Palestinian Language Learners' Learning Strategies: A Case Study of Medical Students

Abstract

The topic of learning strategies has often been researched in the contexts of second language acquisition and language pedagogy. New developments in these fields and change in the characteristics and needs of new learner populations in different contexts call for additional research in this area which is characterized by change and variability. The objective of this study is to throw more light on the issue of strategy use in specific contexts, namely, the Palestinian one. It hence looks at the strategy preference and use by a group of 73 freshman medical students (how sample was selected). The researchers employed Oxford's Strategy Inventory to Language Learners (SILL) as an instrument to survey the frequency of use of different strategy categories and the specific strategy types that belong to them. SPSS program was used to analyse the data. Results show that compensation strategies are the most frequently used by Palestinian medical students, followed by the metacognitive, cognitive, memory, social and affective respectively. These results might provide insight into "good learner strategies" as these medical students are usually considered high achievers since they have obtained the highest scores in the Palestinian high school exit exam (Tawjihi). Results of this study clearly imply that learners in specific contexts may show different trends, hence, more research in specific contexts around the world is called for. Also, learners in such specific contexts need special guidance in using the strategies that they do not show high competence in.