Individual differences in English Learning Strategies

Abstract:Some learners’ personal factors，such as gender， major， motivation and language proficiency，influence the use of language learning strategies. This paper reports the results of a survey study which investigates the individual differences and the employment of English learning strategies， examines the association between enjoyment and strategy use， motivation and strategy use， gender and strategy use， major and strategy use， English proficiency and strategy use.

Key words:Individual differences Learning strategies English learning

I Background of Research

Since the early seventies， research concerns in the field of L2 teaching and learning have shifted from methods of teaching to learner characteristics and their influence on the process of acquiring an L2. It has been acknowledged that L2 acquisition is a complex process involving many interrelated variables， the most obvious being learning processes， learners' cognitive styles， affective factors and learning settings. Researchers realize that focusing research on teaching methods alone cannot draw on the latest achievements in the relevant fields， nor can it cover all the various factors concerned (Stern， 1983). Instead of seeking the best method as the only way to facilitate L2 acquisition， more and more researchers have initiated studies on the learner. They have been paying more attention to individual differences in L2 acquisition.

II Instruments and Procedures

The instruments used in the quantitative part of the study were the adapted SILL preceded by a questionnaire and a national English proficiency test.

In December，2009， After filling out the SILL questionnaires， the students all took part in College English Test (CET) Brand 4， a nation-wide， standardized English test taken each year by thousands of university non-English majors across China at the end of their second year. This is a general proficiency test， rather than a curriculum-specific achievement test. Like all English tests in China， it tests students' English proficiency level in reading， listening， writing， and vocabulary， but no speaking. It consists of five parts. The first part tests students' listening comprehension questions. The second part is made up of reading passages with comprehension questions. Part 3 is integrated tests including a cloze test. The final part in this test is a piece of writing， in which students are given a title and required to write a 100~120 word passage.

III Data analysis

Data analysis is not a simple description of the data collected but a process by which I can bring interpretation to the data( Powney and Watts， 1987).Using SPSS11.0 ， I first obtained the subjects' background information and descriptive statistics (means， standard deviation， frequency) to see the overall patterns of strategy use by the students. Then， I performed ANOVA to determine the effects of certain background variables on learners' mean strategy use across the entire SILL and on the six SILL categories. To determine significance throughout the study， I used the standard of p<.05. In addition， post hoc Scheffe tests were conducted to investigate where specific significant differences lay.

In distinguishing frequency of strategy use for various learning groups， Oxford(1990:291) defines a mean of all subjects in the range of 3.5-5.0 on a SILL item as high use of that strategy， 2.5-3.4 medium use， and 1.0-2.4 low use. The overall SILL mean in the present study was 3.01， with a standard deviation of 1.18. This means that， in the EFL setting where this study was located， the Chinese subjects used LLS at medium frequency. Table 1 lists the overall SILL means and standard deviations for the background variables.

Table 1Overall mean scores of frequency of strategy use and variation in overall strategy use (ANOVA) for subjects by enjoyment， motivation， English proficiency， major field of study， gender.

IV Conclusion

The results show that the students in this study showed significant individual differences in their strategy use. Although the individual students varied tremendously from each other in their strategy use， they shared some special characteristics in selecting learning strategies for their English learning. As all of them learnt English as a foreign language in the Chinese context， they used LLS at medium frequency. They showed high use of affective strategies， but low use of social strategies. Their general patterns of strategy use indicate that they preferred the learning strategies related to examination preparations， analysis of grammatical rules and linguistic details， repetition， review and respect for teacher's authority， but ignored the learning strategies leading to the improvement of communicative competence. The findings presented ， organized in terms of overall strategy， strategy categories and individual strategies， are descriptive in nature. They provided the basis for a deeper analysis in regard to the influences of various factors on the students’ strategy use .

References:

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本文系山東省教育科學規劃課題“高職生英語詞匯學習策略培訓的綜合途徑研究”階段性成果之一。