Gender Differences in Use of Learning Strategies

Learning strategies are essential elements of learning which contribute a lot to the attainment of the main goal of language that is communicative competence. They are specific actions taken by the learners in response to language learning problems. For instance, guessing the meaning of a word, organizing, planning, evaluating and interacting are some among others. They also allow learners to become more self–directed and help learners to take control of their own learning. They involve many aspects of the learner, not just the cognitive strategies, but also affective and social aspects as well support learning both directly and indirectly. So, using these strategies, learners can foster particular aspect of competence such as: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competences. Consequently, to facilitate and make learning easy, a foreign language learners have to be aware of the use of learning strategies as such techniques are useful for a particular task to go through. Hence, this work will help researchers or anyone who is interested to deal with learning strategies in relation to gender difference in foreign language context.

Endaweke A.: MA in TEFL at AAU, Ethiopia. Department Head of English at Dire-Dawa University: 2008-2009. Alemu Hailu: PhD in English Language Education, Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad, India. Assistant Professor, DFLL, AAU: 2005 to present; Chairperson of Department of English, AAU: 2010 to present.