Chinese ESL Students Learning Strategies: A Look at

Frequency, Proficiency, and Gender

Abstract
This article reports on a study of language learning strategies used by 175 ESL
students from the Peoples Republic of China. The aims of the study were to survey the
frequency of strategy use and to determine how it is influenced by the learners proficiency
level and gender. The SILL questionnnaire (Strategies Inventory of Language Learning) by
Oxford (1990) was administered. It consists of 6 categories: memory, cognitive,
compensation, metacognitive, affective, and social. Results from the survey indicated that
metacognitive strategies were most frequently used, while memory strategies were least
frequently used. Statistical analysis showed that significant differences were to be found in
the use of cognitive and compensation strategies among learners at three proficiency
levels. Gender also played a role in influencing the kids of strategy used; female students
were found to use compensation and affective strategies significantly more often than male
students. Findings from this study could help teachers identify appropriate strategies to
facilitate the learning of a second language by Chinese learners.
Background
In the last two decades, there have been numerous studies of learning strategies
used by language learners. These studies have been conducted mainly to find out what
strategies learners use, as well as what factors affect these choices. Although there have
been many reports on findings concerning learner strategy use among ESL/EFL learners, it
has been difficult to compare these findings. One reason is that many of these studies have
been conducted among mixed groups of learners with different backgrounds and
experiences. More importantly, studies that have reported the effects of factors such as
language proficiency and cultural background as major variables in strategy use have
employed different criteria when determining the nature of these variables. In order to
address some of these issues in the synthesis and comparison of results from learning
strategy studies, we are conducting ongoing research that consists of a number of related
studies, both quantitative and qualitative of one specific group of learners. These are
tertiary-level students from the Peoples Republic of China who are learning English as a
second language in Singapore. The overall. aim of this research is to identify learning
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behaviour tendencies and patterns that are representative of this growing group of ESL
students. From this, we hope to better understand their needs and in particular, help them
develop appropriate strategies that may enhance their language learning.
The Aim of Learning Strategy Research
The term strategy in the context of language learning refers to a specific type of
action on behaviour resorted to by a language learner in order to improve performance in
both using and learning a language (Naiman , Frolich, Stem & Todesco 1978; Wenden &
Rubin 1987; Oxford 1990) The rationale for learner strategy research is that if researchers
can identify a list of strategies that successful language learners use, then less effective
learners may benefit from applying the same strategies in their own learning. Furthermore,
good learners can become better by exploiting the whole spectrum of strategies that are
available to them (Rubin 1975; Naiman Frolich, Todesco & Stern 1978).
At the same time, researchers into second language acquisition are also interested
in determining the effect of strategy use on success in learning another language. Some
have provided evidence which strongly indicates that learning strategies interact with other
variables to affect language proficiency (Gardner and MacIntyre 1993). So important is the
role of strategy use in learning a second language that some theorists have included it in
their models of second language learning (e.g. McLaughlin 1987; MacIntyre 1994).
Classification of Learning Strategies
As a result of numerous studies in the last twenty years, long lists of strategies
have been identified (See, for example, Rubin 1987; O'Malley and Chamot 1990). Oxford
(1993) reported that there were at least two dozen different classifications. In general,
these strategies fall under four broad categories, i.e. strategies that unable learners to:
1.
2.
3.
4.

comprehend, store, retrieve and use information

manage and direct their learning through reflection and planning
control their emotions
create opportunities to practise the target language with other people
To discuss the results of our study, we have adopted the strategy system proposed

