1. Introduction

Research on foreign language learning strategies was began in the 1970s. In the past, the teaching of foreign language in the world mainly focused on how to teach, but in the 1970s, it gradually shifted to the learners, that is, how to learn. Understanding the students’ use of learning strategies is of great help to improve their learning efficiency. This allows them to improve their English level in a more targeted way.

In 1989, Oxford, R and Nyikos, M researched the factors that affect the choice of the second language learning strategies [1]. This study indicated that formal rules related practice strategies are high usage, while functional practice strategy is the least frequently used of all strategies. In 1990, the Oxford published a book, which was called Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know. The book fully describes the language learning strategies and provides a broad research background [2]. Rebecca published a study on two language acquisition strategies in 1992 [3]. In this paper, the author reviews the related studies outside the second language area that may influence research into how students learn new languages. Besides, Chamot talked the effect of learning strategies which were used in the second language learning in 2014 [4]. Furthermore, Lestari, M. & Wahyudin, A. Y. show that metacognitive strategies are used most frequently, followed by social and compensation strategies, and affective strategies are the lowest in 2020 [5].

The change of the focus of world foreign language teaching has an importantly guiding significance for the study of Chinese students’ English learning strategies. Following that trend, a wave of research on students’ English learning strategies has been launched in China. Huang Xiaohua was the first researcher in China. In 1984, this scholar published a study on the learning strategies of Oral English among Chinese English students; in 1992, Wu Yi’an and Liu Runqing published a survey of undergraduate English students in China; in 1995, Wen Qiufang discussed the influence of different learning methods on academic performance through the study of successful and unsuccessful English learners [6,7]. By the end of the 20th century, professors at Nanjing University had explored how college students’ English learning strategies had changed and the characteristics of the change [8]. The study shows that through two years of study in university, the trend of language learning strategy change is as follows: formal practice is up first and then down, functional practice strategy shows a straight upward trend, while native language strategy is the first down and then slightly up. In addition, this study also illustrates that the first year of college is a critical period for changes in English learning strategies.

In the 21st century, globalization has deepened, and the world is becoming more integrated. Many scholars have conducted a new round of research on the English learning strategies of college students. For example, in 2022, Jia Zaijun conducted research on oral English learning strategies for Chinese students studying in the UK [9]. His finding showed that memory strategies were the most widely used, followed by cognitive, compensatory and metacognitive strategies, with affective and social strategies scoring the lowest of the six categories of strategies in Chinese students studying in the UK. Predecessors for Chinese college students’ English learning strategy research mainly focuses on English professional students in college, or students who are living in an English-language environment, by contrast the English non-professional students are less involved. It can be seen that Gao Yue did the English professional students on English vocabulary learning strategy research in 2004 and Lv Hongyan studied the English professional college students’ oral learning strategy on 2010 [10,11]. In Gao’s survey, he mentioned the effect of gender on learning strategies. Compared with boys, girls are better at using metacognitive strategies to plan their own learning. Relative to the boys, in vocabulary learning, they are good at using some association strategy and they are more expert in the active use, more frequently through extensive reading and reciting articles to learn vocabulary and can use a variety of ways to regulate anxiety, have strong perseverance and self-control. But boys only in the use of some classification strategies better than girls. From the perspective of vocabulary strategy research, the results verify that gender is an important factor which affects the choice of learning strategies to some extent. Apart from that, females are more and better users of learning strategies [10]. In Lv’s study, the findings also indicated that the use of spoken English learning strategies was negatively correlated with the degree of oral learning anxiety [11]. In foreign countries, most of the research in recent years focuses on the research of learning strategies in some aspects of English, such as vocabulary learning strategies and writing learning strategies. The research on vocabulary learning strategies includes Azadi, H..’s study on English learners in Iran, published in 2021; Okyar, H. Vocabulary learning strategies of Turkish EFL learners: a focus on gender [12, 13]. The research on writing learning strategies includes: Xiaowen’s study, which was published in 2021 [14]. It can be seen that there are relatively few studies on English learning strategies for non-English majors. There is no special research on English learning strategies for Chinese language students. Because of Chinese and English learning belong to the language learning, and Chinese college students native Chinese. Whether Chinese language’s specialty has influence on the survey or not is unknown. For the particularity of Chinese learning and the research for English learning strategy, if the results of the measurement will have a different is still considerable.

Among the above topics, the choice of English learning strategies of the Chinese college students who are surveyed is mainly due to the pursuit of foreign language accuracy and the need for communication [8].

This study focuses on the selection of learning strategies for undergraduates majoring in Chinese language and literature. Data collection and analysis were conducted through the questionnaire survey method and the SPSSAU data analysis platform. The significance of the research is that people can obtain some characteristics of such students’ strategy selection, and can guide their future strategy selection, so as to help such students to better learn English.

2. Method

2.1. The Research Subjects

The subjects of this study are all undergraduates majoring in Chinese language and literature. The subjects include a total of 51 people, including 26 boys and 25 girls. All of the people filled out the questionnaire carefully within a week after its distribution.

