The Study of Learning Strategies Used by Applied English Majors in Junior College

Abstract

Research is burgeoning in the area of language learning strategies in Taiwan; however, too little attention has been given to the subjects of college students majoring in Applied English. With more and more applied foreign language programs being established around the country, it appears important to gain an up-to-date and in-depth understanding of how this particular group of students learns English. Therefore, this study aims at investigating language learning strategy use situations among applied English majors in a five-year junior college. A total of 134 students participated in this study to answer a widely used learning strategy questionnaire, Oxford's Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL, 1990). Descriptive statistics was conducted to address the overall pattern of participants' learning strategy use, whereas a two-way ANOVA was performed to examine if two variables, i.e., students' years of study and English proficiency, simultaneously had any significant effects on their strategy use. The results suggested that students in this study use learning strategies at the medium level. The categories most often used were affective strategies, followed by social, compensation, metacognitive, cognitive, and memory strategies. In terms of the relationship among overall learning strategy use, years of study, and English proficiency, only the main effect of English proficiency was significant. However, with respect to the relationship among six strategy categories use, years of study, and English proficiency, both years of study and English proficiency were significantly associated with various strategy categories. Moreover, based on the research results, the implications of learning strategy training in classroom are also discussed.