Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1Background and need f or the study
The most important skill in the process of learning English is learning ability that stu-dents can get in foreign language learning.“Reading is regarded as the first goal to reachamong the four skills” (Wen Qiufang,2003,p.64). According to the State English Syl-labus for High Schools.“ the objects of the English course are to strengthen students’basic knowledge, to develop their basic skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing,with reading ability as the first priority…”In order to improve it, a great number oflanguage experts have laid the importance of learning strategies. But there still existsome problems in English teaching in China. It is that some theories abroad are adopteddirectly into English teaching in China that are not fit for Chinese students. The other isthat in the reading process, some strategies are not used properly. The students mightignore the strategies unless the teachers give them some knowledge on learning strate-gies. If the importance of obtaining learning strategies is not stressed and conducted,the students can not use the strategies in the right way. So the students can not developtheir reading ability. As a matter of fact, some students in the high middle school cannot behave well due to these factors. Therefore, they have trouble in learning strate-gies.
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1.2 The purposes of this study
New English Curriculum Standard explicitly points out that English reading ability isone of the most important abilities that students should achieve in learning English.However, due to the influence of some teaching theories and methods, some teacherspay much more attention to the comprehension of the reading material on the whole butignore the learning of the new words. So there exit some problems. One is that sometheories abroad adopted directly into English teaching in China are not suitable forChinese students. The other is that some teachers and students failed to master someappropriate learning strategies.The aim of the study is to improve the reading abilities of students in senior highschool and to form a proper learning habit. In the study, the compensatory strategy isused by the students of Senior Two. The participants were from Senior Two in No.14Middle School, Huhhot. The author deliberately instructed the students in the exper i-mental class to use the dictionary. Instead, students in the control class were encouragedto guess the meanings of new words. A questionnaire, a pre-test and a post-test beforeand after the experiment were employed in the research. Before the experiment, apre-test was done to get the general information of the students’ English reading level.The result showed that the two classes had no significant difference and thus weresuitable for conducting the experiment. At the end of the experiment, a post-test and aquestionnaire were conducted and then the conclusion was drawn.
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Chapter 2 Literature review
2.1 Definitions of Learning Strategies
Since 1960s and 1970s, the cognitive psychology developed rapidly, an essential changein language teaching has taken place. People centered on learning and learners insteadof teaching and tutors. Language learners have become the main part in the classroom(Rubin, 1987). A large number of studies of language learning strategies appeared as thetimes required. Language learning strategies gradually became focus on second or for-eign second or foreign language learning.However, researchers indicate their different views on the definition of languagelearning strategies. So till now there is not an agreed- upon explanation about languagelearning strategies. Some distinguished experts gave language learning strategies somedefinitions:Bialystok (1978) in foreign language learning, strategies were some ways which canbe gotten to improve the ability in learning .If language learners were used to a co m-plete methods, these methods could be regarded as the strategies, The learners perfor-mances were also detective.Weinstein & Mayer (1986) claimed that learning strategies stand for the performancehabits that learners involved in progress they made over their learning period.In Rubin (1987)’s statement, learning strategies are accounted as the strategies bene-ficial to developing the learning process and the learners.
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2.2 Distinctions between Learning Strategies and Learning Methods
Knowing the definitions made by the linguistics on learning strategies, it is necessaryfor us to know more about the explanations. As the aim of the present study was at thestudents in senior high schools, they were generally considered as the same concepts.But some of them were not the same. Experts thought the concepts of learning skillsapplied by the learners who had mastered the techniques. Also it was easy to acceptand command the fixed, explicit and exterior activities. By studying and observing formany years, each student is likely to have a learning method of his or her own, such asrehearsal, note-taking, comparison, categorizing, etc. Among the language methods,learning strategies are more flexible and systematic. Both of the outer and inner factorsare included. According to different learning tasks, to get proper method, the concretewqys of learning and deliberate learners are adopted. An essential part about learningstrategies is to rule and command learners’ level of their learning. Owing to learningstrategies, effective learning methods can be adopted to enhance learning efficiency. Asa consequence, learning strategies rely on learning methods.
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Chapter 3 Methodology ......16
3.1 Research questions ..........16
3.2 Hypothesis.........16
3.3 Subjects ......16
3.4 Instruments........17
3.4.1 The questionnaire .........17
3.4.2 Two tests.........17
3.5 Procedures .........17
Chapter 4 Data collection and analysis .........28
4.1 Analysis of the results of the questionnaire .......28
4.2 Analysis of the results of the pre-test and post-test..........30
Chapter 5 Conclusion .........34
5.1 Summary of the research........34
5.2 Limitations ........34
5.3 Implications for future research ....34
Chapter 4 Data collection and analysis
4.1 Analysis of the results of the questionnaire
The questions in the questionnaire are about the learning strategies made by Oxford. Bydoing it, the researcher also wanted to know the students’ learning habits as well as theirpsychological factors towards learning English. So the twenty questions were involvedin some major learning strategies classified by Oxford. Among these questions, thecompensation strategies referred were question nine to eleven.79 students in total inexperimental class and control class took part in the survey. The following results can beobtained from the data of the questionnaire.( see table 4-1 and 4-2 data of the ques-tionnaire) The tables indicate that the students in the experimental class use the compensationstrategies less frequently than the students in the control class. The means of the e x-perimental class for the two strategies are respectively 2.27 and 3.41while the means ofthe control class are respectively 2.64 and 3.76. However, the results of independent Ttest show that the difference is not significant statistically which is confirmed by the Tvalues of 1.635 and 1.527 and P values of 0.10 and 0.13 respectively.
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Conclusion
Although the experiment lasted only 15 weeks, there was also difference between twoclasses. After all, the learning is a process. There is no possibility for the participantsimprove so much in such a short period. In fact, it turned out that a better achievementhas been gained in the experimental class than that of in the control c lass.Review the research questions mentioned (O ne is whether the students should guessthe meaning of new words by applying compensatory learning strategy in Englishlearning. The other is whether consulting a dictionary will have a negative effect onstudents’reading comprehension competence). The conclusion of the study is that it isnecessary to consult the dictionary when there are new words in the reading and co n-sulting a dictionarycan improve students’reading comprehensioncompetence.As the results of the research show, applying dictionary can improve the students’reading ability in Senior High School, which in turn will help them have a better com-prehension of the reading materials as well as make them more confident in Englishlearning.
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Reference (omitted)