A Study on the Effectiveness of Learning Strategies in English

: This article is concerned with ''learning strategies of English in English Foreign Language setting in Iran. The role of language strategy is to reach or complete a language learning process or language teaching process in target language. It is worth mentioning strategies of learning can be considered as the important factor in learning and teaching target language in order to help determine how language learners learn their target language in EFL or ESL settings. Subjects for this research project were eighty EFL students in the age range of 18 to 24 at undergraduate level in Bushehr Persian Gulf University. The two types of questionnaires were designed to reach the purpose of this study: the first test included age, gender, language attitude and subjects etc. and a learning strategies questionnaire has included a twenty-nine-test adapted from the original willing (1994) survey. However, the Effectiveness of Learning Strategies was revealed in this study.


Introduction
The paper examined learning strategies of English language in EFL setting in Iran. A successful strategy of English language teaching is the one that works best in an English classroom. There are many language learning strategies that have been found successful in classes in English language at various times. Learning strategies have been changing under the influence of new thinking of great scholars, syllabus designers and teachers in the field of English language teaching in order to help the learners use English language as second or foreign in ELT setting. It is interesting to us watch how an English student learns his English language in EFL setting. Many English language strategies have been used to explain the process of learning English as an EFL language in or out classroom. All English language teachers are in the business of fostering achievement in the form of language teaching and language learning. In fact, the main aim of most learning strategies is to maximize the possibilities for language learners in general and English language in particular in order to achieve a high degree of language learning in EFL and ESL settings.
Before, this paper provides a satisfactory account of a study of the learning strategies of English language in EFL setting. This study tried to understand the relation among approach, method, and techniques the generally accepted views are that there have been related to ELT, which have their basic principles quite different from each other. So, it is clear that the ELT methods developed throughout the history of English language teaching. Khansir (2014a) said that with the progress of teaching language over the world, thus; several language methods appeared, the purposes of this methods were to help the language pupils to use the foreign or second language by helping teachers, researchers and syllabus designers. What is mentioned is that the methods of English language teaching from EFL settings to ESL settings are not the same. Khansir (2014a) added that they tried to provide techniques for the language methods in order to increase the language knowledge of the pupils in their language settings. Bose (2005) argued that an approach to the teaching of English language refers to the theoretical views about the nature of English and those of language learning. Techniques can be used as English classroom activities and procedures that help the English learners to learn English language. Bose (2005) mentioned that some language experts said In the case of learning strategy, a good learning strategy can create confidence in the minds of the language learner and will help the learner improve his language skills. It is true that learning strategy can be viewed as a method which is concerned with an attempt to increase the knowledge of a language learner through practice. In other words, learning strategy tries to discuss the ability of a language learner to produce and understand one of the four language skills and to develop it on the basis of his linguistic experience in EFL setting. In this case, the knowledge of the learner can be tested based on his language skill. For example, we test what we have taught; in fact, teaching a language and testing it are related to each other. Learning strategy that is used to help what a learner has not mastered during the course. Learning strategy is involved as an ability to monitor the learning situation and respond accordingly (Ziahosseiny, 2009). Richards et al. (1992) argued that in language learning a way in which a student tries to work out the meanings and uses of words, grammatical rules, and other aspects of a language. Learning strategy may be used to simple tasks such as learning a list of new words, or more complex tasks involving language comprehension and production. In addition to understanding the English problems and solving them in EFL setting, the teacher can use of a suitable learning strategy that may help the learners to gain confidence in the use of English and so motivate them to pay more attention to their learning of English. It is interesting to note that learning strategies give opportunity to the teacher develop English knowledge through his experience. Every learning strategy is designed by the teacher can lead to better management of his class and it help the teacher will improve the teacher student relationship to a large extent. Learning strategy design is an art of an English teacher has to learn it through experience.
