Five Factors that Affect Language Learning

Strategies

IDA SARIANI MOHD ISAP66336

INTRODUCTION

• Oxford( 1989) : The influential factors to the choice of language learning strategy: age, sex, attitudes, motivation, language learning goals, motivational orientation, learning style, aptitude, career orientation, national origin, language teaching method , task requirement, language being learned, duration and degree of awareness.

• Gender, motivation and experience in studying a language are claim to have palpable influences on the choice of language learning strategies (Dornyei, 2001, Goh and Kwan, 1997, Gu, 2002, Hong Nam and Leavell, 2006, MacIntyre, 1994, Wharton, 2000, Yutaka, 1996.)

Let’s zoomed into 5 factors that affects language learning strategies:

GENDER• received much attention in the area of language learning strategy research (e.g.,

Oxford, 1993; Oxford, Young, Ito & Sumrall, 1993; Oxford, 1995; Young & Oxford 1997).

• An emerging theory for this gender difference suggests that though sometimes males outshined females in the use of a particular strategy, females tend to occupy more learning strategies or employ strategies more effectively (Erhman and Oxford, 1989; Nyikos, 1990; Oxford, 1994; Sheorey, 1999).

• Oxford and Nyikos (1989) who observed at the strategies employed by 1200 university students, concluded that gender differences had a "profound influence" on strategy use, and that females used strategies more frequently than males.

• Ehrman and Oxford (1990) stated that women at the Foreign Service Institute definitely use more strategies than male.

 

• Green and Oxford (1995) found that females used strategies significantly more often than males.

 • Although most studies in this area seem to have reported a greater

use of language learning strategies by women, Tran (1988) discovered that Vietnamese women use fewer language learning strategies than men.

MOTIVATION•  In some research, motivation is viewed as part of a general “affective

filter” (Krashen, 1985), which in accordance to Schmidt & Watanabe (pg. 313), “if high keeps target language input from reaching the language acquisition device and if low allows input to simply “go in.”

• Gardner (1985, 1988) believed that motivated learners achieve higher levels of proficiency because they are active in their learning.

• Many researcher suggest that motivated learners learn more because

they seek out input, interaction, and instruction, and when they encounter target language input they pay attention to it and actively process it however they can (Crookes & Schmidt, 1991; Schmidt, in press; Tremblay & Gardner, 1995), which, in other word, means that these learners use learning strategies.

• Oxford and Nyikos (1989) reported that motivation was the best predictor of strategy use in a large-scale study of university students where the more motivated students used learning strategies of all kinds more often in comparison to the less motivated students.

• MacIntyre and Noels (1996) found that three variables from the Gardner socio-educational model (Attitudes Toward the Learning Situation, Integrativeness, and Language Anxiety) correlated with three types of strategies: Cognitive, Metacognitive, and Social.

•  • Dornyei (2001) indicated another variable for affecting language

learning motivation is instrumental motivation. He further stated that instrumental motivation is an interest in learning the second language for relevant reasons.

EXPERIENCE IN STUDYING THE LANGUAGE

 • Uztosun (2014) in his literature review highlighted three in relation to learners’ language learning experiences (Hiçyılmaz, 2006; Yalçın, 2006; Razı, 2012).

 • Yalçın (2006) revealed that the comparison of strategies employed

by learners with different educational experiences (the ones who had and had not taken preparatory class in high school) showed that there is only significant difference found in the use of compensation strategies: students who had taken preparatory class employed greater number of compensation strategies.

• Hiçyılmaz (2006) revealed that there is a disconnection between language learning experience and strategy use, in that ninth grade students employed more strategies than university students. However there are some limitations to the study because the study was small-scale and the sample comprised of 50 students. Besides that no information is available regarding the educational backgrounds of university students and it is doubtful whether all participants have similar educational backgrounds.

• In a study by Razı (2012), the result did not reveal significant differences in terms of both class and learning experience. This presented that having more or less than ten years of English language learning experience does not differentiate learners’ strategy uses.

LEARNING STYLE• ‘Styles’ can be generally defined as “an individual’s natural, habitual, and

preferred way of absorbing, processing, and retaining new information and skills” (Kinsella, 1995, p. 171).

• Learning styles can be categorized as cognitive style (field dependent versus field independent, analytic versus global, reflective versus impulsive); sensory style (visual versus auditory versus tactile versus kinesthetic) and personality styles (tolerance of ambiguity, right brain versus left brain dominance), (Christison, 2003).

 • In other words, learning styles can be defined as general approaches to

language learning, while learning strategies are specific ways learners choose to cope with language tasks in particular contexts (Cohen, 2003; Oxford, 2003).

 

•Oxford (2005) stated that learning styles and strategies are the main factors in determining how language learners learn a second or foreign language.

 •Language learners always use learning strategies that reflect their basic learning styles (Oxford and Nyikos, 1989; Oxford, 1996).

•Some researchers have investigated the relationship between learning styles and strategies and they also claimed that learner’s styles had significantly influenced the choices of language learning strategies (Carrell, 1988; Wen and Johnson, 1997).

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

• There are various research studies on the investigation of the relationship between strategy use and language proficiency (Green and Oxford, 1995; Oxford and Ehrman, 1995).

 • Green and Oxford’s (1995), examined learning strategies use of

university students in Puerto Rico and the results showed that the successful language learners use more high level strategies than less successful learners.

 • Additionally,, Bruen (2001) assumed that a high level of strategy use was

associated to high language proficiency and successful leaner’s use more learning strategies.

• He suggested that learners with higher language proficiency expose themselves more frequently to the employment of language learning strategies.

CONCLUSION

• The findings discussed are from various studies of prominent researchers and can be useful for educators in understanding learners’ choice of language strategies for successful learning.

• Educators need to discover ways to help improve low proficiency language learners so that are able to learn a second/foreign language efficiently and successfully by adopting the leaning strategies of high proficiency language learners or the strategies that suits the individual learner.

 • “There is no single teaching method suitable for all language

learners (Weng, 2012).”

 

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