The relationship of school year, sex and proficiency on the use of learning strategies in learning English of Korean junior high school students
Title
The relationship of school year, sex and proficiency on the use of learning strategies in learning English of Korean junior high school students
The relationship of school year, sex and proficiency on the use of learning strategies in learning English of Korean junior high school students
Keywords: No Keyword
Author
Lee Kyung Ok
Lee Kyung Ok
Bio Data
Ms. Kyungok Lee obtained her BA at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, Korea and received Master of Education (TEFL) at Monash University in Melbourne Australia.
Abstract
The present study investigated the use of language learning strategies of 325 Korean secondary school students of English as a foreign language, 163 boys and 162 girls with a consideration of variables such as sex, school year, and proficiency in grammar, specifically the use of prepositions. The subjects were attending a boys’ or a girls’ middle school in Pusan, Korea. Strategy use was assessed through a Korean translation of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) (Oxford, 1990), and proficiency was determined by a cloze test. The major findings were that the reported frequency of strategy use by the students was moderate overall, with the students reporting most frequent use of compensation strategies and least of affective strategies. Girls showed more frequent use of all six strategy categories than boys, and third school year students employed compensation and memory strategies more often, whereas first school year students employed metacognitive, cognitive, affective and social strategies more often. Cognitive strategies showed the highest correlation with metacognitive and memory strategies. Those students who scored highly on the cloze test reported using strategies more often than the low proficiency group. It was revealed that the students’ sex, school year, and proficiency had a significant relationship on their use of learning strategies. Some implications of the findings are discussed along with suggestions for further research.
The present study investigated the use of language learning strategies of 325 Korean secondary school students of English as a foreign language, 163 boys and 162 girls with a consideration of variables such as sex, school year, and proficiency in grammar, specifically the use of prepositions. The subjects were attending a boys’ or a girls’ middle school in Pusan, Korea. Strategy use was assessed through a Korean translation of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) (Oxford, 1990), and proficiency was determined by a cloze test. The major findings were that the reported frequency of strategy use by the students was moderate overall, with the students reporting most frequent use of compensation strategies and least of affective strategies. Girls showed more frequent use of all six strategy categories than boys, and third school year students employed compensation and memory strategies more often, whereas first school year students employed metacognitive, cognitive, affective and social strategies more often. Cognitive strategies showed the highest correlation with metacognitive and memory strategies. Those students who scored highly on the cloze test reported using strategies more often than the low proficiency group. It was revealed that the students’ sex, school year, and proficiency had a significant relationship on their use of learning strategies. Some implications of the findings are discussed along with suggestions for further research.
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