Therefore, in language learning, two kinds of strategies are available: first, direct strategies and second, indirect strategies. Oxford, (1990, p.37) argued that "Language learning strategies that directly involve the target language are called direct strategies ". Before, we discuss the direct and indirect strategies; let us mention briefly the role of teaching English in EFL class. The main aim of teaching English in EFL class is to enable the English Foreign students to use it when the learners need, for example, when the students need to read a text book in English class or when they need to write an English paragraph. Using English involves writing, reading, speaking and listening with a purpose. In other words, the skills the learners use in their English class are called language skills and teaching English skills should aim at developing these skills in the EFL learners. An English teacher can teach English skills through language learning strategies in order to develop these skills. Bose (2005) mentioned that experience tells us that teaching a skill at the exclusion of other skills is impossible because language is an integrative activity and so it is wise to teach language skills integrity, more than one skill at a time. It is not surprising that English teaching may be regarded as being composed of the four skills of teaching. It is a scientific view in EFL setting. We come back our discussion on the direct and indirect strategies in this paper. Oxford (1990) added that all direct strategies require the language mental processing, but the three groups of direct strategies (cognitive, memory, and compensation) do this processing differently and for different purposes. These may include focusing on certain aspects of language teaching and learning like using imagery (memory), summarizing (cognitive), and guessing or using synonyms (compensation) that help the language learners store new information or understand or produce new language, and use the language despite their often large gaps in knowledge. Indirect strategy is another strategy that supports the business of language leaning. This strategy is involved in three strategies 1) Metacognitive strategies focusing on functions like centering, arranging, planning, and evaluating and this kind of indirect strategies is applied to allow language student in order to control his/her cognition. 2) Affective strategies are applied to help the language student regulate motivations emotions and attitude. 3) Social strategies are used to help the language student learn his /her language through interaction with others students. What is important to add to this discussion is that considering learning strategy based on the theory of O' Malley and Chamot (1990), is necessary for us to use of learning strategies in English language. They presented three learning strategies are useful for the language process in general and English in particular as follows: 1. Cognitive strategies are mental operations that interact directly with incoming information. These types of language strategies help to facilitate comprehension, recall and production. They can be used based on summarization, translation, and inference. 2. Metacognitive strategies are used for monitoring, planning and evaluating learning processes. However, they are mental operations that manage learning and cope with difficulties. They can be used based on selective attention and self -monitoring.
3. Social -affective strategies are used as the final learning strategies that are behaviors which involve others to assist one's learning and communication, and control one's emotions to complete a learning task. They can be used based on repetition and clarification and positive self-talk (Burns and Richards, 2012) In this paper, second language learning strategy was the major purpose. Setting up a new work on language learning strategy in area of English foreign language required the researchers of this paper examined the strategies of second language learning along with second language acquisition. In learning English foreign language, an EFL learner needs new information on English language as his target language. According to Richards et al. (1994), in learning second language, international thoughts and behavior those students make use of during learning in order to better help them understand, remember or learn new information. Second language leaning strategies may be occurred in learning one of the four language skills such as reading, speaking, listening, and writing or composed of all the four language skills. It is not fair, in considering second language learning strategies, to teach only one of the language skills in the target language (English). Thus, current research in this paper supports the idea that in considering second language learning strategies should utilizes the four English language skills when the EFL students would like to learn English language in EFL class. Second language acquisition is the language processes that an EFL or ESL develops proficiency in his target language (English). However, the term of second language acquisition was used by many great researchers in USA. They focused on aspects of language learning such as discourse, text, syntax, morphology, approach, method, phonology in the target language.
Let us briefly present several approaches, subjects, and factors of the target language have been using in developing English language as second language or foreign in this world. One of language approaches is the error analyses and along with error correction which have been used by the researchers and teachers in EFL setting. Khansir and Pakdel (2018a) mentioned that error analysis is still alive and teachers taught in EFL class. They added that English error texts have been used by universities as references for teaching English as a subject. Corder (1967) confirmed that learner's errors have important role in the learning process. Error correction has been discussed among English teachers, syllabus designers, and English language researchers in developing English in EFL or ESL classes. Khansir and Hozhabri (2014) argued that the correction of error as one of English treatment ways in EFL or ESL classes can be used to improve the knowledge of English learners. Khansir and Pakdel (2018b) added that if the purpose of error correction is to help language learners learn target language, and help language teachers to teach a second or a foreign language, then errors should be corrected. Another aspect of second language acquisition is the role of motivation in developing English language in EFL class. Motivation is known as one of the factors of psychology in teaching and learning English. According to Gardner (1985), motivation helps a learner gets eager to learn language and expands his effort on learning activity and finally, sustain his learning activity. Khansir and Pakdel (2018c) mentioned that motivation encourage the students of language in order to learn the target language effectively. In English language, the role of motivation is known as the language learning strategies to help the language pupils to acquire knowledge of the particular system or rule. What can be concluded from this paragraph is that error analyses along with error correction and motivation are important factors can promote English language learning.
