A Study of Taiwan’s Technical College Students’ English Learning Strategies

MUIR > College of Human Ecology > Department of Applied Foreign Languages > Conference Papers > Item 987654321/987

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://ir.meiho.edu.tw/ir/handle/987654321/987

Title:	A Study of Taiwan’s Technical College Students’ English Learning Strategies
Authors:	Chiung-Li Li;Sandy Haggard;Shu-Hua Chen
Keywords:	technical college;strategy;compensatory;cognitive;metacognitive
Date:	2010
Issue Date:	2011-06-18T01:33:34Z (UTC)
Abstract:	The English proficiency of students in Taiwan’s technical colleges has become increasingly worse over the years. Teachers face the difficult hallenge to help improve technical college students’ English proficiency in a short amount of time. In fact, many factors are responsible for EFL college students’ poor English competence. Based on a review of the literature, learning achievement is not only correlated with learning motivation but also with learning strategies. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to determine which learning strategy was most commonly used by technical college students when learning English. Scarcella and Oxford (1992) defined learning strategies as “specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques--such as seeking out conversation partners, or giving oneself encouragement to tackle a difficult language task--used by students to enhance their own learning”. Oxford (2003) also showed that when the learner consciously chooses strategies that fit his or her learning style and the L2 task at hand, these strategies become a useful toolkit for active, conscious, and purposeful self-regulation of learning. Also, Oxford classified learning strategies into six groups: cognitive,metacognitive, memory-related, compensatory, affective, and social. Learning strategies can also enable students to become more independent and autonomous lifelong learners. However, students are not always aware of the power of consciously using L2 learning strategies to learn more quickly and more effectively (Nyikos & Oxford, 1993). The research instrument was an English Learning Strategy Scale designed by Li et al. (2006) who revised it from Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), and the subjects were 170 students enrolled in the General English course at Meiho Institute of Technology in southern Taiwan. Based on the data collected from the English learning strategy scale, the findings show the ranking of learning strategies employed by the subjects from the highest to the lowest was the compensatory strategy, social strategy, affective strategy, cognitive strategy, memory strategy, and metacognitive strategy. Finally, the researchers drew a conclusion and provided some implications to English learners and instructors.
Appears in Collections:	[Department of Applied Foreign Languages] Conference Papers

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