Language learning strategies of the fourth grade students in a state primary school while learning English

There has been an increase in research on language learning strategies in the last three decades. Numerous studies in this field have contributed to both theory and application of language learning strategies. Majority of investigations have focused on adults while studies on young learners are inadequate. The purpose of this study is to investigate the language learning strategies of the fourth grade students in a state primary school while learning English. This study was carried out in Sisli Mahmut Sevket Pasa Primary School. The participants have two hour English classes per week, and this is the first year that they start learning a foreign language. To collect data, Lan?s (2005) thirty one ? item Taiwanese Children?s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL for Taiwanese Children), which was originally developed by Oxford (1990) was applied to 120 participants, 60 of whom are boys and 60 of whom are girls. Microsoft Office Excel program was used to analyze the data. The other instrument to collect data in this study was the Students? diaries. At the end of the study, the most and least used language learning strategies of the fourth grade students while learning English were identified. Compensation, meta-cognitive and memory strategies were found to be the most frequently used strategies, while the least often used strategies were memory and cognitive strategies. In addition, significant gender difference in strategy use was not identified in the study