Saturday, February 21, 2009

LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES

LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES USED BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN PEKANBARU

Melvina

Faculty of Education
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
melvina_amir@yahoo.co.id


ABSTRAK

This study intends to investigate language learning strategies of Second Year Students of SMUN 10 Pekanbaru. Two groups of students – 86 natural science majors and 100 social science majors – were the subjects of the study. They responded to the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) (Oxford, 1990) of ESL or EFL version. The responses were calculated through statistical analysis in terms of frequency, mean, and standard deviation. The inferential statistic (independent sample t-test) is used to determine the differences of different groups. It was found that all subjects use metacognitive strategies most frequently and memory ones most infrequently. The other findings also show that there was a significant difference in the use of language learning strategies between natural and social science students, natural science majors used learning strategies more frequently than social science majors. While, there was no significant difference in language learning strategies used between male and female students. The implication of the study is that although students are conscious in using language learning strategies, they may need to be explicitly taught to use them.