by Oxford (1990), which consists of both direct and indirect strategies. Direct strategies
require mental processing of the target language.
There are three main groups of direct strategies. Each group processes the
language differently and for different purposes.
a. Memory strategies -- Sometimes called mnemonics, these involve mental processes
used in arranging information in order, making associations, and reviewing.
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b. Cognitive strategies - These involve processing the target language so that meaning
becomes clear through processes such as reasoning and analyzing.
c. Compensation strategies - These enable learners to make up for gaps in their
knowledge and skills, by, for example, guessing meanings and using gestures.
d. Indirect strategies, on the other hand, support and manage language learning often
without involving the target language directly. There are three groups of indirect
strategies: Metacognitive strategies - These enable learners to plan, coordinate,
evaluate, and direct their own learning as well as to monitor errors.
e. Affective strategies - These help learners gain control over their emotions,
attitudes:, and motivation through anxiety reduction, selfencouragement, and selfreward
f. Social strategies - These are ways of involving other people in enhancing learning
through questions, cooperation and increased cultural awareness.
Subjects
The subjects were 175 students from the Peoples Republic of China. They were
enrolled on a six-month intensive English programme in the National Institute of
Education at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Their average age was 19,
and they had previously studied English for six years in China. For the purpose of this
study, the students were grouped under three levels of proficiency : High, Medium, and
Low. At the time the survey was carried out, the students had lived in Singapore for an
average of three months, which also corresponded with the length of time they had spent
learning English as a second language at the Institute.
Instrument
Two research instruments were used for this study. The first, used in determining
the proficiency of the subjects, was a standardized test the Secondary Level English
Proficiency Test or SLEP (Educational Testing Services 1991). The second instrument was
the SILL (Strategy Inventory for Language Learning), version 7.0, designed by Oxford
(1990). This questionnaire surveys the learning strategies that subjects perceive themselves
as using.
The SLEP test is a norm-referenced proficiency test administered to measure
listening and reading comprehension. It contains a total of 150 multiple-choice questions,
7.5 for each skill. For listening comprehension, the subjects were tested on a wide range of
listening abilities. Input was in the form of single sentences, short passages, and
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conversations. In the reading comprehension test, students were assessed on a number of

main and subshills. Input included both literary and non-literary passages.
The SILL instrument contains 50 short statements each describing the use of one
strategy. These statements are further grouped into six categories according to Oxfords
strategy system described earlier in this paper: memory, cognitive, compensation,
metacognitive, affective, and social.
Subjects had to respond to each statement on a 5-point Likert. scale ranging from
1 (Never or almost true of me") to 5 (Always or almost always true of me). For the
SILL questionnaire and scoring procedures, see Oxford (1990, p. 293-300).
Data Collection
The SLEP test was administered to the students on the first day of their intensive
English programme. Raw scores for each section of the test were converted to scaled
scores ranging from 20 to a maximum of 67 indicating how well a student performed in
each section. Based on their total scaled scores (i.e. the sum of the scaled scores for the
two sections, which ranged from 28 to 63), the students were divided into three levels of
proficiency: high, medium and low. Repetition eliminate total on the low proficiency
group scored between 28 and 41; the medium proficiency group scored between 42 and
48; the high proficiency group scored between 49 and 63.
Results & Discussion
1. Learning strategies of Chinese students
Based on the means of the six categories, the metacognitive strategy had the
highest mean (M=3.54), followed by compensation (M=3.46), cognitive (M=3.27),
affective (M=3.16), social (M=3.07), and memory (M=2.88). The frequencies for all
strategies were in the medium range of 2.5 - 3.4 except for metacognitive and
compensation which were slightly above that range. Figure 1 shows the means profile of
the types of strategy used by the 175 Chinese students.
Figure 1
Means Profile of SILL Categories

