STRATEGIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH USED BY THE SUCCESSFUL LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AT LABORATORY JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STATE UNIVERSITY OF MALANG: A CASE STUDY

ABSTRAK Rahayu, Wulan. 2011. Strategies in Learning English Used by the Successful Learners of English at Laboratory Junior High School State University of Malang: A Case Study. Thesis, English Department, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang. Advisor: Dr. Suharmanto, M. Pd. Key words: learning strategies, successful learners. This study focuses on the language learning strategies used by the successful learners of English. This is important to study it because learning strategies empowered learner to manage their own learning. By knowing their strategies students will be able to improve their strategies. Besides that, they will also be aware of the strategies that might be more beneficial to be used and which strategies that do not really give significant influence. In addition, successful learners’ strategies could provide a basis for developing autonomous learners. The research design of this study was case study research. Using a case study design, the study could go into the details of the phenomenon to be examined, which in this case was the learning strategies used by the successful learners of English. The subjects of this study were two successful learners of English. These subjects were VII grade students of junior high school of UM Lab school. The selection of the subjects was done purposely based on some indicators of success such as their grades in their semester transcript and Teacher’s comments about their English performance also become the consideration. The data in this study were collected through questionnaire, Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) questionnaire and open-ended questionnaire, and interview. The data gained from the questionnaire, was classified based on the objective of this research. Then it was analyzed to get the interpretation of the strategies that were used by the subjects of the study. The data from interview was in the form of verbal explanation given by the subject. The verbal explanation was analyzed to support the data gained from the questionnaire. The result of this study showed that the successful English learners in this study, generally used strategies in their learning of English. The average score of their strategies used belonged to high category, which meant that they often used strategies in their learning of English. They used direct and indirect strategies. For direct strategies, the order based on the frequency of its used was first Cognitive strategies, second Memory strategies, and third Compensation strategies. Cognitive strategies got the highest average score, which meant that these strategies were often used by the subjects. For Indirect strategies, the order based on the frequency of its used for the first subject was first Social strategies, second Metacognitive strategies, and the third Affective strategies; while for the second subject first Affective strategies, second Metacognitive strategies, and third Social strategies. For the first subject, ii social strategies that were used more often, while for the second subject among indirect strategies affective strategies that were used more often. Based on the result of the study, the successful learners used strategies in their learning of English, thus English learners are expected to be aware of their learning strategies and improve them in the process of their learning of English. For the less successful learners, it is recommended to develop kinds of learning strategies in their learning of English and apply them in their learning activities. English teachers are suggested to train and facilitate their students to apply and improve their strategies in their learning of English. It is recommended that English teachers can create teaching and learning activities that can help students to develop effective learning strategies. By training the students to used strategies in learning, teachers can help the students to be autonomous learners. For further researches, it is suggested to conduct similar study that investigate topics related to learning strategies such as factors affecting the choice of learning strategies or the less successful learners strategies, thus there would be a continuation of study that dealing with the learning strategies used by EFL learners in Indonesia