An Examination of Language Learning Strategies Used by College Students in Mainland China Introduction Language learning strategies have become a favorite topic in the study of second language acquisition in the past five decades. Large amount of descriptive work and empirical evidences from the research of language learning strategies show that the use of strategies facilitates students’ academic achievements in language learning (Cohen, 1998; Ellis, 2008; Mizumoto &Takeuchi, 2009; Oxford, 1989; Saricoban, 2008). Studies have also claimed that good language learners not only use different strategies compared with poor language learners, but also use language learning strategies more flexibly, frequently and effectively (Gass & Selinker, 2001; Liu, 2006). Researchers have also investigated factors that affect students’ choices of strategies in the process of language learning. Language learners’ level of proficiency seems to be the most influential one that affect students of different level of education (Kashefian-Naeeini & Maarof, 2010; Liu, 2008; Ngnyen & Godwyll, 2010; Tragant & Victori, 2012; Tsai & Chang, 2009; Zhang, Gu, & Hu, 2008). Besides, cultural and language learning environment (Abbott, 2006;ALPTEKIN, 2007; Hong-Nam & Leavell, 2007; Kameli, Mostapha, & Baki, 2012; Magno, Filho, & Lajom, 2011; Pritchard, 1990), gender (KAYAOGLU, 2012), assessment method (Huang, 2010), personalities (Chen & Hung, 2012), anxiety (Noormohamadi, 2009) and major (Rao & Liu, 2011) are also confirmed to be influential in the choice of strategies. All the research indicates a necessary for strategy study on the EFL learners in China. Literature Review Good language learner and high score students Rubin (1975) defined language-learning strate... ... middle of paper ... ...esearchers will explain to them the purpose and significance of the investigation. After that, researchers will read the directions in the questionnaire and illustrate how to respond to each item for the participants. Lastly, questionnaires will be collected after participants finished the survey. Data Analysis All the data collected will be processed by SPSS 17.0 with the alpha value set at .05. Data analyses include the computation of descriptive statistics like means, standard deviation and frequencies to compile information about demographics of the participants and to calculate overall strategy use. In order to determine any variation in strategy use relative to major, year of study, language proficiency, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) is conducted using those factors as independent variables and the six categories of strategies as dependent variables.
English as a communication tool holds prominent position in Chinese curriculum (Liu, 2012). Learning English as a Second Language (ESL) has seen its boost in China (Qiang & Wolff, 2007). Mastering English is an asset for students in job hunting and further education. As academic achievement is highly valued in Chinese culture, students are expected to achieve high marks in English tests (Liu, 2012). University students need to pass National English proficiency examinations, which are the part of the evaluation for obtaining degrees (Wolff, 2010). Students attend after-school English courses for enhancing their English because of the pressure (Liu, 2012). The majority of ELL students aim at improving the international English proficiency tests results, such as International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and Graduate Record Examinations (GRE). ELL students are more motivated in the after-school English courses because of the high-target learning environment. However, the teacher-centred learning procedure neglects the long-term enhancement of students’ English level. The ignorance of the long-term development is due to less student involvement during the teaching procedure (Mo, 2012). Some Chinese ELL students choose to attend ESL courses abroad. The reasons are that they can have a better language environment (Wolff, 2010) and can engage more in the learning procedure (Smith & Hu, 2013). The aim of the study is to compare the teacher-centred teaching in China and student-centred teaching in Canada and to examine efficient teaching methods for Chinese speaking ELL
The research question is the first and foremost initial step in the research process, because it defines the expected outcomes and drives the project design. So it should be clear and concise once the research question is formulated, the next is defining the terms and concepts used in the research process. A literature review is needed to clarify issues, gives an understanding to the researcher how others have formulated similar research questions and defines concepts.
...to ensure results are a true representation of participant opinion. The researcher to share a clear account of the methods, data collection and analysis used in the study.
The purpose of research interviews is to explore the views, beliefs, and motives of individuals on a specific matter for example factors that influence their daily life. They also provide a clear understanding of social issues and an insight that is required from the participant (British dental journal, 2008).The many types of research interview in qualitative research namely are the structured, semi-structured, unstructured and in-depth interview. I will explain them further since they can be used to explore
Within this paper we will take a brief look at the Language Acquisition Principles and how they work on the behalf of ELL students. We will see how these principles can be applied within our own learning environment. There is much information from Walqui article that gives a brief overview of ELL students and how things looked in the past for these students. Now that times has change we will see how educators can make the requirements for ELL students better and more effective for teacher and students. Hopefully, as we look at ways of changing learning for our ELL students we must remember that every student learns differently. Even if you follow the principles from 1-8 we must keep in mind that everyone is unique and process things within their own time table.