As can be seen from Figure 1, the Chinese students reported using metacognitive
strategies more frequently than all the other types of strategy. Metacognitive strategies are
executive processes that regulate and manage learning, and include strategies for planning,
monitoring, and evaluating. A preliminary analysis of 77 student responses showed that
some of their most common metacognitive strategies were noticing their English mistakes
and using that information to help them improve, paying attention when someone was
speaking English, finding out how to become better learners of English, and thinking about
their progress. These findings are supported by those of a diary study by Goh (1996). In
her analysis of the diaries kept by 40 of these same students, Goh found that they were
very aware of themselves as learners and highly analytical about the processes involved in
learning to listen. They reported using a number of different metacognitive strategies in all
three categories of planning, monitoring, and evaluating. An example is that these students
tried to identify weaknesses in both their performance and practice. They then used this
knowledge to evaluate their existing listening strategies, as well as to modify their
approach to extensive listening practice.
Another result from our study, which we found particularly interesting, was that
memorization was the least frequently used strategy among the 175 students. This
indicates that the students spent significantly more time regulating and managing their
learning than storing and recalling new information. In addition, if we consider the
corresponding level of frequency for the mean score of 2.58, we can see that the students
reported using memorization strategies only infrequently. This result seems to contradict
commonly accepted accounts of the learning strategies of Chinese learners. Studies have
reported that Chinese learners are predisposed to using memorization as a learning
technique. For example, Kohns (1992) study of literacy the strategies of Chinese
university students reported that they were encouraged by their teachers to memorize and
repeat texts to show their understanding. They also habitually memorized grammar rules
and did translation exercises. Kohn also noted that these learners often scrutinized words
and phrases and paid little attention to thinking about the overall organization of texts.
Although Chinese learners have a tradition of memorization, it is clear from the
findings of this study that the students made very little use of specific techniques or
mnemonic devices to enhance their memorization efforts. Some of the memory strategies
mentioned in the questionnaire are: connecting the sounds of new words to an image or
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picture, making a mental picture of a situation in which a word might be used, using
rhymes, physically acting out a word, and remembering new words or phrases by
remembering their location on pages, the board, etc. We reasoned that the students
probably did not know about these techniques.
2. Effects of language proficiency & gender
Another aim of our research. was to determine whether learners of different
language proficiency and gender vary in their use of learning strategies. Statistical
analysis showed that some groups of strategies were significantly influenced by these
two variables.
(a) Proficiency Level
Results from two-way ANOVA showed that the proficiency level of the
students had a significant influence on the use of two categories of learning strategies:
cognitive and compensation (see Table 2).
Table 2
Independent variable: Proficiency Level

The high proficiency group used more cognitive strategies (M=3.48) compared
with the medium (M=3.27) and the low level proficiency groups (M=3.10). The results
were similar for compensatory strategies: high proficiency group (M=3.63), medium
proficiency group(M=3.45), low proficiency group(M=3.31). Using the post-hoc Scheffe
test, the results
showed that significant differences were found between the high and low proficiency
groups for both strategies. No significance difference was found in the frequency of use of
the other learning strategies.
The findings suggest that high proficiency Chinese students used cognitive and
compensation strategies more frequently than low proficiency students. Cognitive
strategies helped learners use all their mental processes in understanding and using the
target language. Some strategies that students reported using frequently were skimming,
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finding the meaning of a word by dividing it into parts that they could understand,
practising the sounds of English, and finding patterns in the language.
As we can see from the means of all three groups, all students used compensation
to a certain degree. In particular, means for the high and medium proficiency students
which were above the medium(2.5 -3.4) range indicated that they used these strategies
quite frequently. In using compensation strategies, learners were able to make up for the
gaps in their knowledge and skill. The most frequent technique students reported was
using a synonym or a phrase to describe something when they could not think of the exact
word in English. In addition, the learners also resorted to making guesses and using
gestures quite frequently.
(b) Gender
To determine whether there was a difference in the use of learning strategies
between male and female students, the t-test was used The results showed that
although female students reported using all six groups of strategies more frequently
than their male counterparts, the difference was significant in the means of only two
categories: compensation (Female 3.63, Male 3.39) and affective (Female 3.35, Male
3.09). Results of the t-test are shown in Table 3.

