: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS.

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu _v

Approval Page………

Declaration ……….

Acknowledgements ………

Abstract ………..

Table of Contents ………...

List of Tables ………..

List of Appendices………..

i ii iii iv v vii viii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ………...

1.1 Background ………...

1.2 Research Questions ………...

1.3 The Purposes of the Study ………

1.4 The Significance of the Study ………..

1.5 Clarification of the Terms ……….

1.6 Research Limitation ………..

1.7 Thesis Organization ………..

1 1 3 4 4 5 6 6

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ……….

2.1 Speaking Skill ………

2.2 Learning Strategies ………

2.2.1 Metacognitive Strategy ………

2.2.2 Cognitive Strategy ………...

2.2.3 Socioaffective Strategy ………

2.3 IELTS ……….

2.4 Previous Studies ……….

7 7 11 13 14 15 16 19

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ………... 22

3.1 Research Design ………. 22

3.2 Data Collection Method .……… 23

3.2.1 Participants ………...

3.2.2 Collection Procedures ………..

24 25

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu _vi

3.2.2.1 Questionnaire ………

3.2.2.2 Interview ………...

3.2.2.3 Observation .………..

25 27 29

3.3 Data Triangulation ……….

3.4 Data Analysis ……….

30 31

CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION …………..

4.1 Data Description ……….

4.2 The learning Strategies Used by the EAP Course Participants

in Learning Speaking for IELTS………...

4.2.1 Metacognitive Strategies ………..

4.2.2 Cognitive Strategies ……….

4.2.3 Socioaffective Strategies ……….. 4.3 The Most Effective Strategies as Perceived by the Participants ………… 4.3.1 Socioaffective Strategy: Cooperation ……….. 4.3.2 Metacognitive Strategy: Delayed Production ……….. 4.3.3 Metacognitive Strategy: Self-Management ………..

4.4 Students’ Preferred Learning Strategies for Speaking in IELTS ………... 4.5 The Public Results of the Speaking Test Scores ……… 4.6 Problems Encountered by the Participants

in Learning Speaking English ………...

33 33 34 34 37 39 43 44 47 49 50 52 53

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ……….

5.1 Conclusions ………

5.2 Suggestions ………

56 56 57

References ………...

Appendices ………..

59 63

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses some aspects related to the background of the study. It includes research questions, purposes of the study, significance of the study, clarification of the terms, research limitation, and thesis organization.

1.1 Background

From time to time, the number of teachers, lecturers and educators wishing to study abroad are growing rapidly. Even though the countries they are intending to go may not be English-speaking countries, these people’s need of speaking English as the main means of communication is inevitable. Nonetheless, for those people who will be studying in English-speaking countries, their English speaking ability has become one thing that they cannot do without. In order to achieve better English skills before they leave for the target foreign country, these people usually enroll in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses to equip them with a proper English ability for their prospective studies. Besides that, these people are required to take English language tests such as the International English Language Testing Systems (IELTS) and pass some certain scores with the purpose of being legible to be accepted in the desired university.

IELTS is widely recognized as a language requirement for entering universities mainly in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. However, as the years passed more and more countries in Europe and the United

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 2 States of America are now accepting IELTS score as an acknowledged tool for

measuring one’s English competence. Speaking skill in IELTS test plays an important role which each IELTS candidate must posses, both for their potential studies in English-mediated university classes and for achieving the passing grades in the speaking test of the IELTS.

Speaking test in IELTS involves an approximately 15-minute one on one interview with an appointed English-native examiner. The 2-minute monologue speaking in part two is what makes IELTS speaking test such a daunting task for many of IELTS candidates. The fact that each candidate will face an English-native interviewer itself has already drawn a scary mental-note, let alone giving a 2-minute speech by themselves based on the topic and questions given in the cue card provided by the interviewer. It appears that English speaking skill is found as a real challenge by Indonesians even though they have studied English since in the elementary school.

Learning strategy is very crucial in learning language because an appropriate strategy helps learners to be more independent since teachers cannot always be around when students speak nor have questions about the target language. This is consistent with Chamot et al. (1999) who state that the goal of learning strategies is to assist learners in developing awareness of their own learning. She insists that learners who are aware of their own learning processes, strategies and preferences, are able to regulate their learning activities and become increasingly independent.

