2. GENDER
• Based on several studies, the results have shown that females are using more
strategies than males
• Example:
* Oxford and Nyikos (1989) have investigated 1200 undergraduate university
students. They have found that females reported more frequent strategy use
than males of formal practice strategies, general study strategies and
conversational input elicitation strategies.
• There are also some studies that show males had a greater use of certain
strategies than females.
• Example:
* Tran’s (1988) study of Vietnamese immigrant in USA revealed that males
made a greater use of strategies to learn and to improve their English
language skills.
3. CAREER CHOICE
• People with different choice of career and occupation often use different
types of strategies.
• Examples:
* The study of Politzer and McGroarty show learners who were majors in
engeeniring or physical sciences have scored lower from those who did majors
in social sciences and humanities background.
* Ehrman and Oxford (1988) state that professional language trainers using
more than native-speaker language teachers and students.
4. CULTURAL BACKGROUND
• Learners from different cultural backgrounds use different kinds of strategies.
• Although research have been conducted, it is difficult to say that the previous
studies have comprehensively investigated the effects of cultural background.
• Examples:
• * Bedell’s (1993) study cited in Oxford, etc. al. (1995) was learners from various
cultural backgrounds use certain types of strategies at different levels of frequency.
• * Politzer and McGrroarty (1985), Asian students tend to prefer rote memorization
strategies and rule-oriented strategies.
• *McGroarty (1987) cited in Oxford, etc. al. (1995) found that Spanish learners use
traditional strategies such as using a dictionary to learn new words.
5. MOTIVATION
• Motivation of language learners is said to be influential on the selection and
the use of strategy in various studies.
• Example:
* Oxford and Nyikos (1989: 295) asserted that motivation had a “ pervasive
influence on the reported use of specific kind of strategies….”
6. LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY
• High proficient learners use a greater and wider variety of LLSs.
• In some learners more strategy use might increase proficiency and vice
versa.
• Examples:
• * O’Malley et al. (1985a) found that ESL school beginners reported using
more strategies than did the students from the intermediate level.
• * Beginners are reported less use of strategies than those from the
intermediate level based on a study conducted on learners of Spanish and
Russian by O’Malley and Chamot (1990).
