engleski

Language learning strategies in different EFL education levels

Learning strategies are procedures or techniques that learners can use to facilitate a learning task. While some learning strategies are observable, most strategies are mental processes that are not directly observable. The investigation of personality factors is often mentioned to be important for gaining deeper insights into learning strategies In this article we discuss relationship between some personality factors such as language anxiety, self-concept, previously achieved language learning experience and language learning strategies in different EFL education levels. A total of 883 Croatian learners took part in this exploratory study: 330 primary school learners, 309 secondary school learners and 194 university undergraduates. All the subjects learned EFL as a compulsory school subject or university course. Four paper-and-pencil instruments were used for this study: language learning anxiety was measured by the five-item questionnaire developed by McIntyre and Gardner (1989). Self-concept and previously achieved language learning experience were measured by means of modified subscales of the questionnaire developed by Knasel, Meed and Rossetti (2000). The use of language learning strategies was assessed by means of questionnaire developed by Kostić-Bobanović (2001). The 41-item instrument asked learners to report the frequency with which they used certain speaking language learning strategies. It consisted of six groups of strategies: memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective and social. The One-way Analysis of Variance indicated that the mean of the scores regarding the use of strategies significantly differ between three groups. As the learners were becoming older, and had been studying the foreign language for longer time they more frequently used memory, cognitive, metacognitive, affective and social but not compensation strategies. Further, the results also indicated that there was a significant relation between language anxiety, self-concept and previously achieved language learning experience with language learning strategies. The implications of the study are to be discussed.

Lnaguge learning; strategies; English as a foreign language

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