SUCCESSFUL ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING INVENTORY (SELL-IN) AMONG RURAL SCHOOL STUDENTS GAYATHRIE A/P VITAPAMOORTHY P 66324

INTRODUCTION The world of education is going through a paradigm change where the teacher teaching are less emphasised and greater stress are given on the learners and learning Students has develop their own learning strategies : the ways in which they learn and remember information how they make the best use of their learning strengths.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study is to investigate the successful language learning strategy (reading, writing, listening, speaking, vocabulary) used by rural students in learning English.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS What is the successful reading strategy used by rural students in learning English? What is the successful listening strategy used by rural students in learning English? What is the successful writing strategy used by rural students in learning English? What is the successful speaking strategy used by rural students in learning English? What is the successful vocabulary strategy used by rural students in learning English?

RESEARCH DESIGN research tool of questionnaire The instrument in the form of a questionnaire was divided into 2 sections Section A consisted of the students’ demographic background Section B comprises 35 items divided into 5 different strategies that is reading, writing, listening, speaking and vocabulary strategies

READING STRATEGY ALWAYS USED STRATEGY 19/25 - always quickly find the meaning of the word that they do not know 16/25 - read the headline/synopsis first so that they will get idea what is the material about

The students feel that quickly finding the meaning of the words that they do not know is very useful for them in learning English. They also read the headline or synopsis first to get the rough idea about the material before reading them through. 64% of the students use this strategy of getting pre reading idea before reading the whole material.

RARELY USED STRATEGY Only 4/25 students use pictorial dictionary to learn new words. This is because the students in rural schools are not exposed to the pictorial dictionary 16% of the students have used it before

LISTENING STRATEGY ALWAYS USED STRATEGY 80 % of the students listen to the songs and learn their words 18/25 - listen to the radio, television or talk show

They try to sing along with the song and by that they could memorize new words from the songs. Many English talk shows on the television use basic English language that help them to attain. The shows like Breakfast show discuss on interesting topics that attract their interest to learn the language

RARELY USED STRATEGY 44% of the students rarely use the strategy of guessing the meaning of the word from their body language This is because they are unable to guess the meaning of the words ffrom their body language.

WRITING STRATEGY 64% of the students use the social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to practice their writing. They also start writing with short message or in their diary These rural school students tend to use the technology in grasping English.

RARELY USED STRATEGY The least preferred writing strategy by the rural students is writing a lot and asking people to respond on their writing. Only 3 out of 25 students always use this strategy.

SPEAKING STRATEGY ALWAYS USED STRATEGY 62.5% of students repeat new words that they have learned They prefer to use the strategy of drilling where they repeat the new words that they have learned in order to learn the language. The students think that this is the most appropriate way to enhance their speaking skill.

RARELY USED STRATEGY Only 2 out of 25 students try to speak with the targeted language but mix it words from other language. They least prefer to use the strategies that involve them to speak the language with other people even mixing the language with their mother tongue or other language that they know.

VOCABULARY STRATEGY ALWAYS USED STRATEGY 76% of the students use the strategy of drilling the words that learn many times. They think that drilling the words helps them to remember the words easily

RARELY USED STRATEGY The least preferred vocabulary strategy is breaking the words into parts that can be identified. 52.2% of the students rarely use this strategy to learn the language. This is because most of the students do not know how to use this strategy effectively and they think it is not suitable for them

DISCUSSION From the research, the finding shed that the rural students always use the reading and listening strategies in mastering English. They only sometimes use the speaking strategy which requires them to speak the language with other people.

This could be because they are less exposed to the language and they are not able to use their communication skills. This might be due to that they are lack of confidence in using the language eventhough they have mastered it.