Investigating Language Learner Strategies among Lower Primary School Pupils in Singapore

To date, very few empirical studies can be found on primary, especially lower primary school pupils’ use of language learner strategies. The few studies that exist often employ research techniques such as questionnaires and think-aloud protocols as studies on adults do. However, we know very little whether the research methods commonly used with adult learners can be applied to lower primary school pupils (grades 1–3). Practically no published study in this area reports the problems associated with eliciting language learner strategy data from children. In addition, not much is known about whether children as young as primary one can be differentiated in terms of learner strategies they use in completing language tasks. This paper shares the problems that we encountered in eliciting strategies from lower primary school pupils in Singapore and presents some preliminary findings on these learners’ use of language learner strategies.

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