ESL Teachers’ Employment of Instructional Language Strategies: Towards Effective Language Learning Strategies

Abstract

In this study, the researchers hypothesised that teachers’ roles in employing Instructional Language Strategies (ILS) could enhance students’ and teachers’ self-directed language learning skills. An exploratory study was conducted to examine the teachers’ views about teaching English language and their frequency of employment of ILS in their ESL classroom. The eight ESL secondary school teachers were randomly selected from a few schools in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. The study attempts to find out the most frequently employed strategies and how the teachers’ perception determines their choice of strategies. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and were triangulated with the ILS questionnaire adapted from the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). Both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data were carried out. Description of teachers’ responses and descriptive statistics were used to support the findings. Data revealed that the most frequently employed strategies were metacognitive strategies, followed by memory, compensation and cognitive strategies. Social strategies and affective strategies were the two least employed strategies. Analyses also showed that teachers’ choices of employment of ILS were influenced by their perception on language teaching and learning. Some recommendations for further researches and implications of teachers’ choices of employment of ILS were discussed.