Table 3
Independent variable: Gender

The results showed that female students used compensation strategies

significantly more frequently than their male counterparts. Some examples of these
strategies are guessing unknown words, using gestures, making up new words, and reading
without looking up words. Affective strategies are special steps that learners take to help
them manage negative emotions, such as nervousness, anxiety, fear and Idisappointment.
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Affective strategies also include ways of encouraging oneself to persist. The SILL
instrument lists six affective strategies. These are: trying to relax when afraid, encouraging
oneself to use the target language, rewarding oneself, being aware of ones nervousness,
writing down feelings in a journal, and telling others how one feels. Our finding that
female students tended to pay more attention to their feelings is consistent with the results
of other studies (Oxford 1993). In a more recent study, Oxford and Green (1995) identified
fourteen strategies that were used significantly more often by female learners. Out of these,
two were affective strategies. These were rewarding oneself for doing well and noticing
when one is tense or nervous. They also reported that females used gestures more
frequently than males.
Summary and Conclusion
In this article, we have presented some general finings concerning Chinese ESL
learners learning strategies. We found that these learners used metacognitive strategies
more frequently than the other strategies, viz. memory, cognitive, compensation, affective,
and social. Memory strategies were surprisingly reported to be the least frequently used.
We also found that there was a significant difference between genders in the use of
compensation and affective strategies. Female students reported using these strategies
more frequently. There were also significant differences in the use of cognitive and
compensation strategies by students at high and low levels of proficiency.
One important implication of this study relates to the infrequent use of memory
strategies. Although Chinese learners are reputed to have a strong tradition of memorizing
texts, it is obvious that the students do not fully exploit the range of memory strategies
listed in the SILL. We recommend that teachers capitalize on Chinese learners willingness
and ability to commit things to memory by providing specific training in memory skills.
We also note that the students on the whole do not use learning strategies very frequently.
The reported use was mainly in the medium range. Chinese ESL learners would, therefore,
benefit greatly from training in the use of all learning strategies. Since many of these
strategies would be new and perhaps even unnatural to some learners, teachers would have
to be very sensitive to the existing mindsets of learners. Teachers will also need to offer
their students a great deal of guidance in order to help them experiment with these new
strategies and decide on the types of strategies that suit them.

The Questions
1. What kind of learning strategies do PRC students report themselves as using?
Answer:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.

Memory strategies
Cognitive strategies
Compensation strategies
Indirect strategies
Affective strategies
Social strategies

2. Do language proficiency and gender influence the use of these strategies?

Answer:
Yes, it does. Because from the research above we can find that the result is that
language proficiency and gender is influence.
3. Which strategy that more frequently than all other types of strategy?
Answer:

That is Metacognitive strategy. Metacognitive strategies are executive processes that

regulate and manage learning, and include strategies for planning, monitoring, and
evaluating

VOCABULARIES

No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Word
proficiency
gender
level
monitoring
evaluating
Frequently
encouraging
Gestures
gaps
Rewarding
Influencing
Statistical
determine
memorization
Reasoning
analyzing
survey
Contradict
extensive
converted

Meaning
kecakapan
Jenis kelamin
Tingkatan
Memantau
Evaluasi
sering
mendorong
gerak-gerik
kesenjangan
bermanfaat
mempengaruhi
statistik
menentukan
Menghafal
Pemikiran
menganalisis
Penelitian
Bertentangan
Luas
diskonversi

No
Word
21
assessed
22
Synthesis
23 comparison
24
counterparts
25
Ranging
26
Literary
27
Scrutinized
28
Passages
29
Capitalize
30 Corresponding
31
range
32
Modify
33
Compared
34
rhymes
35
efforts
36 Comprehension
37 Questionnaire
38
Weaknesses
39
Willingness
40
concerning

Meaning
Dinilai
Sintesis
Perbandingan
Rekan-rekan
Mulai
Literer
Diteliti
Ayat-ayat
Bermodalkan
Sesuai
Jarak
Memodifikasi
Dibandingkan
Puisi
Upaya
Pemahaman
Daftar pertanyaan
Kelemahan
Keralaan
Tentang
10

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