LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Learners' Strategies, Preferences and Styles in learning English as a Foreign Language:
A Study on the Preferences of Higher Secondary Students in Bangladesh

M. Enamul Hoque, M.A., M.Phil.

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the learning strategies, preferences, and styles of Higher Secondary students in Bangladesh. For this purpose, 130 students were randomly selected from 10 Higher Secondary colleges to state their views through a questionnaire as to how they preferred learning English as a foreign language. The findings of the study revealed significant results suggesting a closer co-operation between students and teachers as to how learning activities should be arranged and practiced in the English class.

Key words: learning strategies, preferences, styles, correction of works, foreign language.

Objectives of the Study

The aim of the present study is to identify the strategies, styles and learning preferences that the higher secondary students followed while learning English as a foreign language. This study presents an approximate picture about the students' likings, disliking and preferences. As the primary sources of data are the subjects' own insights into the learning process, the focus is on the actions that the learners consciously employ to facilitate learning, and, as Oxford (1989) suggests, make it more enjoyable. These actions are both behavioural (and, therefore, directly observable) and mental (in which case they have to be accessed via student self-observation). Thus the study intends to examine the language learning preferences of the Higher Secondary students of Bangladesh. Particularly, the study seeks answers to the following questions:

• What are the learning strategies, styles and preferences those Higher Secondary students of Bangladesh employ both inside and outside the classroom to expedite learning?
• Whether their strategies, preferences and styles, contradict or correlate with other investigations in Bangladesh/South Asia and abroad.
• Whether the learners' strategies and other modes of learning significantly vary from one another in language learning.

Methodology of the Study

Subjects

For the present study, 130 students of higher secondary class have been randomly selected from 10 colleges to collect data through questionnaire (Questionnaire given in the appendix). The subjects have already been learning English as a language for 11 years. The respondents filled in a 14-item questionnaire on various issues relating to learning English as a foreign language. The questionnaire is intended to get information from the students. The respondents were randomly selected from a big number of respondents and they were requested to express their views freely.

The 14 items that were focused in this study are as follows:

1. How do you like learning? Learning Style preferred by students.
2. Do you like learning by -----------? (Method of learning)
3. When do you want to be corrected by your teacher?
4. Do you mind if other students/peers correct your work?
5. Do you mind if the teacher sometimes asks you to correct your own work?
6. Which activities do you prefer in learning?
7. Do you feel shy while speaking with others in English?
8. Do you evaluate or assess your written or oral production?
9. Do you feel that your speaking performance varies in different situations?
10. What type of teacher do you like?
11. Do you like to use Media in leaning English?
12. Do you like learning about English culture?
13. When learning new vocabulary, do you like the following?
14. Why do you need English?

Sampling and Instrumentation

The use of questionnaires is one of the most common research methods in foreign language research, because it can produce a large amount of information about many different issues. In this particular research context, learners' methodological preferences for learning English are examined using a slightly modified questionnaire described in the reference of Nunan & Lamb, (1996). The questionnaire (after Nunan & Lamb, 1996) is modified in accordance with our settings.

In the present study, data is collected through questionnaires adapted following the model of Brindley (1984), and Nunan and Lamb (1996). The models of Gardner (1985) and Kenning (2001) are also consulted for reliability, validity and justification of framing the questionnaire. Each of the questions explores a particular FL/SL topic.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

Levine (2003) describes three types of analysis - descriptive, analytical and contextual. In this present study, the contextual method is followed for the analysis of the data, because this method is easily understandable and timesaving.

For questions which demand responses other than Yes / No, the respondents are in most cases requested to tick one out of 4 to 5 options. The detailed analysis of the data, findings, and interpretation are presented in the following pages.

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Text and Reading: Exercises in Hermeneutics Applying Hermeneutics Models for an Analysis and Interpretation of Malayalam Novels | Learners' Strategies, Preferences and Styles in learning English as a Foreign Language: A Study on the Preferences of Higher Secondary Students in Bangladesh | Bilingual-Bicultural Approaches and ASL Problems of Multilingual Societies in India | The Discrepancies in the Pace Of Language Comprehension of Management Quota and Government Quota Students of Engineering Colleges | Teaching English Language through the Internet: Chatting, Search Engines and Weblogs | Persian vs. Farsi Dichotomy in the Internet | Proficiency in English for Pilots, Air Traffic Controllers, et al. | HOME PAGE of March 2008 Issue | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR