Learners' strategies in learning English

Learning strategies are steps taken by learners to improve their learning. An appropriate use of language learning strategies help the learners to control their own learning by developing English skills. The learners should be responsible of their own learning strategies. Oxford (1990) categorizes learning strategies as direct and indirect strategies. This study investigates the direct strategies used by the learners. The subjects are three high school students who are high achievers of the English subject. For this survey study, the data were collected through observations and interviews. The findings showed that there were six direct strategies used by the learners; (1) practicing-repetition, (2) practicing with sounds, (3) practicing naturalistically, (4) using resources for receiving and sending messages, (5) reasoning deductively, and (6) translating and transferring. The result of this study showed that the implementation of the direct strategies gave positive benefit for the learners