“It’s simple and practical!”: EFL learners’ views on learning strategies in essay writing

This paper aims to uncover the types of strategies employed by high-achiever students in essay writing classes and discern the reasons for their exercise of those strategies. Ten students from the Department of English Language Education at one of the universities in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, were purposefully selected as participants. Interviews were used as the tool for data collection to gain information on the specific learning strategies employed by high achiever EFL learners in writing classes, and the motivations behind their adoption of the strategies. The findings revealed that memory and cognitive strategies (direct strategies) and metacognitive (indirect strategies) were favorably used by high-achieving students. The strategies were employed by students due to their simplicity, practicality, and effectiveness. The findings indicate that the strategies used by high achiever students are largely attributable to their uncomplicatedness and expediency rather than being multi-faceted and time-consuming.