Oxford (1990) refers to six categories of learning strategies that are represented in the SILL. These according to Oxford (1990) are referred to as direct or indirect strategies. Direct strategies include cognitive, memory and compensatory strategies and all require mental processing (Oxford, 1990). Indirect strategies namely affective, social and metacognitive strategies don’t necessarily directly involve the language being learned but support and assist with this learning (Oxford, 1990). Hypothesis three aimed to address the association these learning strategies may have with each other and thereby impact on second language achievement.
The results of this study indicated positive correlations between certain of these categories of learning strategies, namely, memory and cognitive strategies, cognitive and metacognitive strategies, metacognitive and social strategies, as well as
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affective and social strategies. As these were positively correlated, an increase in the use of one resulted in an increase in the use of the other. Bearing in mind that metacognitive strategies, as detailed above, has a positive effect on second language achievement, because of these correlations social and cognitive strategies may also play a role in improving learners abilities to use metacognitive strategies more effectively and thereby enhance their second language abilities.
Metacognitive strategies enable the learner to identify their own learning style and needs thereby allowing them to organise their learning process. This encompasses using skills such as paying attention, looking for opportunities to practise, planning when completing language tasks, evaluating your own progress and monitoring the errors you may make (Oxford, 1996). Cognitive strategies allow the learner to reason, analyse and summarise, which are reflective of deep processing, as well as practising in general (Oxford, 1996). Social strategies involve asking questions, working with native speakers and being culturally aware (Oxford, 1996). Based on the results of this study one can identify links between these strategies and can see how they can enhance each other. Through encouraging learners and making them aware of how they can use these strategies effectively second language achievement may too be enhanced.
In terms of these strategies a key factor that stands out is that they all involve contact with others as a means to enhance language learning. Bearing in mind that 52 participants in this study stated that speaking to others in the second language was one of their favourite language learning activities, incorporating these strategies into language learning may seek to further enhance learning as the motivation for such tasks is already there. Macaro (2006) believes that strategies do not operate in isolation but rather combine as clusters to enhance the learning process as can be seen from this study. Alongside this Dornyei and Skehan (2003) argue that motivation plays a key role in language achievement and these participants seem to be motivated through interaction with each other. Therefore through combining these strategies and incorporating them into second language learning and teaching, second language achievement may be enhanced.
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O’Malley and Chamot (1990) further investigated learning strategies and sought to identify whether the task the learner was engaged in influenced the type of strategy that would be employed. They identified certain cognitive and metacognitive strategies that were specifically related to certain language tasks. In vocabulary tasks the metacognitive strategies of monitoring and self-evaluation were used, alongside the cognitive strategies of resourcing and elaboration. In listening tasks selective attention, self-monitoring and problem identification were the metacognitive strategies employed whilst, note-taking, elaboration, inferencing and summarizing were the cognitive strategies being employed. Cloze procedures and writing tasks were also used to establish which metacognitive and cognitive strategies were being employed (O’Malley & Chamot, 1990). Although correlations were found in the present study between metacognitive and cognitive strategies, how these strategies relate to specific language tasks requires further investigation with this age group and within the South African context.
Peacock and Ho (2003) investigated English for Academic Purposes across students in eight disciplines in a university in Hong Kong. This study aimed to compare strategies used across the various disciplines and examined whether or not relationships could be found between strategy use, second language proficiency, age and gender (Peacock & Ho, 2003). This study made use of the SILL alongside in-depth interviews in order to gather the data. Various strategies were seen to be used more readily within certain disciplines, with English students making use of the strategies most frequently and computer study students less often. Positive correlations were established between 27 of the strategies and proficiency in the language. The most frequently used strategies were found to be compensation strategies whilst metacognitive, cognitive, social, memory and affective were used from most to least in that order. This study was conducted with university students. However, further investigation within the school setting would also be valuable as further evidence could be gathered across disciplines to establish whether learning strategies are employed in other areas in the school setting and which strategies may assist in developing proficiency in that discipline or subject. Metacognitive and cognitive strategies within this study also appear to be linked as well as metacognitive and social strategies. Bearing in mind that communicating with and engaging with others was noted in the present study as being a favoured means of
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learning a second language it appears that enhancing these strategies across the curriculum may have a positive impact on language achievement.
5.5. A COMPARISON BETWEEN LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES USED