Learning foreign language is challenging, especially so without a proper learning approach to the language. Therefore, one should equip oneself with suitable language learning strategies. Teachers should be perceptive of different language learning strategies in learners and which strategies they benefit the most. This quantitative research is carried out to investigate how learners use cognitive and metacognitive strategies in learning French as a foreign language. The instrument used in the study is a survey adapted from Wenden and Rubin (1987). 189 respondents were purposively chosen to answer the survey. The survey has 3 main sections: demographic profile, 19 items on Cognitive components and 11 items on the use of Metacognitive self-regulation. The findings of this study revealed that both cognitive and metacognitive strategies were adopted by students in learning French. Harmonious balance was observed between both strategies. Cognitive strategies were often used for rehearsal, elaboration, followed by organisation and then critical thinking. For metacognitive strategies were used often in planning and self-evaluation. This is then followed by monitoring. For future research, different learning strategies used by learners in learning a foreign language, especially in a specific learning context can be analysed to attain a more comprehension results.
Learning a foreign language can be challenging to many students. Having to familiarize oneself with an entirely new language and culture is not an easy task to do. This causes anxiety among learners while attending foreign language lessons. Thus, this study is done to investigate the causes of the students' anxiety upon learning foreign language. 120 respondents from a public university in Malaysia composed of three different French class levels participated in answering this survey. Adapted from Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986), the survey includes communication apprehension, test anxiety and negative evaluation as tools to measure student's anxiety scale. The survey revealed that the three tools mentioned above are certainly causing learners to be anxious during foreign language lessons. Findings from this quantitative research also projected students' anxiety scale through means score accordingly with negative evaluation coming as the highest total mean of 3.25. In the face of students' profound anxiety, educators' role is crucial in minimizing students' worry so that it will not affect students' study.
There are many reasons that motivates people to learn a new language. Some people learn a language for practical reasons. Some just love the language and its people. Motivation to learn a language is the pushing factor for the learners to succeed. This motivation sometime becomes the drive for the learners participate in the learning process. This then reduces their fear of learning the language. This study is therefore done to investigate the influence of fear on the learning if a foreign language. This study used the classic theory of self-fulling prophecy by Merton (1948) as the base. The three factors in selffulfilling prophecies ( beliefs, expectations and behaviour) are scaffolded onto the three constructs of fear of foreign language learning to form the main variables of the study. 100 participants were purposely chosen. The survey adapted from Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986). Apart from the demographic profile in Section A., there are 3 other sections. Section B has 11 items on beliefs, section 7 has 10 items on expectation and section D has 15 items on behaviour. Findings showed that learners beliefs, expectations and behaviour form the self-fulling prophecy in the learning of a foreign language. Learners beliefs such as being frightened and not being able to understand the teacher made them nervous of the learning activity. Next, the nervousness, is making them worry if they are unable to answer questions from the language teacher. Finally their behaviour is their justification for what they belief in themselves and how they expect their outcome of the learning to be. The findings in this study add to the existing theoretical framework on motivations to learn foreign languages.
Undergraduates at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Malaysia are required to pass a foreign language of their choice in order to graduate. As this is only a requirement, many students feel they are forced to study these languages without much interest on their part. Quite often Mandarin, Japanese and Arabic languages are their first choice, leaving French in the background. Learning French in Malaysia can pose many difficulties for new students. Due to a lack of exposure to the language and culture, many students will find the learning process extremely challenging and will face obstacles such as fear of learning, which can decrease their motivation. In this quantitative study, the researchers will investigate if the fear and anxiety levels among students are relatively consistent across all levels of proficiency. The study included 50 male and 50 female students from various academic backgrounds, divided into three groups based on their French proficiency level (27% for Level 1, 52% for Level 2, and 21% for Level 3). The objective of the study is to determine the correlation of fear in learning French despite the different level of proficiency. The findings revealed that fear was a common problem experienced by most of the respondents regardless of their different level of proficiency. To overcome these challenges, several strategies to overcome the difficulties have been suggested in the hopes of improving both learners and educators.
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