The Determinants of Choice of Language Learning Strategies in an IT University of Pakistan

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the use of language learning strategies by undergraduate students of an IT university of Pakistan. It focuses on the relationship between university students’ use of language learning strategies with their achievement in the English, different majors along with English, the type of school they got their last degree from, their background area, study hours after university and their attitude towards the target language. Two instruments were used for the purpose of data collection: The Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) developed by Oxford (1990) and Aiken’s Attitude Scale (1979) adapted by Tunc (2003). The instruments were administered to 126 undergraduate students of four different departments of the university who were studying the same courses of English in their second semester along with different majors. The gathered data was analyzed using SPSS program and descriptive statistics and frequencies, Coefficient Correlation and one-way ANOVA tests were carried out. The statistics suggest that Pakistani university students are moderate in the use of language learning strategies. The research participants report that they use compensation, cognitive and metacognitive and memory strategies of moderate frequency while social and affective strategies of low frequency. The study found a significant difference among the students of four different departments in the use of language learning strategies. The successful learners use affective strategies more often than any other strategy.