Nur Dalila Mohd Arshad P69244

 Beliefs influence the use of language leaming strategies both inside or outside the classroom (Nyikos and Oxford, 1993; Horwitz, 1987; Bialystok, 1981).  Beliefs include: How best to learn a language, which teaching method is more effective, some languages are more difficult to learn than others, some learning and communication strategies are inappropriate in certain settings and beliefs about themselves (whether positive or negative) as language leamers. (Horwitz, 19_8.7; Wenden 1986a, 1986b)

 Negative beliefs : effect on the type of strategies used by language learners (prevent the language learner from using particular learning strategies) (Gowans, 1999)  The low use of metacognitive and memory building strategies were related to a number of negative beliefs that students held (Nyikos and Oxford, 1993)

 (Wong-Fillmore, 1979)  A study of young children showed that cognitive and social strategies were very important.  Chesterfield and Chesterfield (1985)  children developed receptive strategies (repetition and memorization) first.  Then they developed strategies which allowed them to start and maintain interactions (e.g. attention getting and asking for clarification).  Finally, they developed strategies for the identification and monitoring of grammatical errors.

 Purdie and Oliver (1999)  Most primary school children learn English by using metacognitive strategies and social strategies ranked next in importance.  Omally et al (1985a, 1985b)  secondary school student were generally use cognitive strategies and that metacognitive strategies were reported by some more advanced learners.  Ramirez (1986)  after identifying successful strategies employed by 105 learners of French at three levels of study (grade 8, grade 9-10 and grade 10-11) concluded that successful learning behaviours were dependent on the task, and that years of study influenced LLS use

 Females report greater overall strategy use than males and the choice of strategy is influenced by the language learner's gender (Bacon and Finnemann, 1992; Green and Oxford, 1995; Ehrman and Oxford, 1989; Oxford and Ehrman, 1995; Oxford and Nyikos, 1989; Oxford et al, 1993; Politzer, 1983). Politzer (1983)  Found a “relatively minor” difference between male and female learners with females making a greater use of social interaction strategies.

 Oxford and Nyikos (1989)  females reported more frequent strategy use than males (used conversation input elicitation strategies, general study strategies and formal rule-related practice strategies more than males (e.g. asking to speak slowly, requesting pronunciation correction, and guessing what the speaker will say).  women used three different types of social strategies and two types of affective strategies in their study more than men  Oxford and Nyikos (1989) and Green and Oxford (1995) suggest that females choose to use more strategies related to social interaction than males

 Nyikos (1990)  Found that males were better when a visual-spatial stimulus of color plus picture was used. However, females recalled more when color was the mediator.  Suggested that such strategies were the result of the socialization of males and females and that such differences should be considered when the use of strategies was promoted in language learning.

 High level of proficiency has been associated with an increased use of both direct and indirect strategies (Chang, 1990; Green and Oxford, 1995;Park, 1997; Chen, 2002)  low-proficiency students employed more communication strategies than high-proficiency ones while high-proficiency learners employed linguistic-based communication strategies (such as using synonyms) more frequently than low-proficiency learners. Chen (1990)  high-proficiency learners tended to use a wider range of strategies more frequently than do low-proficiency learners, but low-proficiency learners tended to use communication strategies more often than high- proficiency learners (Taguchi, 2002)  Cognitive and metacognitive strategies showed very high correlations with the proficiency level of the participants and were used by high- proficiency learner (Peacock and Ho, 2003)

 Motivation had a pervasive influences on the frequency of strategy use and the type of strategies used by language learners (Oxford et al, 1993; Oxford and Ehrman, 1995; Oxford and Nyikos, 1989).  Motivated language learner uses language learning strategies more often than the less motivated language learner (Oxford et al,1993; Oxford and Nyikos, 1989).  Politzer and McGroarty (1985)  indicated that the goal of the English language learning is a major topic in any discussion of language learning strategies.  Oxford (1989a)  argued that learners learn target languages for different reasons and purposes and this could have an effect on their choice of learning strategies.

 Pickard's (1995)  Intrinsic Motivation: motivation to learn English because of their 'love of languages',  type of strategies used was influenced by motivation that was internally generated through their desire to use language outside the classroom  (Sdorow, 1998)  extrinsic motivation is the desire to perform a task to gain extemal rewards, such as, praise, grades, money').

Nyikos and Oxford (1993)  reporting on a study of university language learners in the USA who were taking a language as a requirement, reported that the students concentrating on obtaining good grades.  rule related processing strategies and academic study strategies, rather than on strategies which improve skills for authentic and communicative language use.