The examination of the language learning strategies of university preparatory class students with respect to various variables

The aim of this study is to examine the use of language learning strategies of university preparatory class students with respect to their gender, sort of LYS (Undergraduate Placement Exam) point and native language. The attendants of the study were 461 students who study at Düzce University preparatory unit. ?Language Learning Strategies Inventory?, which was developed by Oxford (1990) and adapted to Turkish by Cesur and Fer (2007), was used to identify the use of language strategies of the attendants. SPSS 16.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) was benefited to analyze the data obtained from the attendants. The difference between students? general use of strategies and gender was analyzed through Independent Sample t-test technique. The difference between students? sorts of LYS (Undergraduate Placement Exam) point and native language and their students? general use of strategies was analyzed through One Way ANOVA technique. Some qualitative data were also obtained from the students whose native languages are different from Turkish.According to the findings of the study, the mean of the scores of general strategy used was found to be 3,06, which means a medium level of strategy use. It was identified that the mostly preferred strategy type was ?social strategies? and the strategies that were used the least were ?affective strategies?. Although a meaningful difference was not been identified between students? general strategy use and gender; there was a meaningful difference between memory strategies and gender, favoring females, and between compensation strategies and gender, favoring males. As to the difference between strategy use and sort of LYS point, there were not any meaningful differences between sort of LYS point and both general and sub-group strategy uses. There were not any differences between the general and sub-group strategy uses of Turkish speaking and students whose native language is different from Turkish. However; there was a meaningful difference in cognitive strategy use, favoring Kurdish speaking students. Additionally, it was found that the strategy group used by students whose native language is different from Turkish mostly was the group of cognitive strategies.Keywords: Foreign Language Teaching, Language learning strategies, Gender, Sort of LYS point, Native language