Language Learning Strategy Preference among EFL Students in the College of Basic Education in Kuwait

The purpose of this study is first to identify language-learning strategies used by students learning English language in the college of Basic Education in Kuwait.  It further intends to explore the relationship between  learning strategies and the learners’ language achievement. It will investigate into the  combinations of strategies that are associated with language achievement and differentiate between successful and less successful learning strategies. Secondly, the study will develop an understanding of what strategies contribute to language achievement and how certain variables (gender, age, marital status, travelling abroad) affect the use of learning strategies. Thereby the study’s findings will contribute to pedagogical achievement. The knowledge of the relationships between these variables can help teachers discern the various elements needed to achieve success in learning the English language.  In order to examine English language learning strategies used by students in the College of Basic Education in Kuwait, a set of English learning standardised questionnaire  – the Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning ESL/ EFL ( SILL) Version 7.0 ( Oxford, 1990) –  will be adopted. The researcher in this study reflects the desire to develop means that will allow and enable learners to express a fuller, more active and participatory role in their language learning problems. In addition, it will provide empirical evidence of the connection between language learning strategies, language achievement, and other individual variables. This study will reveal extensive information that will contribute to the field of teaching and learning in the classroom in an EFL program.  The pragmatic implication of studying these strategies is that they can be taught to learners and thus can modify EFL learners’ progress.

Keywords: Applied linguistics(AL), College students and EFL learners, Gender differences, Kuwait higher Education, Language Learning Strategy (LLS), Language learning acquisition (ALA), Teaching English as foreign Language (EFL)