EFL and ESP Learners’ Use of Language Learning Strategies: A Study of Collocations

Abstract

The present study was intended to explore language learning strategies used by Iranian EFL and ESP learners when dealing with collocations in reading passages. Additionally, the survey was aimed to explore differences between strategy use by EFL and ESP participants who were 182 EFL and 146 ESP learners from three universities in Isfahan, namely Islamic Azad University-Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University-Khorasgan Branch, and University of Isfahan. Oxford’s (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) was used, which is a fifty-item questionnaire and participants were required to use a scale of 1 to 5 for each statement. To find the types of language learning strategies, the results were subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The PCA for both EFL and ESP participants revealed the presence of five components or factors. These factors included Metacognitive, Socio-Affective, Cognitive-Compensatory, Cognitive-Memory, and Memory-Social for EFL participants and Cognitive, Compensatory-Social, Metacognitive Memory, Cognitive-Metacognitive, and Cognitive-Affective for ESP participants. As the results indicate, EFL and ESP participants used quite different strategies. In fact, in contrast to EFL participants who preferred Social strategies, those in the ESP group resorted to Cognitive strategies. In addition, ESP participants did not seem to benefit from Affective, Social, and Memory strategies the way EFL participants did.