Variation in Second Language Learners’ Strategies among Non-native English Speakers from Three Language/Culture Backgrounds

This study explored the effects of cultural and linguistic background, L2 proficiency, and gender on language learning strategies for 263 college-level learners from Chinese, Russian, and Latino backgrounds. Data based on the SILL (Oxford, 2001) revealed that Russian students used significantly more strategies than the Chinese students in three categories: memory, cognition, and metacognition. The Latino students used significantly more strategies in only the metacognitive category as compared with the Chinese students. Students with higher English proficiency generally used more strategies. Interestingly, there was no significant difference in strategy use between the Russian group and the Latino group. Our data suggest that gender may interact with other variables such as language and culture as well as other contextual factors. A provocative finding shows that the memory strategy questions on the SILL may not have captured the actual memory strategies used by our Chinese students. Also, greater strategy use by more proficient learners raises a question regarding the role of cognitive load in using strategies when interlanguage is less sophisticated and greater effort must be expended.