The Relationship between Language Learning Strategies and Gender among Primary School Students

Research on language learning strategies has been carried out extensively since mid 1990s in Malaysia.These studies have covered the language learning strategies among secondary and undergraduate students but not on primary school students.The main objective of the study was to identify and compare the language learning strategies used by male and female primary school students.Data was collected using a survey questionnaire with 60 students from two classes of primary 6, consisting of 30 male students and 30 female students.The instruments used in this study include a background information questionnaire and a bilingual Language Strategy Use Questionnaire adapted from Language Strategy Use Inventory by Cohen, Oxford and Chi (2002).Data was analyzed through mean, frequency and t-test.The findings revealed that there was a significant difference in the overall use of strategies between male and female students (p = 0.01).Female students tend to use overall language learning strategies more often than male students in learning English language.The pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research are further discussed.