Focusing on surveys and questionnaires, and quantitative research methods, it varies on the person getting questioned as to which method they prefer. Some individuals may prefer to fill in a questionnaire, as it is quick and simple for them, whereas someone else would rather have a face-to-face interview because they may find questionnaires to complicated. Giving people the choice gives the more chance of getting a response overall. It is important that the researchers are aware of the advantages and disadvantages because they will then be aware of what method to use, and will know what method is best to use. It is also an advantage to work with experienced researchers in order to find out the best results.
The questionnaire is a self-completion questionnaire which is sometimes called a self-administered questionnaire. It is to say that respondents completed the questionnaires themselves (Bryman and Bell, 2003). The research conducted an online survey through a professional website called ‘survey monkey’. There is no doubt that it is a cheaper and easier way to collect information for researchers. In addition, it is convenient for respondents as well.
Surveys: Are generally given in the form of an interview or questionnaire, providing researchers with information about how people think or act. In an interview, researchers try to obtain data through face-to-face interviews or telephone questioning. A skillful interviewer can go beyond the written questions and probe participants underlying feelings.
Thus, the book answers numerous practical questions that teachers have often struggled with; for example, how to increase the chances of academic success for language learners, how to use technology to teach language effectively, or how to teach language and content material concurrently. From the preface, the author makes it very clear that the book is designed to support language teachers in their journey as new teachers and throughout their teaching careers. In total, the book contains eleven chapters, which have been divided into four parts. The first part, "What Do Language Teachers Think About?" includes topics of foreign/ second language acquisition theories and language teaching methodologies. This part introduces the background knowledge readers will need in their journey as language teachers. The second part, "How Do You Teach a Language?" introduces approaches to teaching and learning that improve students’ writing, listening, speaking and reading abilities. Each chapter in this part includes suggestions for how students can be motivated and describes teaching and testing approaches to assess students ' language skills and academic literacy. The third part, "How Do I Know What to Teach?" is instrumental in helping teachers adopt teaching practices to particular teaching settings. The fourth part, "Where Do I Go from Here?" helps teachers gain a clearer perspective of what language teaching is all about; this section also considers teacher 's self-assessment and personal
(2012, p. 173) can be generally defined “as a plan on how a researcher will go about answering her or his research questions.” In other words, while choosing our research strategy, we will try to explain how we are going to answer our research questions. Because we have incorporated quantitative and qualitative method, there are some issues that arise in the research strategy. Our research strategies will be principally linked with our quantitative and qualitative method research design and will be associated with our research philosophies and deductive approach. In this case the researcher use surveys questionaaires that will be administered and structured interviews as it is linked with the necessity to understand the reasons of for the participants’ attitudes or opinions regarding a specific issue and in this case ‘Accounting for RM, CG and EB in FIs
A teacher’s responsibilities are to ensure that every student gets the education that they deserve from a well-structured curriculum and materials. Within the teacher’s responsibilities a strong foundation of instruction has to be implemented, this is why instructional strategies are significant in a teacher’s career. The strategies for instruction vary from teacher to teacher; as a result there are no specific ways to employ strategies within instruction. The main purpose of this essay is to display knowledge of methods that are involved in teaching second language instruction for various ages and levels of students. This essay will also develop from the following components that methods and techniques are important to encourage tactical instructional strategies. These components are comprehensible input, feedback that is on-going, specific and immediate, grouping structures and techniques, building background and vocabulary development along with student engagement.
After establishing the research problem and what results are wanted, it will define how it will find the answers. Research is a form of collection and interpretation of information that will form the basis of finding answers to questions. The research uses theories and methods that h...
All methods in language teaching are a pre-designed set of description of how the teacher should teach the learner and how the learner should learn obtain from a specific theory of language and a theory of language learning. These theories are attain from the parts of linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and are the origin of theory and applying in language teaching. Language teaching methods is divided into many methodologies. For example: The Direct Method, Grammar-Translation Method, Audio-Lingual Method, Total Physical Response, Audio-Lingual Method, The structural Method etc. Each method has its own rules, history, and different from one another. For example: The direct method was the reply to the disapproving with the
As the global communities migrate from their native home lands to new countries and regions, the need to learn a new language becomes an imminent requirement. Learning second language for an individual with not back ground to the language can be a serious proposition which can results in seriously straining the individual. This makes it very important to select a learning strategy very carefully to prevent complicating the learning process and also one which will help speed up the entire learning process (Bitchener 2007). With this in mind there are three main approaches linked to learning a 2nd language namely the behaviourist, Halliday’s and Chomsky’s approaches. Each of these adopts different learning theories but that all promote
It is necessary to draw a distinction between foreign language and second language learning. According to (Wisniewski, 2007), a language lear...