2014 IJRSLL – Volume 3 Issue 4
Author/s:
Kamalizad, Jalal*
University of Malaya, Malaysia (J_kamalizad@yahoo.com)
Samuel, Moses
University of Malaya, Malaysia (mosess@um.edu.my)
Abstract:
As part of a larger study, with this regard, this study using a strategy inventory reports Iranian mail college level EFL learners’ pattern of strategy use and compares it with other Asian EFL learners’ strategy use pattern as the authors in this study felt a thorough comparison between Iranian learners and other Asian background students on their strategy use pattern might enhance scholars’ understanding about the role of nationality/ethnicity in learners’ choice and use of strategies and would also add to the literature in the field. The results of the study revealed that the participants perceived themselves as medium strategy users (M = 3.31) and resembled many other Asian background EFL learners. The results of descriptive statistics, and multivariate analysis of the variances (MANOVA) along with follow-up post-hoc comparison tests indicate that the participants reportedly use metacognitive (M = 3.79) and social (M = 3.82) categories of strategies at a high level and significantly (p < .05) higher than other categories of the SILL. Memory (M = 2.89) and affective (M = 2.75) categories of strategies turned out to be least favored by them and were applied significantly (p < .05) less than other categories listed in SILL. The above results are also in conformity with the results gained by individual strategy item analysis. The results of this study, on the whole, show striking similarities with the results gained in many similar studies with English learners of Asian background, though some noticeable differences could be observed specially regarding the use of social category of strategies.
Keywords: learning strategies; nationality; Asian background English learners; EFL; strategy use pattern
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsll.2013.625
*Corresponding Author