Abstract
It is commonly believed that Nigerian students perform very poorly in the English language. Many reasons adduced to be the causative variables for students’ poor performance in the English language are located away from the students themselves. What the above scenario portends is that no effort has been made to find out the strategies which the students themselves use in their efforts to learn the English language; it also implies that no effort has been made to find out the relationship between such strategies and the level of students’ performance in the target language. The problem which this study addressed was not only to evaluate the language learning strategies which the sampled study population use in their efforts to learn English, but also to determine the extent to which their mean achievement scores in English depend on their use of various language learning strategies. The study was carried out using a descriptive survey research design. Its population consisted of Senior Secondary School (SSS) form II students in three states of south-eastern Nigeria. Random sampling technique was used to select a total of one thousand, four hundred and one (1401: 747 = males, 654 = females) students used for the study. Two sets of instrument were used to collect data for the investigation: appraisal instrument (cloze test), and questionnaire. Two research questions and corresponding two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Results of the study revealed that 1) the greatest proportion of the Igbo learners of English in SSS II (84.3%) made use of socio-affective language learning strategy, while cognitive strategy had the lowest proportion of users (50.9%); 2) there was a significant difference, in the English language performance, between the users and non-users of the various language learning strategies.
Highlights
English Language Learning, Igbo Language Learners, Strategy Use and Language Performance, Second Language Learners in Nigeria
The problem which this study addressed was to determine the percentage of the Igbo learners of English who were in Secondary School II (SSS II) in south-eastern Nigeria that made use of different language learning strategies; the study further ascertained the extent to which the mean achievement scores, in English, of Igbo learners of English in Senior Secondary School (SSS) II depended on their use of various language learning strategies
Two research questions were designed as follows: Research Question 1: What proportion of the Igbo learners of the English language in Senior Secondary School II (SSS II) uses the various language learning strategies (LLS) in learning English as a second language? Research Question 2: To what extent do the mean achievement scores in the English of the Igbo learners of English in SSS II depend on their use of various language learning strategies? Arising from the foregoing, and to guide the investigation, the following null hypotheses were formulated: Ho1: There is no significant difference between the proportion of the Igbo learners of English who use the various language learning strategies and those who do not use them
Summary
English Language Learning, Igbo Language Learners, Strategy Use and Language Performance, Second Language Learners in Nigeria. Different scholars use various terms to refer to the concept: learner strategies, learning strategies, and language learning strategies (http://iteslj.org/Articles/Lessard-Clouston-Strategy.html). These terms are used interchangeably in this work. Learner strategies are performance-related, application-specific, subject to different levels of achievements, and usually lead to language learning success. Experts such as Lessard-Clouston (1997), Ellis (2005), and Steinberg and Sciarini (2006) are in accord that successful language learners frequently use the following components of strategies: verification, inductive processing, deductive reasoning, practice, memorization, and monitoring. Within social strategy is found such features as asking questions, co-operating and empathizing with others (Oxford, cited in Lessard-Clouston, 4)
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