Abstract:
As studies investigating the role of individual differences in influencing the use of
grammar learning strategies were hardly found, the present study was carried out. The purposes
of the study were three-fold: (1) to identify a postteriori classification of grammar learning
strategies, (2) to investigate how individual differences correlate with grammar learning
strategy use, and (3) to figure out the interrelationship among the identified grammar learning
strategy categories as well as their correlation with grammar mastery. As such, a correlation
research design was employed with 280 English education department students from five
universities in East Java, Indonesia as the subjects of the study. They were asked to complete
a set of questionnaires to measure their grammar learning strategies, language aptitude, personality traits, and attitude and motivation in learning English. In addition, a test of grammar
was employed to measure their grammar mastery. A factor analysis applied to discern the types
of grammar learning strategies resulted in the presence of six factors including directive
cognitive strategies, social cognitive strategies, social affective strategies, directive
metacognitive strategies, reflective metacognitive strategies, and social metacognitive
strategies. Though it was found that the use of these six categories of grammar learning
strategies was correlated to one another and that their use was correlated significantly with
grammar mastery, only attitudinal and motivational attributes were found to associate with
grammar learning strategy use, while language aptitude and personality were not. Implications
of these findings were then discussed.
