L ANGUAGE L EARNING S TRATEGIES U SE S URVEY Asnadia Binti Alias P71725

INTRODUCTION English is one of the major world-languages The level of English language proficiency among rural students has become a big issue. This can be directly attributed to the failure of mastering the English language in their daily lives. They are unable to communicate in the language due to the lack of exposure and practice.

Objective to find out language learning strategies employed by ESL learners. Special learners’ strategies might help to master second language acquisition. Limitation The sample size for this study is relatively small. 10 students from standard 6 Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Desaminium. The findings of this study may not be representative of the opinions of other students from other school in Malaysia.

M ETHODOLOGY Research design A quantitative research as the data are collected based on questionnaires. Statistics, charts and table are often used to present the result of these methods. Sample and sample selection Selected based on students’ grade in English for standard five final examinations. Students from standard 6 were selected and from those only 10 students were chosen thoroughly. The samples comprised males and females from different socio-economic background.

M ETHODOLOGY Data gathering instruments Only one instrument used ; questionnaires. The questionnaires consists of 6 parts : Part A (Listening Strategy Use) ; Part B (Speaking Strategy Use) ; Part C (Reading Strategy Use) ; Part D (Writing Strategy Use) ; Part E (Vocabulary Strategy Use) and Part F (Grammatical Strategy Use)

LITERATURE REVIEW Mohamed Amin Embi (2000) claims that language learning strategies are plans and/or actions that learners take to improve their process of language learning. Rubin and Stern (1975), good language learner might be doing something special or difference. Naiman (1978) and Rubin (1975) in their research had identified strategies reported by students or observed in language learning situations that appear to contribute to learning.

PART A: LISTENING STRATEGY USE

100% learners chose to use this strategy and like it. This strategy is likely the most effective strategy for listening skills. Learner may not understand the meaning at first time they listen and need repetition to understand it.

PART B: SPEAKING STRATEGY USE

80% learners use this strategy and like it while 20% learners have tried this strategy and would use it again. Using gestures and body language helps learners to communicate with others successfully. Learners might have difficulty to utter the correct words but using gestures and body language, its help other people get the message delivered clearly.

PART C: READING STRATEGY USE

100% learners use this strategy and like it. By reading a lot in English, learners get more exposure in English structure, grammar and vocabulary. Besides, learners can learn many new words when they read in English. Learners may also be able to read different genres from their reading.

PART D: WRITING STRATEGY USE

100% learners use this strategy and like it. Seems this strategy is widely used by the learners. It is the easiest way to find grammatical mistakes in writing.

PART E: VOCABULARY STRATEGY USE

40% learners use this strategy and like it while 30% learners have tried this strategy and would use it again. 30% learners never used this strategy but interested in it. This strategy will help learners to enrich their vocabulary list. Besides this strategy is quit fun because the learners have to figure out the word that related to other word

PART F: GRAMMAR STRATEGY USE

60% learners use this strategy and like it while 40% learners have tried this strategy and would use it again. The main reason for this choice because online exercises are free of charge and easy to access. In addition, there are varieties of grammar exercises available for learners to try to.

CONCLUSION majority of the students share similar strategies for particular skills. There are few strategies that all of the learners used it and it shows that particular strategies are relevant for those particular skills. none of the learners chose the strategy doesn’t fit for them for all strategies stated in questionnaires given. For Part E (Vocabulary Strategy Use) and Part F (Grammar Strategy Use) there are few numbers of learners who were never used the strategies stated in questionnaires. It reveals that learners did not know the strategy that they should use for vocabulary skill.

CONCLUSION students should be exposing more to the strategies for vocabulary and grammar skills. Give guidelines to the students will help students to figure out which strategies that can match their interest and capabilities in learning process.