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Strategies employed by secondary three students in learning Tamil as a second language
Author
Manjula Ramasamy
Supervisor
Seetha Lakshmi
Ramiah Kalimuthu
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the learning difficulties faced by students and the language learning strategies used by them to overcome these difficulties. Since this is a pioneer study on language learning strategies employed by students learning Tamil language, the review of literature for this study is based on the theories and studies conducted in English and other languages.
The participants were 154 secondary 3 students from the express and normal academic streams taking Tamil as a Mother Tongue. They were students from 70 secondary schools taking Tamil as a Mother Tongue in 9 Tamil Language Centres. The sample consisted of 87 students from the express and 67 students from the normal academic streams. The modified questionnaire from the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (Version 5.1) developed by Oxford (1989a), is a self report inventory comprising of 48 structured items to gather information about language learning strategies employed by a student when learning Tamil as a Mother Tongue. It was used to measure :
a) the learning difficulties of students taking TL as a Mother Tongue based on the four functions of language learning namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing,
b) the strategies most and least used by students when mastering Tamil language,
c) whether a relationship between gender and learning strategies exists and
d) whether a relationship between academic ability of students and learning strategies exists.
The main statistical techniques used to investigate the study were two factor analysis of variance and regression. The data was analysed using a statistical programme named the Statistical Package for Social Science. Interviews were conducted on 40 students from the selected sample to find out the difficulties encountered by students and to identify the language component that is most difficult when learning Tamil language.
The findings indicate that students find writing to be the most difficult component to learn compared to reading, speaking and listening. Students from non-Tamil speaking background faced difficulties in speaking due to their lack of exposure to the Tamil language and its vocabulary.
Both the quantitative and qualitative studies confirm that the students used cognitive strategies followed by memory and metacognitive strategies most when learning Tamil. It was found that females tend to use learning strategies more often than males. Results also prove that relationship exists between the gender of the student and the usage of memory and compensation strategies. However, usage of memory and metacognitive strategies were related to the academic stream of students. Hence it was found that relationships do exist between the strategies used and the gender and the academic abilities of students.
Findings from the interviews also reveal that students learn Tamil for examination purposes only and felt that the use of Information Technology and Cooperative and Collaborative teaching methods to teach Tamil lessons would arouse their interest in Tamil language.
The research is limited to a sample consisting of one third of the total number of Secondary 3 students in Singapore. Motivation differences in students should have been taken into account as it would possibly explain certain findings of the study.
Apart from gender and academic abilities of students, future similar studies could include other factors such as age, learning experience, learning environment and learners' belief about learning. This would enrich the field of knowledge on language learning strategies employed by students offering Tamil as a Mother Tongue.
The participants were 154 secondary 3 students from the express and normal academic streams taking Tamil as a Mother Tongue. They were students from 70 secondary schools taking Tamil as a Mother Tongue in 9 Tamil Language Centres. The sample consisted of 87 students from the express and 67 students from the normal academic streams. The modified questionnaire from the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (Version 5.1) developed by Oxford (1989a), is a self report inventory comprising of 48 structured items to gather information about language learning strategies employed by a student when learning Tamil as a Mother Tongue. It was used to measure :
a) the learning difficulties of students taking TL as a Mother Tongue based on the four functions of language learning namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing,
b) the strategies most and least used by students when mastering Tamil language,
c) whether a relationship between gender and learning strategies exists and
d) whether a relationship between academic ability of students and learning strategies exists.
The main statistical techniques used to investigate the study were two factor analysis of variance and regression. The data was analysed using a statistical programme named the Statistical Package for Social Science. Interviews were conducted on 40 students from the selected sample to find out the difficulties encountered by students and to identify the language component that is most difficult when learning Tamil language.
The findings indicate that students find writing to be the most difficult component to learn compared to reading, speaking and listening. Students from non-Tamil speaking background faced difficulties in speaking due to their lack of exposure to the Tamil language and its vocabulary.
Both the quantitative and qualitative studies confirm that the students used cognitive strategies followed by memory and metacognitive strategies most when learning Tamil. It was found that females tend to use learning strategies more often than males. Results also prove that relationship exists between the gender of the student and the usage of memory and compensation strategies. However, usage of memory and metacognitive strategies were related to the academic stream of students. Hence it was found that relationships do exist between the strategies used and the gender and the academic abilities of students.
Findings from the interviews also reveal that students learn Tamil for examination purposes only and felt that the use of Information Technology and Cooperative and Collaborative teaching methods to teach Tamil lessons would arouse their interest in Tamil language.
The research is limited to a sample consisting of one third of the total number of Secondary 3 students in Singapore. Motivation differences in students should have been taken into account as it would possibly explain certain findings of the study.
Apart from gender and academic abilities of students, future similar studies could include other factors such as age, learning experience, learning environment and learners' belief about learning. This would enrich the field of knowledge on language learning strategies employed by students offering Tamil as a Mother Tongue.
Date Issued
2005
Call Number
PL4751 Man
Date Submitted
2005