LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES USED BY IRAQI PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Since the amount of information to be processed by language learners is high in language classroom, learners use different language learning strategies in performing the tasks and processing the new input they face. This paper presented the learning strategies used by Fifth and Sixth primary graders in government schools in Babylon in Iraq. The Strategy Inventory for Language Learning questionnaire has been conducted with a sample of 120 pupils to identify the strategies used during language learning. Children were included in this part of the study in an attempt to understand how children engage with and acquire the English language which is a foreign language to them and not easily heard around them. The focus here is to document the strategies that children use in their learning and working with an unfamiliar language. Interesting result of the investigation in this study is that, despite their age and very brief exposure to English, these young learners reported using many learning strategies to assist their second language learning. There is also evidence from this study that children of this age can describe their strategies effectively. Findings also provided strong evidence that all learners, irrespective of their stage or their proficiency, have an extensive resort to learning strategies which they are used in the process of acquiring a particular area of the FL as a reflection of the learning patterns adopted during the language learning process. The results of the study indicated that differences in strategies used by young learners were found in the group preference of strategy categories in both grades.

Keywords: SILL,Oxford’s classification, metacognitive strategies, Iraqi primary schools, Critical Period Hypothesis, Language Learning strategies.