This project paper considered one research question and one research hypothesis was written as follows: • Are there differences in learning strategies to acquire the knowledge of English in EFL class?
• There is a significant difference in learning strategies to acquire the knowledge of English in EFL class.

Literature Review
In general in the past decades, several researchers focused on learning strategies in English. One of the best -known studies was carried out by Wong and Nunan in 2011. They examined differences in learning style and strategies and patterns of language use by more and less effective students of English in a foreign language environment. The results of this paper showed that EFL learners have been under the effect of attitudes toward language and learning. The students who were more effective seem to be able to develop active learning strategies Indian J. Lang. Linguist., 4(2) (2023) 18-31| 21 for themselves. In fact, they enjoyed learning English based on selected strategy. However, the outcome of this project indicated that key differences in learning styles, learning strategy preferences and patterns of language use. Souriyavongsa et al. (2013) conducted a learning strategy on undergraduate learners at the National University of Laos (NUOL). Thus, their results showed that English speaking skill was the most important English language skills among the students who needed to improve in their undergraduate program. The participants informed that they frequency used of English learning strategies in learning English. They argued that all teachers, administrators, syllabus designers should consider all parts of the students' needs and their learning strategies in the deeper ways in order to correspond to the society and learners' requirements. Mandasari and Oktaviani (2018)  University in the South of Iran. What was clear for us in this project was that learning strategies was an important criterion in acquiring the knowledge of ELT for the Iranian EFL students in their classroom.

Learning Strategies and its definition
Before we start learning strategy, what it is important to now is that what strategy is and then follow learning strategy in this paper. Richards et al. (1992) argued that strategy is procedures used in learning, thinking, etc. which serve as way of reaching a goal. It is very important in language learning is that learning style and strategies can be used together or conflict with by learners. Oxford (1990) mentioned that strategy word came back to the word comes from the ancient Greek term 'strategia ' meaning generalship or the art of war. He added that strategy involves the optimal management of ships ,troops, and aircraft in a planned campaign.
In the life of man, there is countless learning strategies are used by human being and man finds them that they are useful and helpful in his life. In language teaching and learning, some learning strategies are used to each of the four skills. Leaver et al. (2005, p. 85), argued that" learning strategies are the term applied to the various techniques and behaviors we use to learn. Some are consciously employed, and others are automatic". Birjandi and Mosallanejad (2010) mentioned that learning strategies are applied as thoughts and behaviors that a pupil employs during learning. The definition of learning strategies according to Scarcella and Oxford (1992), said as specific actions, steps behaviors, or techniques such as seeking out partners of conversation, or giving oneself encouragement to tackle a difficult language task used by learners to enhance their own learning. Ellis (2003) added that learning strategies are the particular techniques or approaches that students use to try to acquire a second language. According to Johnson and Johnson (1999), learning strategies are techniques used by students of second language for remembering and organizing samples of the second language. On the other hand, "the term learning strategy" is meant to cover important aspects of what Naiman et al. (1978) have called: learning strategy as good language learner studies. What is interesting is that learning strategies have vital role in developing second and foreign language.

Methodology
This research project was conducted by using a learning strategies questionnaire consisted of a twenty nine -item questionnaire and this questionnaire was taken from the original willing (1994) survey and a questionnaire of background included subjects' age, gender and language attitude etc.

