An Exploratory Study of Self Reported Language Learning Behaviors and their Relation to Achievement

Abstract

Ninety undergraduate students enrolled in Foreign language courses in French, Spanish and German were asked to respond to a questionnaire concerning their engagement in certain selected learning behaviors culled from recent literature on good language learners. The data reported by the students are described and analyzed according to level of language course, and language. They are also related to student's grades and instructors' evaluations of students' progress, effort and voluntary classroom participation. The main finding is that there is some evidence for a link between certain behaviors and student achievement. However, links between learning behavior and achievement seem dependent on course level and methodology, and suggest the possibility of a learning behavior/treatment interaction.

The Relationship between Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivation and Strategic Use of Language of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

“…However, male learners revealed greater use of compensation strategy. The finding of gender differences is in accordance with previous research studies (Ehrman & Oxford, 1989;Green & Oxford, 1995;Kaylani, 1996;Noguchi, 1991;Nyikos, 1990;Oxford, 1993;Oxford & Ehrman, 1993;Oxford & Nyikos, 1989;Politzer, 1983;Willing, 1988;Yang, 1994). According to Oxford (1993), this finding can be attributed to female"s social skills, stronger verbal skills, and greater conformity to academic and linguistic norms.…”

Communication Strategy Use and Proficiency Level of ESL Learners

“…152-153). For example, Politzer's (1983) items did not focus on "actual strategy use in a real learning task" and his subsequent study did not use a "unified psychological construct" (Politzer & McGroarty, 1985). Similarly, Huang and Van Naerssen (1987) included "learning strategies unrelated to oral communication" but Cohen, Weaver, and Li (1998) excluded "interactional aspects of communication".…”

Gender effects on strategic competence: A survey study on compensatory strategies in a CLIL context

“…Both early research on this issue and more recent research indicates that in terms of amount, females use a greater number of learning strategies (Ehrman & Oxford, 1989;Graham, 1997;Jiménez Catalán, 2003;Oxford, Nyikos, & Ehrman, 1988), and in terms of types, female students use more social language learning strategies (Ehrman & Oxford, 1989;Oxford & Nyikos, 1989;Politzer, 1983) -even though some contradictory evidence María Basterrechea, María Martínez-Adrián y Francisco Gallardo-del-Puerto DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.12795/elia.2017.i17.03 exists in recent studies (Salahshour, Sharifi, & Shalahshour;2013); more affective strategies (Hong-Nam & Leavell, 2006;Yilmaz, 2010), more conversational strategies (Gass & Varonis, 1986;Oxford & Nyikos, 1989), monitoring strategies in comprehension (Bacon, 1992;Oxford & Nyikos, 1989), as well as rehearsing and planning strategies (Bacon & Finnemann, 1992;Ehrman & Oxford, 1989). In contrast, males have been found to use more translation strategies (Bacon, 1992), they use interaction opportunities to produce more output, whereas females use it to obtain more input (Gass & Varonis, 1986), and prefer visual and tactile learning strategies (Reid, 1987).…”

“…As for gender, there were differences in circumlocution, asking for clarification, omission, comprehension check, use of fillers and overexplicitness. The use of social strategies on the part of females was explained by the fact that females generally display greater social orientation than males (Oxford & Nyikos, 1988) and by females' greater interest in social activities (Politzer, 1983). In this vein, females have been shown to be more socially oriented than males (Benenson et al, 2009).…”