LANGUAGELEARNI

NGSTRATEGIESI
NENGLISHASAFOREI
GNLANGUAGE
CLASSROOM I
NINDONESI
ANHIGHEREDUCATI
ONCONTEXT
AmeliyaLest
ar i
Sul
tanAgungIsl
ami cUni
versit
ySemar ang
amel
iyal
str
16@std.
unissula.
ac.
id

Abst
ract

Indonesi anuni ver sityst udent sar enotwel l-f

ami l
iarwi t
hl anguagel ear ni ngst rategies( LLS)
ast heyar edependentont heirl ect ur ers.Thi scondi ti
onal so get swor sebecauset he
student sst i
llhave l ow l evelofpr oficiencyal t
hough t heyhave al readybeen l ear ning
Engl ishf ormul tipleyear s.Ther ehavebeenmanyr esear chesonst udent s’ LLSr elatedt o
thef ourl anguageski ll
sandgenderbutt her eisahi ghneedofst udyi ngt hest udent s’ LLS
regar di ngt heiragei nt heI ndonesi anhi ghereducat ioncont ext.Thi sr esear chai medat
i
nvest igat i
ngst udent s’ l anguagel ear ningst rategi esr el atedt ot hei ragesandpr oviding
somest epst omaket eachi ngpr ogr am mor eef f
ect i
vebyconsi deringst udent s’ LLSand
their age as wel l
.Thi sr esear ch ut i
li
zed descr i
ptive sur vey r esear ch desi gn.The
par ti
ci pant swer e1 22Engl i
shDepar tmentst udent satoneofpubl icuni ver siti
esi nBor neo
Isl
and,I ndonesi a.The i nst rumentwasSI LLquest i
onnai r
e.Al lthe col lected dat a wer e
anal yzed st atistical l
y.The f indings show t hatst udent s most ly used met acogni tive
(M=3. 857) ,cogni tive( M=3. 707) ,andcompensat i
onst rat egies( M=3. 563) .Thest udent s’
differentage l ed t hem t o sel ectand i mpl ementdi ff
er entst r
at egi es.Some st eps t o
opt i
mi ze st udent s’ l ear ning st rategi es ar et hr ough i nser t
ing LLS i nst ruction i nt he
cur ri
cul um oft eachi ngpr ogr am,i mpl ement ingcer tainmodel sofst rat egyi nst ruct i
on,and
devel opingl ect urer s’ awar enessofdesi gningi nst ructionatwhi choneoft hemet hods
thatcanbeempl oyedi secl ect i
vemet hods.Consi der i
ngal lf i
ndings,i tcanbeconcl uded
thatal thoughi ndi r ectst rategi esgethi ghermeansofpr efer encef rom t hepar ti
cipant sbut
theydo notonl yf ocuson usi ng i ndi rectst rategi es.Theycombi ne t hose wi t h di rect
strategi es.Fur ther ,t o makest udent smor esuccessf ulont heirl ear ni ng,t hei nst i
tut i
on
i
ncl udi ngl ecturer sandt heacademi ccommuni tyshoul dt akepar tint heef fortoft eachi ng
l
ear ni ngst rategi es.Thi spr ovi desf uturer esear char eat hatemphasi zesondesi gni ngLLS
i
nst ruct ionr egar dingst udent s’ ageandl eveloft heireducat i
on.

