ABSTRACT
The 1990s witnessed a dramatic social and economical transformation and jump of China, in which the reform of educational system is quite eye-catching. It has exerted a far-reaching impact on China’s higher education ever since. A number of private universities sprang up and jumped into people’s focus at that time. (Private university, also named as non-government run university or non-governmental run university, are not operated by governments though many receive public subsidies, especially in the form of tax breaks and public student loans and grants. Depending on their location, private universities may or may not be subject to government regulation.) After some years’ development, now private universities have become quite influential not only because of their large scale, but also because of the high quality of some of them. It goes without saying that the emergence of private universities plays a positive role in extending the higher education and improving the capacity of state-owned universities to keep a
1 INTRODUCTION
Since the late 1970s, classroom instruction has shifted its focus from teacher-centered to studentcentered approach based on the ground that if learners do not intend to learn, it does not make any difference no matter how well the teachers teach. Consequently, learners had become the dominant figures in the language classrooms where learning tasks had been conceptualized and approached from the learners’ own point of view (Rubin, 1987). Thus effective strategies students adopt are conducive to improving language development and fostering their learning ability.