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 3 The teaching in EAP course is intended to provide the participants with an

intense exposure of mastering English in a fabricated highly-stake set of tests namely IELTS. In this kind of course, participants have a limited time frame to boost their ability in language learning. As supports by Oxford (2001), learning strategies could come in handy to facilitate learners in regulating their own process of knowing, understanding, and learning English, involving themselves actively in language learning, and in this case, also in accomplishing a certain required IELTS score. The suitable strategies could also enhance students’ confidence in speaking in English and this very fact could be such a great strength in improving one’s speaking learning process.

This study attempted to investigate the learning strategies used by the EAP participants in learning speaking for IELTS test. Moreover, this study was also expected to reveal some learning strategies that are perceived as the most effective by them. It is expected that the results of this study will contribute to the understanding of learning strategies for IELTS preparation. The results may also be used for further speaking learning for pedagogical purposes.

1.2 Research Questions

The present research investigated the problems that are formulated in the following questions:

1. What strategies do the EAP course participants use in learning speaking for IELTS?

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 4

1.3 The Purposes of the Study

This study aims at finding answers to the previous questions:

1. To find out the strategies EAP course participants use in learning speaking for IELTS speaking test.

2. To find out the strategies are most effective as perceived by the participants.

1.4 The Significance of the Study

This descriptive study is mainly to elaborate one of the phenomena of English skills learning in a language course. It is conducted to reveal these doctoral scholarship grantees’ learning strategies for speaking in IELTS and to discover their opinions about how the English speaking learning is conducted, both in the language course and in their individual ways. In addition, this study is expected to

disclose these learners’ strategies that are considered most helpful by them. Regardless to the fact that the scope of this present study is limited, the findings of this research confirm the existing theory on learning strategies.

This study could be one piece of practical information for the English teachers about students learning strategies for IELTS preparation. In relation to it, students of English language subject may also find this writing helpful as their reference

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 5 on how to choose the best possible learning strategies for or on their own. This

study could be a reference for the other researchers in the future to do more

advanced analysis on students’ IELTS speaking learning strategy in particular.

1.5 Clarification of the Terms

Following are some of the terms that are used in this study:

(1) Learning Strategy — learning strategies are operations employed by the learner to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of information, specific actions taken by the learner to make the learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective and more transferable to new situations (Oxford, 2001).

(2) IELTS — or 'International English Language Testing System', is an international standardized test of English language proficiency. IELTS is accepted by most Australian, British, Canadian, Irish, New Zealand and South African academic institutions, over 3,000 academic institutions in the United States, and various professional organizations (wikipedia, 2011).

(3) Speaking test in IELTS — the speaking test is a structured one-on-one oral interview, designed to encourage candidates to demonstrate their ability in speaking English. It is done in 11-14minutes, consisted of three parts, and assessed by using four analytical criteria and subscales over 9 band scores (Davies, 2008).

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 6

1.6 Research Limitation

This study is restricted on the issue of speaking learning strategies that the students of a language course use in learning English speaking for IELTS. This

study illustrates the most suitable and useful strategies based on the students’

personal belief. It also tries to investigate the students’ most preferred learning strategies and whether this type of EAP program, which is an intensive IELTS preparation course, can provide a different language environment for them as language learners. However, this study does not attempt to observe other variables that might influence students’ achievement, such as the participants’ motivation,

gender, and the instructors’ competence.

1.7 Thesis Organization

This thesis is organized in five chapters. The first chapter introduces the present study. Chapter two discusses the theoretical accounts relevant to the present study. Chapter three elaborates the research methodology. Chapter four presents the data analysis and the discussion of the findings. At last, chapter five draws the conclusion and offers suggestions.

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 22

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the methodology of the research, which includes an explanation on how the research is conducted. More specifically, it presents the research design, data collection method, data triangulation, and data analysis.

3.1 Research Design

This research mainly explored the Ph.D. candidates learning strategies on an EAP course on International English Language Testing System (IELTS) preparation in one language center in Bandung. This study was set out to investigate the participants speaking learning in their EAP course for IELTS test. Furthermore, it investigated the most effective strategies as perceived by the course participants.

This research is a single case study that represents a critical test to existing learning strategies theory on a unique event in an EAP course. It used a descriptive type of case study since it has been widely viewed as a method that produces data as many as possible relating to the subjects being investigated. The descriptive method is used to identify patterns or trends in one particular situation,

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 23 but not the causal link among its different elements, for that reason is subjective.

This method intends to describe a phenomenon that might go unnoticed.

The data gained from the research was described in an elaborated explanation mostly in the form of words and sentences. The inferences were made based on the findings and the data gained from the research were described based on related literature. Consequently, this study was expected to describe the present practices of learning speaking for IELTS test.