Keywor
ds:l
ear
ningst
rat
egy,uni
ver
sit
yst
udent
s,age
I
ntr
oduct
ion

Inconduct ingt eachi ng-learni ngpr ocess,t hepowerofl ect urersandst udent smustbe
equal .Theyshar emat eri
alst obeconst ructedandr esultint hef orm ofknowl edge( Freire,
1970) .However ,t heknowl edgeconst ructionbet weenl ectur ersandst udent swoul dnot
runwel lasl ongast hel ect urerswhomakeanef fortsol elyt oengaget hest udentsi n
l
ear ningpr ocess.Thus,st udent sar eal soneededt obeact ivelyengagedt hroughmaki ng
useofsomest rategiesinl ear ningthemat er i
alst aughtbyt hel ecturers.Ont hecont r
ary,in
Indonesi ancont ext,mai nlyf orEFLpr ogr am,st udentsar enotwel lf
ami l
iarwi thlearning
strategiesanddependentont hei
rl ectur ers( Aunur rahman,Kumi awat i
,andRamadhi yant i
,
201 3).Inf act ,theyshoul dpl ayt heirimpor tantr oleinobt ainingandshar i
ngt heinformation
regar dingt heef fectiveteachi ng-lear ningpr ocess.Oneoft hechal lengest heyhavei st hey
do notr ecogni ze theirl ear ning st rategies,even make use ofappr opr i
atel earning
strategiest ohavesuf fi
cientpr ofi
ciency.Ther ootoft hatchal l
engei sbecauset heyar enot
taughtf ormal lyaboutl earningst r
ategi es.Thus,al t
houghI ndonesi anst udent shaveal r
eady
beenl ear ningEngl i
shsubj ectf ormul tipleyear s,theyhavel ow l evelofpr ofi
ciency( Lie,
2007;Mar celli
no,2008;I mper iani,201 2,Lar son,201 4;Okt aviyant i
,201 7).

Ther ear emanyst udiesandr esear cheshavi ngbeenf ocusedont heLanguageLear ning
Strategies ( LLS)such as Lengkanawat i(1997)who f ocused on t he use ofl earning
str
at egiesbei ngdonebygr oupsofst udents,Umamah( 2008)thenNovi tasar i(
2009)and
Mistarand Umamah ( 201 4)who f ocused on t he research on st udent s’ l earning
str
at egiesf orspeaki ng skills,Aunur rahman,Kumi awat i
,and Ramadhi yant i(201 3)who
focusedonst udyi
ngst udents’ l earningstr
ategi esast heylearnEnglishmai nlyforr eading
skil
l,Set i
yadi ,Sukirl
an,andMahpul( 2016)whof ocusedonst udents’ l ear ningst rat
egies
fort he fourski ll
sin English,and l astOkt aviyanti(201 7)who f ocused on st udents’
l
ear ningst rategiesandt eacher s’ char acterist
ics.Consi deri
ngmanyear l
ierresear ches
focusonst udent s’ learningst rategiesandgender ,iti sfoundthatt her ehasbeenno
resear chwhi chemphasi zesont her elati
onbet weenLLSandage.Ther efore,t hi
sr esearch
exami nest hoset wovar i
ables-st udents’ LLSandage-,how t heyar er elatedeachot her
i
nLLSpr eference.

LLShasbeendef inedbymanyt heorists.Thef i

rstdef i
niti
onput sforwar dbyRubi n( 1981 ).
Shest at
est hatLLS i s“t het echniquesordevi cest hatal earnermayuset o acqui re
l
anguage”.Fur ther ,Oxf ord( 1990)def ines thatLLS i s “specifi
c met hod/ t
echni que
employedbyi ndi viduallearnerst ofaci l
it
atet heircompr ehension,retenti
on,r et
ri
eval,and
appli
cati
onofi nf or mati
oni nsecondorf oreignl anguage”.Then,accor dingt o Br own
(2000),strat
egi esi s“speci fi
c met hodsofappr oaching problemsort ask,modesof
operati
onf orachi evingapar ti
cularend,pl anneddesi gnf orcont r
oll
ingandmani pul ating
cert
aininformat ions”.Next ,itisstatedaswel lthatLLSi s“aconsci ousment alact ivit
y
thatcontainsagoalori ntenti
on,anact i
ont or eacht hisgoal ,andal earningact ivity”
(Cohen,2007) .Fr om t hesef ourt heoriststhenl ear ni
ngst rat
egiesisut i
l
izedconsci ousl yin
ordertohelpst udent sacqui r
et hesecondorf oreignl anguaget heyarel earningabout .
Thisr esearch focuses solel
y on t he investigati
on ofst udents’ language learning
str
ategiesrelat
edt othestudents’ ages.Hence,t hi
sr esearchpr acti
cal
l
ybenefitslect
urer
oft he highereducat i
on inst
it
ution t
oi dentif
yt heirstudent s’ learni
ng st
rategiesand
determine vari
ousl earni
ng tasksand act ivi
ti
es,sel ectand i mplementthe appr opri
ate
teachingmet hodsandmodel sofLLSi nst
ructionbasedonst udents’ l
earni
ngst rat
egies
preference.To sum up,t he resul
tofr esearch can por tray the st
udents’ learning
str
ategies,theirstrat
egiesbased on t heirages,and t he st epsto make the teaching
program mor eeffecti
veandef fi
cienti
nt heIndonesianhi ghereducat i
oncontext
.

