Abstract
Many studies have been done on language learning strategies employed by different type of learners and in various contexts. However, very little studies have been done on gifted students regarding language learning. Gifted students have unique characteristics and have different ways if thinking and learning. These characteristics affect how they learn a language. The main objective of the study was to investigate language learning strategies use among gifted students enrolled in special programme called PERMATApintar Education Programme. Data was gathered using a survey questionnaire with 104 gifted students. The instrument used in this study was Strategy Inventory Language Learning (SILL) questionnaire by Oxford (1990). Data was analyzed using descriptive analysis. It provides mean, percentages of responses and level of frequency. The findings revealed that gifted students use more indirect strategies particularly metacognitive strategies than direct strategies. There was variation in responses with regard to the use of language learning strategies among Malaysian gifted students. Language learning strategies have many potential benefits to educators, teachers and students. Implications and suggestions for future research are further discussed.
Highlights
English Language has become the second most important language in Malaysia, after Bahasa Malaysia as the country’s national language
The main objective of the study was to investigate language learning strategies use among gifted students enrolled in special programme called PERMATApintar Education Programme
The result derived from descriptive analysis of the study indicated that gifted students are high strategy users
Summary
English Language has become the second most important language in Malaysia, after Bahasa Malaysia as the country’s national language. Malaysia is aware of the vital need to be literate and competence in English in order to access the wealth of data available and achieve a reasonable measure of success in all fields. The issue of declining standard of English among Malaysian students has become worrisome for all (Saadiyah and Kaladevi 2009). This is evident in Malaysians’ everyday speech, which are often marred by grammatical and phonological errors or at times too loaded with “suffixes” (e.g. lah, lor, meh) and loan words from other languages (Muniandy et al 2010). One of the possible reasons that the majority of Malaysian ESL learners are incompetence user of English is because they do not learn the language effectively (Sahandri and Saifudin 2009)
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