Participants
A group of eighty Iranian pupils at Persian Gulf University were selected for this project. Each student was given the learning strategies questionnaire that would get from the original willing (1994) survey. Farsi is used in speaking by the Iranian students in their life. They use English as foreign language in class. Khansir and Gholami Dashti (2014) mentioned that Iranian students use English as a subject from middle (Guidance) school. So the actual study was done on 80 Iranian students (out of which 22 were female and 58 were male) whose mother tongue was Persian (Farsi). Sex and Frequency of Subjects are presented in the table 1. The subjects for the learning strategy project were 80 Iranian under graduate students in the age range of 18 to 24 who were studying English as foreign language students in Persian Gulf University in Bushehr city. Ages of the subjects are presented in the table 2. According to responses to questions on enjoy learning English, most of the students had a great deal and lot to enjoy learning English and 12 of the learners responded somewhat and only 2 of them selected not a very answer to enjoy learning English. According to responses to questions on language attitude, 31 of the Iranian students answered a great deal to language attitude and 30 of them answered a lot to language attitude, only 1 of them responded not all and 16 of the students selected somewhat answer and 2 of the students selected not a very answer to language attitude in this project (table 4). The following table shows Analyses of language attitude question among the Iranian students in EFL classroom. This questionnaire in the project was designed to examine the learning strategies among the Iranian learners in English Language. The questionnaire classified based on the following results of the various analyses regarding to the subjects responses in this research. Twenty nine statements were answered that are considered in the three parts as follows. As seen in Table 5. According to response of the students to statement number one, In English class, I like to learn by reading, the response of 42 of the learners was good and 14 of them also was best, and the response of 12 of the students was a little and the rest of them was no. This question showed that reading item has special place in EFL class in Iran. Most of the Iranian universities involved in English reading as the main material in teaching English in the educational system of Iranian. Khansir and Gholami Dashti (2014, p. 38) supported this claim that reading comprehension is one of the major English classroom activities in EFL settings". The next question, In class, I like to listen and use cassettes, the response of 38 of the students was good and 17 of the learners responded to a little item and 13 of them answered to best item and the response of the rest was no. Some of the universities has English language teaching lab in Iran. English teachers use English language teaching technologies such as cassettes along with computer in EFL class. The third test of this questionnaire included In class, I like to learn by games, the Indian J. Lang. Linguist., 4(2) (2023) 18-31| 25 response of the 32 of the students was good and 27 of the students responded to best item and the answered of 11 of the learners was no and the response of the rest was a little. This statement indicated that games can be used as an English language strategy in developing the knowledge of English in EFL class in Iran. The fourth statement was In class, I like to learn by conversation, 35 of the students agreed with this statement number 4 which came to 43.8 and 30 of the Iranian students answered to best which came to 37.5 and only 3 of them responded to no which came to 3.8 and the response 12 of the participants was a little which came to 15.0. The fifth statement was In class, I like to learn by pictures, films, and video, the response of 48 of the participants was best and 31of them was good that this statement showed that the role of pictures along with films and video is very important in developing the knowledge of the EFL learners in class. And only 1 of them responded to a little item. The sixth statement was I want to write everything in a note book, the response of 32 of the participants was a little and 15 of them was no and only the response of 12 of them was best and the rest of the students responded to good item. According to response to statement number seven, I like to have my own textbook, 10 of the learners was not agree with this statement and only 22 of the students answered to best item and 31 of them responded to good item and the response of the rest of the EFL learners was a little. According to answer to statement number eight, I like the teacher to explain everything to us, the response of 32 of the EFL students was best item and only 2 of the students responded to no item, however, 15 of them answered to a little item and the response of the rest of the learners was good which came to 38.8. The nine statement of this questionnaire, I like the teacher to give us problems to work on, the response of 36 of the EFL students was good item and 19 of them was best item , 21 of the Iranian EFL students was a little and only 4 of them was no item. This statement showed that the role of the teacher as one of angle of the educational triangle is very important in English language. Khansir (2014b) added that English teachers have always played as a vital role in teaching English language to students in second and foreign classroom. He argued that techniques, methods, and approaches have been used by English teachers in ELT class. According to response to statement number 10, I like the teacher to help me talk about by interests, the response of 35 of the Iranian learners was good, 30 of them was best item, 14 of the students was a little and the rest of them was no. This statement showed that the EFL students need to help by their teacher to promote the knowledge of English in their class. Ur ( 1996) added that most of my trainees recalled their teachers as in some way pushing them to want to give of their best, though there was by no means a consensus on the most common or successful methods.  