Previously,therear edef i
nit
ionsandexpl anati
onr elatedtoLLSandage.However ,tobe
specifi
c,t heoper ati
onaldef i
nit
ionoft heLanguageLear ni
ngSt r
at egi
es(LLS)int hi
sst udy
refer
st ot heconsci ousmet hods,techni ques,acti
vity,ordevi cest hatastudentutili
zefrom
preparation,pr ocess,andeval uationoft hei
rlearningsot heycanacqui r
elanguageand
achieve t he l
ear ni
ng goalsal t
oget her.The st udent s’ LLS cover smemor y,cogni tive,
compensat i
on,met acognit
ive,af f
ective,andsoci alst rat
egies.Mor eover,agei snotonl y
specifi
callyrelatedtoper i
odoft imesomeonehasl ivedbuti talsoconnect swiththel ength
ofhisorhert imet ostudyEngl ishlanguage( Oxf ord,1 990;Devl in,1996).Thest udents’
agei sidentifi
edi ntoseveralrange;t heyar e“under20year sold”,“21 -22year sold”,
“22-23 year s old”,“24-25 year s old”,and “26-27 year s ol
d”.These t wo
operationaldef i
niti
onsareusedcont inuouslyinthel atterdiscussionoft hi
sarti
cle.

Li
ter
atur
eRevi
ew

Undeni ably,eachst udenthast heirownl earningst r

ategi
es.However ,student swi l
lget
diffi
culttobei ndependentont heirl earningi ftheydonotr ecognize,plan,manage,and
evaluatet heirl
earningpr ocess.Kumar avadivelu( 2006)statesthatst udent sexperience
mor emeani ngfulandpr acticallearningi ftheyknow how t olearn.Itmeanst hatifthe
student srecognizethewayt olearnmat erial
spr ovidedbyt helecturerthent heyar egoing
to have di ffer
entexper ience.Posi ti
vely,t hey consi derthe learning cont entst o be
challenging and meani ngf ulfort hem.Mor eover,the students ar e well-planned to
“moni tor their learni
ng success” and i mprove t heir “l earning pot ent
ial
s”
(Kumar avadivelu,2006).Tokeept hei dealcondi t
ionasment i
onedear l
i
eri snotaneasy
thingt odobecausel ecturershavet ober olemodeli nint
roducingt henew st r
ategyand
cer t
ainl
ymakemor eeffortsongi vingchancesf orstudentstohave“mul t
ipl
epr acti
ces”
i
nor dertodeveloptheirlanguagel ear ni
ngaut onomy( Chamot,2008) .

