Language learning strategies of 8 th grade students in a state junior high school in Adana

VI ABSTRACT LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES OF 8th GRADE STUDENTS IN A STATE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN ADANA Ebru ŞİRE Master Thesis, English Language Teaching Department Advisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Hatice SOFU March 1999, 95 pages This study is designed to identify individual metacognitive, cognitive, and social/affective strategies which 8"1 grade students employ in or out of class activities. The strategies are studied with respect to the students' degree of success since some strategies may affect the students' degree of success positively or negatively. The students were randomly selected and separated into two groups, namely successful and unsuccessful, on the basis of their English achievement results. A questionnaire with close ended items was administered to 100 students in Adana Ulubath Hasan Junior High School. It was a structured questionnaire which required the subjects to respond to a strategy description, written in Turkish, by choosing among three alternatives (i.e. "Yes", "No", or "Not Sure"). In the analysis of the data, SPSS, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, was used to calculate the chi-square (X2) value of each item. Then, all the data were displayed in crossbreak tables. The results indicated some significant differences in the use of particular strategies between the successful and the unsuccessful students who participated in the study. Kev words: Language Learning Strategies Metacognitive Strategies Cognitive Strategies Social/ Affective Strategies Achievement Results Successful Students Unsuccessful Students