Five Factors Affecting Language Learning Strategies

Course : Learning Language Strategies

By :Tuan Nur Afzan Binti Tuan Nazam

Lecture:Prof. Mohamed Amin Embi

Factors

Motivation

Gender

Proficiency Level

Age

Socio-economic

status

MOTIVATION

• Definition : a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way.

• Student’s motivation is influenced by their purpose of learning the respective subject.

• They must have their own strong reasons to stay right on track even with the great obstacles coming through.

• “ Highly motivated students are proven to use more strategies in learning a language compared to the student with low motivation. ( Oxford&Nyikosi,1989, and Okida, Oxford&Abo,1996, as cited in Tatsuya,2002; Oxford,1994)

GENDER

• Gender : distinguishes male and female• Some strategies are clearly prefered by male

while others are clearly preferred by females.• Female are proven to use more LLS than male as

stated by Ehrman and Oxford (1988)• Some strategies are general strategies, self-

management strategies and communicating strategies

• For example, Female are usually more talkative than male.

PROFICIENCY LEVEL

• Proficiency Level : show level of proficient learner in someone

• Choice of LLS are affected bystudent’s learning experience and their awareness of the learning process

• The more proficient a student is, the higher their awareness of the rules and LLS (Rahimi,Riazi&Saif,2008)

• Proficient learners applied all type strategies more frequently than the lower one(Adel,2011; Farzad,Mahnaz&NedaSalahshour,2013)-High proficiency : metacognitive & social strategies-Low proficiency : cognitive and compensation strategis(Tatsuya,2002)

AGE

• Adult learners - able to grasp knowledge of syntax and morphology faster than children -deploy more flexible, general and up-to-date strategies - more efficient in learning grammar and vocabulary. While young learners - able to develop native-like pronunciation and fluency - deploy simple and easy strategies (Scarcella& Oxford (1992) and Ehrman & Oxford (1995) as cited in Kamarul & Mohamed Amin, 2012).

• 1) AGE (Wong-Fillmore, 1979)-A study of young children showed that cognitive and social strategies were very important.Chesterfield and Chesterfield (1985)-children developed receptive strategies (repetition and memorization) first.-Then they developed strategies which allowed them to start and maintain interactions (e.g. attention getting and asking for clarification).-Finally, they developed strategies for the identification and monitoring of grammatical errors.

SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS

• Definition : relating to or concerned with the interaction of social and economic factors.

• Socioeconomic status (SES) is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family’s economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, and occupation.

• Socioeconomic status depends on a combination of variables, including occupation, education, income, wealth, and place of residence. Sociologists often use socioeconomic status as a means of predicting behavior.

• People with different socioeconomic statuses have different resources to support personal development (Tam, 2013).

• Students from more affluent homes can afford to go to tutorial schools to strengthen their learning while poorer student cannot (Kamarul & Mohamed Amin, 2012 & Tam, 2013).

• The greatest difference between different socioeconomic classes is in the use of Social Strategies – to interact with foreign maids at home (Tam, 2013).

• Those who come from wealthier and higher status families are proven to have higher cognitive ability (IQ) (Kamarul & Mohamed Amin, 2012).

• This is influenced by parents’ educational background and family income.

• Students with higher educated parents generally used more LLSs and applied them outside classroom and for exams – Cognitive and Social Strategies (Nazali (1999) in Kamarul & Mohamed Amin (2012); Kamarul & Mohamed Amin, 2012).

• Students from wealthier families deployed more LLSs outside classroom and for exams (Kamarul & Mohamed Amin, 2012).

• Male students from wealthier families used more LLSs compared to wealthier females.

• Female students from lower SES deployed more LLSs compared to males from lower SES.

REFERENCES

• Adel, A. R. 2011. Effects of L2 proficiency and gender on choice of language learning strategies by university students majoring in English. The Asian EFL Journal Quarterly. 13 (1), 114-162. From http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/PDF/March-2011.pdf#page=114 [March 25, 2014].

• Farzad, S., Mahnaz, S. & NedaSalahshour. 2013. The relationship between language learning strategy use, language proficiency level and learner gender. Procedia-Social and Behavioural Sciences 70. 634-643. From http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1877042813001043 [March 25, 2014].

• Karim Sadeghi & Mohammad Taghi Attar. 2013. The relationship between learning strategy use and starting age of learning EFL. Procedia-Social and Behavioural Sciences 70. 387- 396. From http://ac.els-cdn.com/S1877042813000773/1-s2.0-S1877042813000773-main.pdf?_tid=36c013ce-b0a5-11e3-8861-00000aab0f6b&acdnat=1395371118_c98afd0973232170bc0f6378edcf21d0 [March 20, 2014].

• Oxford, R. 1994. Language Learning Strategies: An Update. ERIC Digest. From http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED376707.pdf [March 22, 2014].

• Slides share by Salma Razak. 2014. Five Factors Affecting LLS.From http://www.slideshare.net/SalmaRazak/5-factors-affecting-language-learning-strategies-lls