Relatedt ot heef fortofr ecognizingstudents’ learni

ngst rat
egies,therear ef ourmaj or
cl
assificat
ionsuccessf ull
yconst ructedbyRubi n(1981
),O’Mal ley,Chamot ,andWal ker
(1
987) ,and Oxf ord( 1990).Rubi n(1981)focuses on t wo processes whi ch cont r
ibute
directl
yand i ndir
ectlytol earning.Meanwhi l
e,O’Mal ley,Chamot ,and Wal ker( 1987)
highli
ghtt het hreet ypesofl ear ningstr
ategies.Theyar emet acogni t
ive,cogni t
ive,and
social/
affectivest rat
egies.Then,Oxf ord(1990)classif
iest hest rat
egi
esi nto directand
i
ndi r
ectst rategies.Directst r
ategiesar ethe “st r
ategiesinvolving mentalpr ocessand
di
rectl
yi nf
luencingthetargetl
anguage” andi ndir
ectst r
ategiesar e“thosesupporti
ng
andmanagi nglanguage” butnotdir
ectl
yconcerningt hetargetlanguage(Oxf
ord,1990).
I
naddi t
ion,thedi r
ectst
rat
egiescovermemor y,cognit
ive,andcompensat ionwhereasthe
i
ndir
ectoneemphasi zesonmet acogni
ti
ve,af
fecti
veandsoci al st
rategi
es.

Generall
y,Oxf or
d’s classif
icat
ion covers al
llearning st
rategies const
ructed by the
pr
evioustheori
es.Moreover,thef i
gure1showst hatthesixstr
ategiesarecorrelat
edeach
ot
her and cont ri
but
e t he lear
ning bot h di
rect
ly and indirectl
y. Theref
ore, Oxford
cl
assi
ficat
ionandhert heoryaboutl ear
ningstr
ategi
esar ewidelyaccept edtobeusedi n
mostresearches.

Severalresear chesaboutt hel earningst r

ategiesthatisr el
atedt ostudents’ agehave
beenconduct edandr eported.Thest udieswhichar ecloselyrel
evanttot hepr esentwork
areOxf ord( 1990),Devl in(1996),andLeeandOxf ord( 2008).Threeoft hem r epor
ted
aboutt hestudent s’ age,t heper iodofst udyingsecondorf orei
gnl anguage,andt he
l
ear ni
ngstrategiest heyuse.Most l
y,t hemat ureageut i
l
izemet acognit
ivestrategiesrat
her
thananyot herst rategies(Devl i
n,1 996;Lee & Oxf or
d,2008) ,whilet he studentswith
diff
erentageusedi fferentstr
ategiest olearnlanguage( Oxford,1
990).

In accordance withthe l
it
erat
urer evi
ew and previ
ous r
elevantr
esearch r
eport
s,the
researchercar r
iesouttheresearchaboutuniver
sityst
udents’ pr
efer
enceonl earni
ng
strat
egieswhi chisassoci
atedt otheirageandt heyearstheyhaveal r
eadyspentfor
studyingthelanguage.

Met
hod

Thisr esearch emphasi zed on t he kindsofl anguage l earni

ng st r
ategiesused by t he
universi
tyst udentsandt heki ndsofl anguagel earningst r
ategiesusedbyt heuniversity
studentsr egardingtheirageaswel l
.Thus,i nordertoanswert her esearchquestions,the
researchermadeuseofdescr i
ptivesur veyr esearchdesi gn.I twasadapt ed fr
om t he
research desi gn byLodi co etal( 2010).The st epswer eidentif
ying a research topic,
reviewing the lit
eratur
e,devel oping resear ch questi
ons,det ermining the questi
onnaire
beingused,sel ecti
ngpartici
pants,admi nisteri
ngthesur vey,analyzingandi nter
preti
ngt he
surveyr esult
s,andhavi ngf i
nalresearchr esult
.

