A comparative study on learning strategies used by Australian CFL and Chinese EFL learners

Abstract

AbstractThis study compared language learning strategies used by Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners in Australia and English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in China through Oxford’s (1990. Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Boston: Heinle and Heinle.) Strategy Inventory of Language Learning (SILL) questionnaire survey. Two cohorts of learners, namely Australian CFL learners (N=101) and Chinese EFL learners (N=100), participated in this study. It was found that the most frequently used strategies by the Chinese EFL learners were compensation strategies and the least frequently used strategies were memory strategies while the most frequently used strategies by the Australian CFL learners were social strategies and the least frequently used strategies were affective strategies. Australian female learners used slightly more strategies than male learners, but no difference was found in the strategies used by the Chinese EFL male and female learners. No significant difference was found either in the strategies used by learners of different grade levels, regardless of whether they were Chinese EFL or Australian CFL learners. Scores of some individual categories significantly differed between the three levels of the Australian CFL learners and the four levels of the Chinese EFL learners. In general the Chinese EFL learners used more strategies when compared with those used by the Australian CFL learners. Pedagogical implications of the findings were also discussed. This study contributes to the research in language learning strategies in that it considers the typological distance between learners’ L1 and the target language for the first time. It also has clarified the seemingly inconsistent findings in the literature in terms of memory strategies use by Asian learners (Chinese learners in this case): when compared with other categories of strategies, memory strategies were used the least frequently by the Chinese EFL learners; when compared with learners from other cultural backgrounds such as the Australian or American, the Chinese EFL learners used memory strategies more frequently.