Language Learning Strategies and Learner Autonomy: The Case of Indonesian Tertiary EFL Students

This study aimed at investigating the language learning strategies and autonomy of 76 Indonesian EFL university students and examining the correlations between the two. The Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) for ESL/EFL learners was used to collect the data on students’ language learning strategy use and an adapted questionnaire developed by Chan et al. (2002) was used to assess students’ autonomy. The results revealed that the Indonesian EFL students were medium users of memory, cognitive, compensation, affective, and social strategies but high users of metacognitive strategies. The participants also had positive perceptions of their autonomous learning abilities and did engage in several autonomous activities both inside and beyond the classroom. However, many of the most preferred out-of-class activities are more receptive rather than productive language use. Significant correlations were found between students’ language learning strategy use and their perceptions of their abilities, and between their strategy use and the practices of autonomous English language learning outside the class. Practical implications for English language teaching in the Indonesian context are put forward.