According to response to statement number 11, I like the teacher to tell me all my mistakes, the response of 34 of the students was best item which came to 42.5, 31 of them was good item which came to 38.8, 11 of the EFL learners was a little item which came to13.8 and the rest of the Iranian students responded to no item which came to 5.0. The next statement, I like the teacher to let me find my mistakes, 48.8 of the learners' respondents was best item, 42.5 of the students' respondents was good item, 7.5 of the learners' was a little item, and only 1.3 of the Iranian students respondents was no item. According to the questions of 11 and 12 focused on error mistakes in English, Khansir and Pakdel (2018b) argued that what is important for language feedback is that all of the learners' errors are not need to require the same remedial treatment, because some of the learner's errors may be due to carelessness or mistakes. Ur (1996) added that "in the context of teaching in general, feedback is information that is given to the learner about his or her performance of a learning task, usually with the objective of improving this performance" (p. 242). According to response to statement number 13, I like to study English by myself (alone), the response of the 33 of the students was good item which came to 41.3, 24 of them was a little which came to 30.0, 16 of the learners was best item which came to 20.0 and only 7 of them was no which came to 8.8. This statement showed that half of the students did not like to study English without class. The fourteen statement, I like to learn English by talking in pairs, 30 of the Iranian students answered to best item which came to 37.5, 33 of them responded to good item which came to 41.3, 12 of the students answered to a little item which came to 15.0 and only 5 of them was not agreed with this statement which came to 6.3. This statement indicated that more than 70 % of the learners liked to study English in pairs. The fifteen statement, I like to learn English in small group,33 of the learners responded to good item which came to 41.3 , 23 of them responded to best item which came to 28.8, 17 of the students answered to a little item which came to 21.3 , and only 7 of them responded to no item which Indian J. Lang. Linguist., 4(2) (2023) 18-31| 27 came to 8.8. As it is observant in statement is that Iranian students liked to study English in small group. According to response to statement number 16, I like to learn English with the whole class, in this statement, only 11 of the students responded to best item which came to 13.8, 32 of them answered to good item which came to 40.0, 25 of the students responded to a little item which came to 31.0, and 12 of them responded to no item which came to 15.0. According to answer to statement number 17, I like to go out with the class and practice English, 30 of the students responded to good item which came to 37.5, 16 of them answered to best item which came to 20.0, 20 of the learners responded to a little item which came to 25.0, and 14 of the Iranian students responded to no item which came to 17.5. As it is observant in this statement is that nearly half of the learners was not agreed with go out with class and practice English. According to response to statement number 18, I like to study grammar, 41 of the students responded to best item which came to 51.3, 30 of them answered to good item which came to 37.5, and 9 of the students responded to a little item which came to 11.3. Grammar plays a crucial role in EFL class. Freeman (2003, p. 13) argued that "grammar is an area of knowledge that linguists and language teachers study". Khansir and Pakdel (2016) added that the role of English grammar in teaching English is controversial and according to many language researchers the knowledge of English grammar is necessary for teaching English in ELT classrooms. The nineteen statement, I like to learn many new words, 37 of the learners answered to best item which came to 46.3, 31 of them responded to good item which came to 38.8, 9 of the learners responded to a little item which came to 11.3, and only 3 of them answered to no item which came to 3.8. English words have good place in English language in EFL class. Gas and Selinker (2001) mentioned that the knowledge of lexical skills is very important for learners for producing sentences and to understand them correctly. Khansir and Mosaddegh (2014) added that learning of vocabulary is central and essential in the process of English language learning. Nation (2003) argued that teachers should facilitate learning of vocabulary through teaching pupils useful words and through teaching strategies in order to help pupils figure out meaning on their own. According to response to statement number 20, I like to practice sounds and pronunciation, 39 of the students answered to good item which came to 48.8, 29 of them answered to best item which came to 36.3, 7 of the students