Chapter 1 Literature Review
1.1 Development of Language Learning Strategies
From 1920s to 1950s, the behavioral learning theory prevailed in the West. Under theguide of this theory, the teacher took control of the class, but students’ learning process andthinking process weren’t paid enough attention to. In the late 1960s, the cognitive learningtheory came into being, which emphasized that learning was knowledge processing. In thisprocess, students were information processors, while teachers were information distributors.Under the guidance of the modern theory of cognitive psychology, the focus of foreignlanguage teaching was shifted from how to teach to how to learn. In order to solve the problemwith how to learn, studies on language learners themselves were carried out, which involvedstudies on the universal law of the language learning process and the influence of individualcharacteristics in language learners on the language learning process and learning effect. Oneimportant purpose of the research on learners was to find out the characteristics of efficientlearners. According to the findings, one important characteristic of the efficient learnersconsisted in the application of learning strategies. However, the early studies on languagelearning strategies mainly focused on induction, description and classification. Although thesestudies laid a good foundation in both methods and results for later studies, they still had someshortcomings due to lack of theoretical support.
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1.2 Research Status of Reading Strategies
As an important part of language learning strategies, reading strategies have receivedmuch attention since the 1970s. Having launched a series of empirical studies from differentangles, researchers have made some achievements. Hosenfeld (1977): In a survey of 40 teenage readers, she found, by using the“audio-visual thinking” method, that there were distinct differences in the usage of readingstrategies between successful readers and unsuccessful readers. Successful readers had thefollowing characteristics, such as 1) having the potential to remember what they have read, 2)having a wide visual range, 3) skipping the new words unimportant to the understanding ofphrases or sentences, 4) having a positive self-concept, 5) identifying the grammar category andthe difference in morpheme sequence, 6) identifying cognate words and 7) knowing when touse vocabulary. In contrast, unsuccessful ones had the following characteristics, such as 1)forgetting the previous sentences they have read, 2) having a narrow visual range, 3) nottreating words differently in terms of significance and not skipping the unimportant new wordsand 4) having a negative self- concept.
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Chapter 2 Theoretical Support
2.1 Introduction of Language Learning Strategies
What are learning strategies? Definitions vary from researcher to researcher because it iscomplicated and hard to define concepts like “language learning strategies”. There are areas ofongoing debate, so definitions are continuing to mature. Here are some definitions of languagelearning strategies:Stern 1983: strategy is best reserved for general tendencies of overall characteristics ofthe approach employed by the language learner, leaving techniques as the term to refer toparticular forms of observation learning behavior.Weinstein and Mayer 1986: Learning strategies are the behaviors and thou，英语毕业论文，英语论文 |
