Language Learning Strategies Used by ESL Students of a Chinese Secondary School in Improving Speaking Skills

Abstract

In this globalization era, English has progressively become the medium in every aspect of communication, both in local and international surroundings. Hence, there is a request for speakers who can communicate in English productively in every country. Speaking is one of the most fundamental skills in English language education. A lot has been discussed relating to the good language learners, but not much is investigated about the strategies used in a Chinese school in order to further improve and acquire their second language learning skills. Besides that, students differ in proficiency, hence a suitable language learning strategy needs to be identified to enhance their speaking skills. Thus, this paper aims to identify language learning strategies and also to discover the direct or indirect strategies used by ESL students of a Chinese Secondary school in improving speaking skills. This study employed a quantitative design where a questionnaire was used in collecting the data. The survey was conducted among 50 Senior 2 learners in a particular Chinese school. A purposive sampling technique was used to select the students for this study. The results of the study have indicated that the metacognitive approach is the most often utilized language learning strategy among Independent Chinese School students in enhancing speaking skills. Furthermore, the findings and implications in this study may be beneficial to some ESL educators in exploring the effectiveness of utilizing suitable language learning strategies in enhancing speaking skills in the future.