Cross cultural differences in language learning strategy preferences: A comparative study of German and Turkish university EFL students

The purpose of this study is to contribute to literature on language learning strategies of EFL learners who are representing two different selected groups. The focus of the study is to investigate the language learning preferences of Turkish and German EFL learners, and identify possible impact of culture in adopting these learning strategies. For the study, a total of 184 German (N=80) and Turkish (N= 84) EFL learners studying in English Language Department were given SILL (Version 7.0) in their local learning settings. Developed by Oxford (1990), SILL consists of six subsets in which different learning skills are investigated. These subsets are categorized as `Memory strategies?, `Cognitive strategies?, `Compensation strategies,? `Metacognitive strategies,? `Affective strategies,? and `Social strategies.? The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequencies) and independent two-tailed test. In order to obtain more insights into the study a semi-structured interview was conducted with learners. The results have shown that there exist significant learning differences and cultural factors between groups in terms of choosing learning strategies. Keywords: Learning Styles, Learning Strategies, Individual Differences, Culture, EFL, ESL.