3.2 Data Collection Method

The section comprises the participants involved and the instrumentation comprising the questionnaire, interview, observation and the IELTS public result list in collecting the data for this study. Thus, to fit the purpose of this study, only this particular IELTS score was used to correlate with their learning strategies. This study involved a simple four-step data collection method which is illustrated in the table below:

Step Task Duration

First phase Distributing questionnaire Two days Second phase Observation aided with videotaping Two days

Three phase Conducting interview Three days

Fourth phase Collecting IELTS public results One day Table 3.1 Data collection method

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 24

3.2.1 Participants

This study was conducted in one language center in Bandung. The participants of this study were 99 Ph.D. candidates granted scholarships by DIKTI in 2011 for batch 2012. The participants were divided into four parallel classes to make the learning activities much more comfortable and possible to handle for both sides; the IELTS instructors and the participants themselves. The research involved them because they were given the EAP course the shortest hours, which was three months, than the other former batches of DIKTI grantees who usually did that in four and or six months. It was assumed that this particular batch was putting more efforts in learning English as the preparation of IELTS and employed more effective strategies for mastering speaking skill.

The participants for this research were taken on census so each of the students had the same chance of being selected for the sample. Initially, 99 students from all four classes participated in this study. These classes were not divided based on level of competence, meaning that each class could have participants from beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. On 6-7 December 2011 when the questionnaire was distributed and the classroom observation was performed, there were only 86 participants attended the classes. The questionnaire was returned and fully completed by 80 of them.

Those 80 participants were then classified into three categories of low achiever, medium achiever, and high achiever based on their score on the pre-test given by the language center on 21 September 2011. The categorization of these

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 25 participants’ achievement was based on the IELTS band descriptors (British

Council, IELTS Australia & University of Cambridge public version), on scale of 0 to 9. There were seven low achievers, 34 medium achievers and 32 high achievers. As much as 10% of each achievement category was taken as the sample for the interviews. As the result, one low achiever, four medium achievers and three high achievers were randomly chosen as the interview samples. The interviews were done in between 16-19 December 2011. These 80 participants took the real IELTS test on Saturday, 17 December 2011.

3.2.2 Collection Procedures

This section deals with the instrumentation of collecting data, which includes questionnaire, interview and observation.

3.2.1.1Questionnaire

The questionnaire was used as the main instrument to collect the data. It was administered to the respondents in order to collect information and identify their preferences on their strategies in learning speaking and information about the most effective strategies in learning speaking according to the course participants. The questionnaire was administered to 80 respondents.

The questionnaire that consisted of 13 questions eliciting students’ strategies in speaking learning were categorized into three: metacognitive, cognitive, and socioaffective strategies. The respondents were asked to rate their

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 26 preferences of strategies on a frequency interval scale: never, seldom, sometimes,

often and always. The questionnaire used in this study was modelled on established instruments by O’Maley et al. (1985, in McCoy, 2011). The language in the questionnaire was translated into Bahasa Indonesia, the students’ mother tongue, and kept as unambiguous and as simple as possible to avoid making the questionnaire unduly lengthy. Negative questions, which can be dubious and difficult to understand were also avoided (see Appendix 1).

The following is the table of the questionnaire used in this study:

Variable Indicators Descriptions Total of Items Numbers

Speaking Learning Strategies

Metacognitive

1. Advanced Organizer 2. Selective Attention 3. Self Management 4. Self Monitoring &

Evaluation

5. Delayed Production

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Cognitive 1. Repetition 2. Resourcing 3. Translation 4. Inferencing 4

6, 7, 8, 9

Socioaffective 1. Clarification 2. Cooperation

4 10, 11, 12, 13

Table 3.2 Indicators of Speaking Learning Strategies Questionnaire

The data acquired from the questionnaire was analyzed manually. There was also an additional open-ended question at the end of the distributed questionnaire on other most effective learning strategies to improve speaking ability as perceived by the participants. The summary of the participants’ answers could be found in the table 4.8.

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 27

3.2.1.2Interview

The face-to-face semi-structured interview was conducted ten days after the students completed the questionnaire. Nunan (1992) states that through a semi-structured interview, the interviewer knows where the interview wants to go and what will come out of it but at the same time he does not enter the interview session with predetermined questions. Nunan emphasizes that by this flexibility, many researchers are in favor of using semi-structured type.

The interview was done after the distribution of the questionnaire in order to get in-depth answers to the unanswered questions attained by the previous instrument. The aim of using this interview was to identify the most effective speaking learning strategies as perceived by the course participants. The interview itself was carried out based on an interview guideline adapted from Purnomo (2009), which consisted of 15 with open-ended questions as attached (see Appendix 2).

