A Comparative Study Of Male And Female Students Language Learning Strategy Use In Speaking Skills; Lafto Secondary School Grade 10 Students In Focus.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify language learning preferences of students of Lafto Secondary School Students of grade 10. The study was aimed at studying if there were any significant difference among male and female students in relation to language learning strategies preferences. The study revealed that there were differences between male and female students in some of the strategies like; memory strategies and cognitive strategies which are reported to used by male respondents frequently and affective and social strategies which female students frequently used. Regarding compensation strategies and meta-cognitive strategies tre result showed that the students responded with similar results respectively. On the other hand, the responses from teacher’s interview showed that there are challenges of the students in using their own language learning strategy preferences such as; lack of enough confidence in order to become competent speakers and users of English. Furthermore, the teachers reported that the text books did not incorporate all the important elements of speaking activities and there was lack of motivation from language teachers side. This study is believed to contribute a lot in addressing the problems related to language learning strategies. The study is also believed to provide feedback to the concerned government bodies to help them improve the teaching learning processes and assists students to use their own preferred learning strategies and contribute to further investigations to make teaching learning of English more enjoyable, participatory and lifelong career.