responded to a little item which came to 8.8 and 5 of them answered to no item which came to 6.3. Pronunciation has a specific role in learning English in EFL class. According to Carter and Nunan (2001), in language learning, pronunciation is used as the production and perception of the significant sounds of a particular language in order to achieve meaning in the contexts of language use. Khansir and Tajeri (2015) claimed that learning correct pronunciation of English words can be said that is the main factor in learning and teaching a second or foreign language. According to response to statement number 21, I like to learn English words by seeing them, the response of 38 of the EFL students was good item which came to 47.5 , 27of them was best item which came to 33.8 and 15 of the Iranian EFL students was a little which came to 18.8. Caimi (2006) found that with captioned texts, the learners' concentration was primarily on reading rather than on listening. Actually, reading a subtitle is more efficient than listening to the foreign language. The next statement, I like to learn English words by hearing them, 30 of the learners answered to best item which came to 37.5 , 32 of them answered to good item which came to 40.0 , 16 of the students responded to a little which came to 20.0 and only 2of them answered to no item which came to 2.5. The result of statement number 23, I like to learn English words by doing something showed that the response of 25 of the Iranian learners was a little item which came to 31.3, 15 of them was no item which came to 18.8, 24 of the students was good item which came to 30.0 and only 16 of them was best item which came to 20.0. Outcome of this statement indicated that more learners did not like to follow this language learning strategy. The result of statement number 24, at home, I like to learn by reading newspapers, etc. the response of 53 of the students was best item which came to 66.3, 18 18 of them was good item which came to 22.5, 7 of the learners was a little item which came to 8.8 and only 2 of them was no item which came to 2.5. However, reading has good place in developing the knowledge of the EFL students in order to improve their English. According to response to statement number 25, at home, I like to learn by watching TV in English, 30 of the Iranian students answered to no item which came to 37.5 and 26 of them responded to a little item which came to 32. 5. The outcome of this statement showed that the students did not have access to English TV program, because EFL countries use a few English TV program. The result of statement number 26, at home, I like to learn by using cassettes, the response of 34 of the students was best item which came to 42.5 , 28 of them was good item which came to 35.0 , 15 of the learners was a little item which came to 18.8 and only 3 of them was no item. Today, the most EFL universities use language lab for English teaching with tape or cassette recorders. In connection with this statement, Flowerdew and Miller (2005) argued that learners are encouraged to listen carefully either to a teacher reading out or a tape recording of a dialogue or drill in Audio-lingual method. According to response to statement number 27, at home ,I like to learn by studying Indian J. Lang. Linguist., 4(2) (2023) 18-31| 29 English books, the response of 40 of the students was best item which came to 50.0 , and 30 of them was good item which came to 37.5. This statement indicated that the EFL learners liked to learn English by studying English books, because they can get the books more easily than others materials. According to response to statement number 28, I like to learn by talking to friends in English, the response of 49 of the students was best item which came to 61.3 and 23 of them was good item which came to 28.8. They can improve their English language by talking to their friends. The result of statement number 29, I like to learn by watching, listening to native speakers, the response of 28 of the learners was best item which came to 35.0, and 25of them was good item which came to 31.3, 20 of the students was a little item which came to 25.0 and 7 of them was no item which came to 8.8.

Conclusion
Language learning and language acquisition are the most important impressive and fascinating aspects of human development in his life. The ability to use second and foreign language needs learning strategies that help second or foreign language learner uses the target language. Knowing more about the development of learners' needs and language helps teachers to access teaching techniques and strategies in acquiring the target language. However, the outcomes of this research project indicated that there is a significant difference in learning strategies to acquire the knowledge of English in EFL class. In others word, this hypothesis was accepted.
This study conducted research to examine learning strategies in EFL settings in order to facilities English learning for foreign language learners in Iran. This paper showed that learning strategies has had positive effects on participants' English learning. Thus, the awareness of English learning strategies can enhance the EFL teachers who are teaching English in EFL classrooms because the learning strategies can be good feedback for the teachers. English learning strategies can be used as effective method to promote EFL teachers and learners in teaching and learning English in EFL setting in Iran. We conclude that learning strategies as one of English method, involvement of both EFL teacher and learner in learning English.