The students were purposefully selected for the interview came from each category of low achiever, medium achiever and high achiever based on the participants’ pre-test scores. The numbers of the students on each category was written in small piece of papers which then were folded and put into a glass. The glass was covered with a paper that was given a small hole and sealed with a rubber band. The glass was shaken and the random numbers of the students to be interviewed was one by one drawn.

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 28 The interviews were conducted in unstructured open-ended questions and

an interview guideline was used in order to find out the EAP course participants’ learning strategy for speaking in IELTS test. The interviews were conducted in Bahasa Indonesia, as it allowed the chosen participants to express their thoughts more freely. The questions were asking about the 8 interviewees’ reasons to speak English, with who, when and where do they usually use English, and what are their problems of speaking in English. Furthermore, they were asked about the evidence of their English speaking improvement(s), learning strategies that they chose to use to make their speaking more fluent, and whether there are some strategies given by their instructors that could be used to help them speaking English fluently.

There were more questions about the number of IELTS test that the interviewees had taken, what were their preparations on learning English for IELTS in the EAP course, and whether they thought that this type of course would help them to be more fluent in English. At the end, the interviewees were asked about their own efforts to improve their speaking ability, be it was done inside and or outside of the EAP course classes, the speaking learning strategies that they wish to use and or the ones that they liked to do and whether they believed those chosen strategies were effective to make them fluent in English.

The interviews were recorded and then transcribed one by one soon after the interviews took place. The transcriptions were then analyzed to enrich the previous data gained from the questionnaire (see Appendix 3). Further

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 29 explanation of the interview data is provided in chapter IV. The following is the

question mapping on the interview guideline as in how those interview questions are answering the research questions:

Number of Interview Question

Number of Research Question

1 2

1 √

2 √

3 √

4 √

5 √

6 √

7 √

8 √

9 √

10 √

11 √

12 √

13 √

14 √

15 √

Table 3.3 The Question Mapping of the Interview Guideline

3.2.1.3Observation

The observation was conducted to investigate the learning activity and the students’ learning attitude in the classrooms interaction. From observation, the evidence of the metacognitive, cognitive and socioaffective strategies could be found. The data were recorded by videotaping the classrooms activities. As states by Alwasilah (2006), an observation facilitates the researcher to see how the theory put into practice in the real situations. Rubin’s 1981 research in O’Maley

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 30 and Chamot (1990) proved that classroom observation is the least useful method

for identifying strategies, therefore this study less focused on the data analysis from the observation. However, McCoy (2011) argues that even though observation cannot reliably identify all factors in students’ classroom activities, it is particularly useful for some.

The students’ learning activity and their attitude towards the learning session were able to be analyzed through observing their efforts in being active and interactive with the instructor. In addition, by videotaping, the students’ facial expressions, gestures and body language could be thoroughly observed. For that reason, the videotape was put in the corner front of the classroom in order to get a better view on the whole class situation and on the whole students’ behavior; whether they have prepared for class, whether they keep notes regarding the lessons taught, whether they used translation, whether they were willing to work in pairs, in groups or any other interpersonal contact (O’Malley and Chamot 1990, Nunan 1992, as cited in McCoy 2011). The observation sheet alone was adapted from Manurung (2005) that provides three areas for each learning strategy observed from the students’ classroom interactions includes prompts regarding what should be observed (see Appendix 4).

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 31 Jarvinen (2001) pinpoints that in qualitative research triangulation aims to

enhance the credibility and validity of the results since it gives a more detailed and balanced picture of the situation. He adds that data triangulation can be achieved through multiple data collecting, sources, procedures and strategies. To strengthen the findings, the data from questionnaire and interview were triangulated with the videotaped observation. This study also involved an IELTS public results list, and because this result comes from an acknowledged international high-stake standardized test, reliability and validity could be ensured.

3.4 Data Analysis

The data of this research were analyzed by using a descriptive method. The data were mostly described in a qualitative way, which is not amenable to be counted or measured objectively and therefore subjective. The data analysis was soon completed after the questionnaire was given to all of 80 EAP course participants. An interpretation was made on the data analyzed by classifying, analyzing, synthesizing and interpreting the data collected.

