Language learning strategies used by male and female foreign missionaries in the acquisition of the Filipino language

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to know the language learning strategies used by male and female foreign missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to see whether the missionaries gender make a significant difference in the choice of language learning strategy use. The instrument used for data collection was Strategy Inventory for Language Learning. The findings show that male and female foreign missionaries agree on the least used language learning strategy which is Affective Strategy. A likely explanation why affective Strategies was the least frequently used strategy in the present study might imply that respondents are in denial that they are having problems in learning the Filipino language, might also have a negative evaluation anxiety, and might be aware of the influential roles of affective strategies in their success in second language acquisition. The results of the mean also show that female foreign missionaries are high strategy users of all six strategies while male foreign missionaries where found to be high users of only four strategies. Upon using T-test, it was found that there are no significant differences between male and female in their strategy use. The researchers believes that the absence of significant gender differences in language learning strategies could be attributed to motivation.

Filipiniana