Language learning strategies in bilingual context: a case study

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the language learning strategies (LLSs) employed by 118 high school students, ranging between 14 and 18-year-olds and receiving bilingual education, for identifying the commonly used direct and indirect strategies and if the use of LLSs differs with respect to age, gender, grade level, proficiency level and importance given to proficiency. The data were collected through Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL, Version 7.0) from a high school offering bilingual degrees in Ankara. The results of the study revealed that memory and metacognitive strategies are the most, but compensatory and affective strategies are the least preferred strategies, and that the use of some of the sub-categories of LLSs differs depending on age, gender, grade level, proficiency level and importance given to proficiency. Also, bilingual high school students, generally, at younger ages, who are female, at lower grades, with lower proficiency level, and who consider their proficiency as “very important tend to utilize LLSs more.