PREFERRED STRATEGIES USED BY PEKANBARU SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT’ TO LEARN INDIVIDUAL SKILLS OF ENGLISH

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate how Pekanbaru seniorhigh school students learn various language skills (listening, speaking, reading,writing as well as vocabulary and structure). One of the definitions of languagelearning strategies is defined by Oxford (1990b). She states that languagelearning strategies are specific actions taken by the learners to make learningeasier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more efficient, and moretransferable in new situation. The needed data were collected by interviewing10 selected students from five ethnic groups (Malay, Minangkabau, Javanese,Batak, and Chinese) at various senior high schools in Pekanbaru. Therespondents were asked to answer the following question: If you are asked toincrease the the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing aswell as vocabulary and structure), what do you do? Inter-rater reliability wasused to judge the answers of related respondents in the interview by the qualifiedinter-raters-that are master’s degree in TEFL. The inter-raters modified therespondents’ responses in casual English into acceptable written Englishwithout changing the concept of the expression. The highest frequency hasbeen acknowledged. There are 67 strategies identified as the most-preferredstrategies employed by the respondents to increase the language skills as wellas vocabulary and structure. The use of these strategies can be grouped intoonce-mentioned, twice-mentioned, and more than twice-mentioned. Examplesof strategies mentioned more than twice for improving for improving speakingskills, preparing as much vocabulary as possible (four times); and for improvingwriting skill, the strategy of writing procedurally (three times). Suggestions forfurther study are those the successful learners, less successful learners, andgifted learners should also be taken into account as crucial factors to investigatein the near future.

Key words: strategies, skills, individual