students,high-achievers and females.(4)Providing and implementing effective learning methods to reduce unorganized strategy among senior students.