2.2. The Research Process

Firstly, this study used strategic classification based on cognitive, metacognitive and emotional psychological functions, etc, which is classified into memory, cognitive, compensatory, metacognitive, affective, and social strategies. The authority of the scale of language learning strategies, based on this classification method, has been demonstrated in Oxford, R. L., 1995. Secondly, this study will use the SILL. First, it is easy and quick with low cost; second, it has high confidentiality without easy data leakage, and third, it provides immediate learner feedback [15]. In addition, this classification is more detailed, compared to that of O’Malley & Chamot in 1990 [16].

After collecting data, SPSSAU, a statistical software of social science, is used for data analysis. The data analysis mainly consists of two parts: First, analyze the average and standard deviation of each strategy selection; Second, compare the frequency of each strategy.

In this English learning strategy scale, language learning strategies are evaluated into six categories: memory strategy, cognitive strategy, compensation strategy, metacognitive strategy, affective strategy and social strategy. This questionnaire consists of 60 items, divided into 7 parts: 1. Basic information of students, 2. Memory strategy, 3. Cognitive strategy, 4. Compensation strategy, 5. Metacognitive strategy, 6. affective strategy, 7. social strategy. Except for the first part, the other parts are choice questions, each multiple-choice question is divided into five options: 1. never, 2. sometimes, 3. often, 4. usually, 5. always. A total of 51 samples were collected, all of whom were undergraduate students majoring in Chinese language and literature. Table 1 below shows the questions in the learning strategy section.

Table 1: Learning strategy questions.

3. Result

3.1. Reliability Analysis

The clonal Bach reliability coefficient (Cronbachα coefficient) was used for this data reliability analysis. The analysis result is 0.981. It is higher than 0.8, which means that the reliability of the scale is very good (see Table 2).

Table 2: Cronbach reliability analysis.

3.2. Validity Analysis

Testing has revealed that all of the study items’ common degree values are higher than 0.4, demonstrating the efficiency with which the research item information may be collected. Also, the data can be successfully extracted because the KMO value is 0.614, which is higher than 0.6.

In order to study and compare the frequency of each learning strategy, the author compared the average and standard deviation algorithm on SPSSAU platform.

3.3. Analysis of the Means of Each Learning Strategy

This paper calculates the average of the strategy by dividing the total number of questions.

3.3.1. Memory Strategy

Table 3 shows the mean and standard deviation of each question of the memory strategy.

Table 3: Outcomes of the memory strategy analysis.

Thus, the average of the memory strategy is 3.226, and the standard deviation is 1.185.

3.3.2. Cognitive Strategy

Table 4 shows the mean and standard deviation of each question of the cognitive strategy.

Table 4: Outcomes of the cognitive strategy analysis.

The average number of this strategy is 3.014, and the standard deviation is 1.250.

3.3.3. Compensation Strategy

Table 5 is the mean and standard deviations for the compensation strategy questions.

Table 5: Outcomes of the compensation strategy analysis.

The average of the compensation strategy is 3.327, and the standard deviation is 1.240.

3.3.4. Metacognitive Strategy

Table 6 is the mean and standard deviations for the metacognitive strategy questions.

Table 6: Outcomes of the metacognitive strategy analysis.

The average of the metacognitive strategy is 3.144, and the standard deviation is 1.049.

3.3.5. Affective Strategy

Table 7 is the mean and standard deviations for the affective strategy questions.

Table 7: Outcomes of the affective strategy analysis.

The average of the affective strategy is 2.922, and the standard deviation is 1.275.

3.3.6. Social Strategy

Table 8 below is the mean and standard deviations for the social strategy questions.

Table 8: Outcomes of the social strategy analysis.

The average of the social strategy is 2.846, and the standard deviation is 1.087.

As can be seen, compensation, strategy is used more frequently than the other five types of strategies, with memory strategy coming in second. Metacognitive strategy is the third and cognitive strategy is the fourth. Affective strategy is behind on metacognitive strategy, and social strategy is the least (see Table 9).

Table 9: All types of strategies’ average and standard deviation.

4. Discussion

According to the data, the students of this major use the compensation strategy nearly as often as the memory strategy, and their use frequency is slightly higher than other strategies. It shows that most of them still pay more attention to the accuracy of English words and grammar and they always express by using physical gestures when they cannot use the accurate words. Besides, the frequency of metacognitive strategies is in the middle, which indirectly reflects their insufficient awareness of active learning and self-monitoring. Affective and social strategies were used the least frequently. One of the reasons for this result maybe have connection with the introversion of Chinese people. They are not very willing to express their feelings to other people [9]. People make less use of social strategies, which may be caused by the lack of English communication environment [1]. Since the sample subject is special in the major that is Chinese language and literature, the school and the society do not have very high requirements for their English level. Therefore, most people learn English mostly to pass exams or simply communicate. Because of this, they also do not have a very strong learning initiative. The purpose of choosing the strategy is also more concern about improving the accuracy of English learning, so as to pass the exam. Additionally, the survey showed that one-third of the students wanted to improve their speaking and listening skills, which may be related to the less use of social strategies.

5. Conclusions

In the past, students of Chinese Language and literature used to learn English for exams and simple communication, so their learning strategies were also inclined to memory strategies and compensation strategies. At the same time, a third of the students want to improve their speaking and listening skills, which can be achieved by increasing the use of social strategies.

Also, there are some limitations in this study. To start with, the number of samples about this survey is only 51. Besides, whether the research results are universal still needs further exploration. About the purpose of students in this major still needs further investigation to more rigorously explain the reasons for the choice of learning strategies they make.