Thepar ti
cipantsbeinginvolvedinthi
sst udywer ethestudent
sofEngl ishDepar t
mentfr
om
oneofpubl icuniversi
ti
esinBor neoIsl
and,I ndonesi
a.Theywer ethef i
rst,t
hir
d,fi
ft
h,and
seventhsemest erstudent
s.Ther ewere1 27outof320st udentswhor espondedt heonli
ne
questi
onnai re.I
twasduet othemul ti
pleresponsessentbysamepar ticipant
sandnumber
ofstudentswhower enotact i
ve/taki
ngl eaveofabsenceandot herst udentswhodidnot
sendt hei
rr esponseasbei nginformed,t heresearcherrecal
culatedtheexactnumber sof
parti
cipantsandf oundtherewer e122st udentswhosei nfor
mat i
onwoul dbeusedi nthi
s
research.
The dat aint hisr esear ch wer e col l
ect ed byempl oyi
ng a quest ionnaire.The Strat egy
I
nvent oryf orLanguage Lear ning ( SILL)quest i
onnaire( Oxford,1 990)was used t o
i
nvest i
gatest udent s’ l earningst rategies.Int otalt
heSI LLquest ionnairehas50i t
emsand
eachsubcat egor yconsi st
sofcogni ti
ve,memor y,metacogni ti
ve,compensat i
on,affect i
ve
andsoci alstrat egies.Thef ift
yi temsusesLi kertscaleatwhi cht herear efivepointst hat
representcer tai nr esponse.Poi nt1i s“neveroral mostnevert r
ueofme”,poi nt2i s
“usual l
ynott rueofme”,poi nt3i s“somewhatt r
ueofme”,poi nt4i s“usual lytrueof
me”,andpoi nt5i s“al waysoral mostal wayst rueofme”.Fur t
her,ther esear cher
askedt hepar ti
cipant stogi vet heneededdemogr aphici nformationsuchasnames,age,
gender ,and t he semest er t hey wer et aking when r espondi ng t he questionnai re.
Additi
onally,fort heage,t her esearcherusedr angestar t
ingf rom “under20year sol d”,
“21 -22year sol d”,“2223year sold”,“24-25year sol d”,and“26-27year sold” i n
ordert omaket hecl assifi
cationeasi l
ydone.Consi deringt heuseofquest i
onnaire,t he
researcheranal yzedt hei nstrument ’sval idityandr eli
abi l
i
tyaswel l.I
twasf oundt hatal l
i
temswer eval idsi ncet her 0>t her tort her0ofeachi tem washi ghert han.178(n=1 22) .
Mor eover,ther el i
abili
tygained. 94.Ther efore,thei t
emswer evali
dandr eli
able.

Next ,i
nt hisr esearch,t here wer
et wo i ndependentvariabl
es tof ocus on namely
students’ l earni
ngst r
ategiesandage.Asbei ngstat
edearli
er,t
hisresearchinvest
igat
ed
thestudent s’ languagel earni
ngstr
ategiesandkindsoflanguagelearni
ngstrategi
esused
byt heuniver si
tystudentsregardi
ngtheirage.

Forcol l
ecti
ng the data,t he resear
cheradmi nister
ed the questi
onnai
re and made i t
avail
ableint he onl
i
ne ver si
on.Itwast o maket hestudentsflexi
blein answeri
ng and
submitti
ngthequestionnaire.Thequestionnai
rehadbeenpost edsinceOctober30t h,2017.
Thest udentswer egiventwoweeksf oraccessingandfill
i
ngoutt hequest i
onnaire.The
for
mi tsel
fhadt obef i
ll
edoutatone-t i
meaccesssot hestudentscouldnotleavethef or
m
beforeallrequi
reditemswer echosen.Thecol lecteddatathenwer edownl oadedi nthe
excelformattobeusedf orfurt
heranalysi
s.

Alltheent rydatawer eanalyzedst at

ist
ical
ly.Toanswert hef i
rstandsecondquest ion,
descr i
ptivestati
sti
cswasut i
l
izedi nordert of i
ndf orthemeans,st andar ddeviati
on,and
therankf oreachlearningstrategybeingchosenbyt hepar ti
cipants.Ther esult
sofmean
scoref oreachi tem t
henwer ecat egori
zedint ohighuse( usuallyused( 3.5-4.4)&always
oral mostused ( 4.
5-5.0)
),medi um use ( somet i
mes used ( 2.5-3.4)),and l ow use
(generallynotused( 1.
5-2.4)& neveroral mostneverused( 1 .
0-1 .
4))( Oxford,1990)
.In
providingt heanswerf orthel astquest i
on,ther esearcherreflectedont heresultoftwo
previousf indi
ngsandf oundt het heori
esorr esearchr esul
tthatsuppor tt heresearcher
’s
viewpoi nt.