EFFECTS OF ACADEMIC FIELDS ON STUDENTS’ LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGY USE: A CASE OF IRANIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The indispensible role of learning strategies is almost undisputable in the field of L2 pedagogy and the search for the factors contributing to language learning strategies still prevails. One of the factors which have been paid less attention is the academic fields of the learners in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context. Hence, the study attempted to see whether there was such effect on EFL learnersʹ choice of language learning strategies. Moreover, a profile of learnersʹ strategies was provided. The participants were 210 EFL students from three university departments in Iran. The results indicated that there was no significant difference among students of different departments in the use of language learning strategies, F (2, 207) =4.33, p =.14. Besides, it was found that the mean strategy use by the participants on the whole strategies was 2.62 indicating that they were medium strategy users. Moreover, compensatory strategies (M=2.97, SD=.45) were found to be the most preferred and the affective strategies the least preferred (M=2.26, SD=.43) ones. The findings somehow revealed the inadequacy of EGP and EAP courses in Iranian EFL context to tailor the specific needs of such students.