Exploring The Use of Language Learning Strategies Through Reciprocal Determinism

Abstract

A learning strategy is a person's approach to completing a task and it varies according to individual compatibility. In learning Japanese, the use of appropriate strategies plays an important role in the learning process and can improve students’ performance. The researchers were inspired and motivated to conduct this study to discover students' views on the strategies used to learn Japanese to achieve optimal learning outcomes. Thus, the objective of this study was to explore learning strategies through reciprocal determinism used by undergraduate students studying Japanese at the main campus of Malaysia's largest public university. This quantitative research employed a survey via Google Form with 5-Likert scales and was administered to 144 participants learning Japanese as a third language course. It contained four sections that engaged a merge of Bandura’s (1986) reciprocal determinism and learning strategies by Wenden & Rubin (1987). The instruments were divided into three sections which consisted of 41 items with 19 items on Behaviour, 11 items on Individual Characteristics and 11 items on Environment. Data was analysed using SPSS Frequency Statistics. The findings showed that generally students claimed that they practiced saying the materials to themselves repetitively, memorised key words to be reminded of key concepts and kept studying the materials learned from class. The data also revealed that students were mostly positive on their metacognitive self-regulation. Furthermore, within a good environment, students put in effort in their studying and they sought help when needed. Future studies are encouraged to focus on creating a teaching model based on the language learning strategy found in this research through qualitative research or a combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods between face-to-face and online language learning.