The data from the questionnaire was analyzed manually one by one according to the chosen particular learning strategies used in this study. After this, a simple calculation of each major category’s frequency was made, so that a conclusion for research question number one could be drawn. The data collected

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 32 through interviews were analyzed to understand the patterns of the chosen

respondents’ answers better in supporting the data found from the questionnaire. There were all eight interviews and each interview was transcribed carefully. After all interview recordings were transcribed, they were compared thoroughly to obtain the data needed for this present study in order to answer the research question number two. Last of all, the data available from the videotapes was acquired based on what was seen, heard, and observed during classroom observation sessions. The videotapes were not transcribed, it was described in a qualitative way instead. This data was used for the data triangulation process later.

Data analysis that was done all together with data collection was facilitated to focus and shape the study as it proceeds. To intensify the data gained from the questionnaire and interviews, other sources like documents such as the participants’ pre-test scores, the IELTS public results list, and second hand written inputs by several colleagues on the recorded observation videos, were also gathered. The findings from the questionnaire were then triangulated with the findings from the interview and observation. At the end, a conclusion of the research was made. The table below illustrates the methodology used for this present study:

Research Question Data Collection Framework

1. What strategies do the EAP course participants use in learning speaking for IELTS?

Questionnaire McCoy (2011) based on O’Malley & Chamot

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 33 2. What strategies are

most effective as perceived by the participants?

Interview Purnomo (2009)

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 56

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter consists of two parts. The first part is the conclusion of the study based on the preceding findings and analysis of the study. The second one is the suggestions aimed to address to IELTS instructors and future researchers who have the same interest to conduct the similar study.

5.1 Conclusions

This study investigated students learning strategies that were used by the participants of an EAP course on IELTS preparation. Based on the findings and discussion in the previous chapter, conclusions can be drawn. The finding for the first research question is that the EAP course participants used socioaffective strategies (87.21%) the most in learning speaking for IELTS. The second highest strategy that they used is metacognitive strategies (83%) and the least one is cognitive strategies (79%). As for the second research question, the study found that socioaffective strategy is perceived as the most effective in learning speaking for IELTS by the participants. This is in line with the fact that most of the participants who used socioaffective strategies of cooperation and clarification obtained better scores in IELTS speaking test, even though some of them do not

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 57 have enough score to pass the criteria on entering their desired overseas university

(minimum 6.0).

are introvert and confessed to “I am not a person who likes much of a talk,” are

the examples of reluctant speakers, that is, achieved low speaking score (5.0). On the other hand, those interviewees, who are extrovert and have the courage to take risk, achieved higher speaking score (6.0).

5.2 Suggestions

Although this is a study of learning strategies in one particular language center, its implication could be extended beyond this specific context. Based on the findings of this study, which is not to be generalized with other settings, it is recommended that a language center concerning on IELTS preparation should have more sessions on speaking practice and IELTS practice tests besides giving the IELTS speaking materials or speaking tips and tricks. It is also a good idea to

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 58 have few sessions with the native English speaker instructors on free topic

discussion activities to build the course participants’ confidence in speaking English.

teaching speaking techniques to minimize the participants’ problems in their

preparation course facing Speaking exam for IELTS and to improve their speaking skill.

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 59

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Roslina Sawitri, 2012

Students’ Learning Strategies In Speaking For Ielts

: A Case Study on Doctoral Scholarship Grantees Learning Speaking for IELTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu 60 Bandung). Unpublished thesis at the English Department, School of

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have enough score to pass the criteria on entering their desired overseas university (minimum 6.0).

From the findings, it can also be seen that socioaffective strategies seem to be quite helpful in adult students’ language learning, especially in preparing for the speaking test in IELTS. An obvious assumption of the test is that to get the appropriate score, the participants must be willing to communicate fluently. A participant who was unwilling and or unable to speak might prevent him from achieving a 6.0 band score, which requires him to be willing to speak at length and using a range of connectives and discourse markers. Those interviewees who are introvert and confessed to “I am not a person who likes much of a talk,” are the examples of reluctant speakers, that is, achieved low speaking score (5.0). On the other hand, those interviewees, who are extrovert and have the courage to take risk, achieved higher speaking score (6.0).

5.2 Suggestions

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have few sessions with the native English speaker instructors on free topic discussion activities to build the course participants’ confidence in speaking English.

For the researchers who have the same interest to conduct the similar study, it is suggested to do the research on a relatively longer EAP course program for IELTS, in order to see whether they have the same or different speaking learning strategies and some similar most effective speaking learning strategies as perceived by the participants. It is also suggested to apply suitable teaching speaking techniques to minimize the participants’ problems in their preparation course facing Speaking exam for IELTS and to improve their speaking skill.