IN THIS ARTICLE WE DISCUSS VARIABLESaffecting choice of learning strategies used by 1,200 foreign language students in a conventional academic setting, a major university in the midwestern USA. In terms of the number of subjects involved, this investigation is probably one of the largest learning studies to date in anyinstructional field, and is almost certainly the largest completed study oflanguage learning strategies.! RESEARCH BACKGROUNDLearning strategies are operations used by learners to aid the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of information (52). Outside of the language learning field, research comparing experts to novices indicates that experts use more systematic and useful problem-solving and native-language reading comprehension strategies.s A similar finding occurs with more successful language learners as compared to less successful ones." Better language learners generally use strategies appropriate to their own stage oflearning, personality, age, purpose for learning the language, and type of Ianguage.! Good language learners use a variety oflearning strategies, including cognitive strategies for associating new information with existing information in long-term memory and for forming and revising internal mental models; metacognitive strategies for exercising "executive control" through planning, arranging, focusing, and evaluating their own learning process; social strategies for interacting with others and managing discourse; affective strategies for directing feelings, motivations, and attitudes related to learning; and compensation strategies (such as guessing unknown meanings while listening and reading, or using circumlocution in speak-The Modern LanguageJournal, 73, iii (1989) 0026-7902/89/0003/291' $1.50/0 <1:>1989 The Modern Language Journal ing and writing) for overcoming deficiencies in knowledge of the language. 5 Appropriate learning strategies help explain the performance of good language learners; similarly, inappropriate learning strategies aid in understanding the frequent failures of poor language learnersand even the occasional weaknesses of good ones."Use of appropriate learning strategies enables students to take responsibility for their own learning by enhancing learner autonomy, independence, and self-direction. 7 These factors are important because learners need to keep on learning even when they are no longer in a formal classroom setting (42). Moreover, cognitive psychology shows that learning strategies help learners to assimilate new information into their own existing mental structures or schemata, thus creating increasingly rich and complex schemata. 8 As they move toward language proficiency, language learners develop their own understandings or models of the second or foreign language and its surrounding culture. Unlike most other characteristics of the learner, such as aptitude, attitude, motivation, personality, and general cognitive style, learning strategies are readily teachable. 9 Various researchers have studied factors related to choice of language le...

Sex has been omitted as a variable in most research on language learning strategies. This is a serious omission, given that sex is typically a significant predictor in other educational, psychological, and linguistic research. This article reports on the few studies which have explored sex differences in the use of language learning strategies. The authors of this article speculate why females appear to use afar wider range of language learning strategies than do males, and why social strategies — which contribute strongly to the development of communicative competence — seem to be more popular among women than men. Research implications of the few available findings on sex differences in strategy use are presented.

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