Cognitive Strategies for learning foreign languages and their impact on the academic achievement A statistical study conducted on the students of the French language Department at the Faculty of Arts, King Abdulaziz University

Abstract

The aim of this research is to introduce cognitive strategies of learning foreign languages, especially French as a foreign language. It highlights the direct relationship between the extent to which these strategies are applied and the cumulative achievement of French language students in the sixth, seventh and eighth levels. It also focuses on knowing the attitudes of female students towards the application of these strategies, and the detection of individual differences between the top, intermediate and average students according to the application of these strategies. In this study, a questionnaire is used to measure the extent to which these strategies were applied, and to link the percentage of their application to the academic achievement level of the students. The target is to identify the main reasons for the failure of a large number of students in mastering the French language and getting low grades. Moreover, it measures several factors that reflect the attitudes of the students in the application of cognitive strategies. These are the interaction of the direct learner with the content of the cruccila of the courses, the mental and actual use of the material, the application of the techniques to solve a problem and the implementation of a learning task. These strategies are often concrete and easy to observe. It lies at the heart of the learning process. These strategies stimulate teachers to encourage learners to apply these rules when they summarize their goals, review what has been explained, and seek to rephrase the objectives, meanings and linguistic uses of communicative activity through language exercises; in accordance with the analysis of the results of the questionnaire used in the research.