Age Differences in the Use of Language Learning Strategies

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate language learning strategies used by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners at different educational levels and explored the influence of age on the use of language learning strategies. A total of 1,023 students participated in the study. Out of the participants, there were 250 primary students (aged 10-12), 245 junior high school students (aged 13-15), 249 senior high school students (aged 16-18), and 279 tertiary students (aged 20-22). The instrument for data collection was the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). Results showed that statistically significant relationships existed between different age groups and the use of memory strategies, compensation strategies, metacognitive strategies, and affective strategies. Specifically, secondary and tertiary students reported using compensation strategies more frequently than primary students (p = .000). Tertiary students used social and affective strategies more frequently than did other age groups. The result indicated that age increase is likely to encourage learners to use strategies with more emphasis on the social and functional strategies. Implications are that it is critical for teachers to be more aware of the differences in their students and adjust their teaching practices to meet the developmental needs of students.

A "critical period" in the use of language learning strategies

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Recognition of English and German Borrowings in the Russian Language (Based on Lexical Borrowings in the Field of Economics)

“…Being well studied, the problem of borrowings can still find reflections in researchers in the field of a second language acquisition, as well as in studying the influence of the age on the acquisition of a foreign language (Chen, 2014). Different educational levels and occupation are also of great importance for our future work basing on the conducted study.…”

The Deployment of English Learning Strategies in the CLIL Approach: A Comparison Study of Taiwan and Hong Kong Tertiary Level Contexts

“…Echoing the previous international studies, different variables have been found to affect LLS across learner groups in the context of Taiwan. For example, investigations by Chang, Liu, and Lee (2007) and Chang (2011) identified significant differences in strategy use according to gender and academic major, according to age, as found by Chen (2014), grade level (Chen, 2009), ethnic group (Yang, 2007), proficiency level (Lai, 2009;Wu, 2008), motivation (Lan & Oxford, 2003), and learner beliefs (Yang, 1999). Almost all of these studies came to the conclusion that Taiwanese EFL learners are low to medium strategy users, with average scores ranging from 2.5 to 3.4 out of a total of 5.…”

“…Hence, the number of CLIL courses/programmes, all of which are delivered in English only, is growing at a fast rate. Studies evaluating CLIL programmes and their positive effects on learners' achievements have recently been carried out (Yang, 2015(Yang, , 2017a(Yang, , 2017bYang & Gosling, 2013, 2014. However, there is still a need for a thorough and deeper investigation of which strategy types are deployed by CLIL learners to approach both content and language learning via English in Taiwan's CLIL educational context, to better understand which strategies account for the initial success of the approach.…”