Out-of-class Language Learning Strategies: The Case of University EFL Learners

Some scholars in the field of TEFL/TESOL maintain that one of the major tasks expected of a language teacher would be to identify their students' learning strategies, so that language instruction can be adapted accordingly (see, e.g., Chamot, 1987). Moreover, students identified as so-called "good language learners" in the literature do take advantage of learning strategies, not only in the classroom but also in the out-of-class acquisition environment. Namely, they use the language even when they are not required to do so and seek opportunities to practice the language, for instance, through attending foreign language movies, listening to TV or radio, using the foreign language with their classmates and friends outside class, etc. Such student-initiated activities which are employed voluntarily by learners outside the language classroom are referred to by Pickard (1996) as out-of-class learning strategies. Out-of-class language learning strategies, as the opportunities accessible to EFL language learners in the environment, constitute a sub-class of language learning strategies in general. Various types of out-of-class language learning strategies applied by university students, majoring in English as a foreign language, and their relative frequency of use have been investigated in this study. Sixty-eight undergraduates and twenty-four MA EFL students (of both males and females) at Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran, were surveyed through filling out a questionnaire on the types of learning strategies they applied outside the classroom during their leisure time at home, in the dormitory, in the park, or any other place, in order to improve their proficiency in English. The data obtained were analyzed statistically. After running the chi-square test (α<.05), the obtained frequencies on the use of three out-of-class activities (i.e., reading English magazines, periodicals, and novels) by the participants indicated significant differences between the two groups of undergraduates and graduates, as well as between males and females within the same group. That is, the number of undergraduates reading English magazines turned out to be much fewer than graduates. A similar trend was noticed as for reading English periodicals and novels. As reading and comprehending authentic materials in English requires a virtual mastery of the language, the reason might be attributable to the undergraduates' poor proficiency in English and, in particular, their insufficient vocabulary knowledge, among other things. One more reason might be lack of adequate familiarity with available sources at the library by undergraduates, since they were not allowed to freely enter the section of the library where periodicals and magazines were kept to choose their favorite reading sources. Finally, the overall picture of out-of-class strategies used by the participant EFL learners, regardless of gender and level of education, indicated that receptive skills (i.e., listening and reading) were more frequently practiced by the participants than the productive ones (i.e., speaking and writing). That is, 82.5% of the students taking part in the study reported applying the strategy of listening to foreign English radios, and 71.3% of them reported that they preferred to get engaged in reading English materials such as short stories during their leisure time outside the classroom.
1. Introduction
Learning involves the collaboration of at least two people: a teacher and a learner. Putting aside the role of the teacher for the time being, what do we consider the role of learners to be in second-/foreign-language learning? Why do some EFL/ESL students seem to learn rather easily, whereas others apparently find learning English full of difficulties? Chamot (1987) attributes the issue to the lack of capacity on the part of unsuccessful learners to undertake appropriate learning strategies. For the same reason, Saville-Trioke (as cited in Chamot, 1987) maintains that for more linguistically poor students to discover some special tricks and shortcuts to make second-language learning easier, they need to develop academic competence, or the ability to use the second language as a learning tool. To develop such an ability would require applying learning strategies.
On the other hand, as to the responsibility of teachers to help students benefit from applying learning strategies, Hosenfled (cited in Chamot, 1987) suggests that a teacher's first act should be to identify the students' learning strategies so that instruction can be adapted accordingly.
The area of language learning strategies has rather extensively been investigated by scholars in the field and useful typologies of strategy use have been developed (e.g. Rubin, 1975, 1981; Naiman et al., 1987, cited in Pickard, 1996; O'Malley & Chamot, 1995; Ehrman & Oxford, 1990; Oxford & Ehrman, 1995). Moreover, the importance of out-of-class learning strategies in particular has also been emphasized by some scholars who have conducted research on learning strategies in general. In this respect, Chamot (1987) holds that students identified as “good language learners” do use learning strategies not only in the classrooms but also in the out-of-class acquisition environment.
How do "good language" learners achieve their success? Rubin (1975) strongly believes, "if we knew more about what the 'successful learners' did, we might be able to teach these strategies to poor learners to enhance their success record" (p. 42). She further points out that good language learners use the language even when they are not required to do so and seek opportunities to hear the language, for instance, through attending foreign language movies, listening to TV or radio, using the foreign language with other students outside class. Such student-initiated activities which are employed voluntarily by learners outside the language classroom are referred to by Pickard (1996) as out-of-class learning strategies.
Although some scholars have expressed interest in the area of out-of-class learning strategies, Pickard, who has recently accomplished an investigation on this subject, seems to be justified when he complains of the "paucity of data on the precise nature of the language activities undertaken by learners outside the classroom" (1996, p. 150). Therefore, the subject demands further research, and that is what the present study has intended to undertake.
Defining learning strategies as "optimal means for exploiting available information to improve competence in a second language," Bialystok (1978, P. 71) enumerates four categories of learning strategies: inferencing, monitoring, formal practicing, and functional practicing. Highlighting the role of out-of-class strategies, in line with her model of second-language learning, Bialystok (1981) corresponds these strategies with her latter category of learning strategies, occurring when the learner seeks opportunities to enhance his/her linguistic competency in order to use language for communication. She provides examples like going to movies, reading books, and talking to native speakers.
Wenden (1985) incorporates out-of-class activities such as conversing with a native speaker, watching TV, and listening to the radio under the rubric of "global practice strategies."
Having undertaken a research in China, Huang and Naerssen (1987) discovered that students who were more successful in oral communication reported employing functional practice strategies (after Bialystok, 1987) more frequently that the less successful ones. Examples of functional practicing strategies mentioned in their study include activities such as speaking with other students and native speakers, listening and reading for comprehension, attending lectures, watching films and TV programs, and thinking or talking to oneself in English.
Similarly, a study by Hafiz and Tudor (1989) of a group lf L2 learners indicated that the experimental group, which had spent three months reading for pleasure one hour per day, had made significant progress in enhancing competence in L2.
The data obtained by LoCastro (1994) show that her respondents strongly came to the belief that if one really wanted to learn a language, one had to do extra work outside the regular educational system. Among the reported strategies by her subjects are included activities like listening to radio and TV programs, watching videos of movies, and reading or recitation of materials. Like previous researchers, Green and Oxford (1995) found greater use of learning strategies among more successful learners. More interestingly, their research, relating strategy use to gender as well as to L2 proficiency level, came up with the finding that women use higher levels of strategy than men. In a similar vein, Oxford and Ehrman (1995) found that females tend to use language learning strategies more often that males.
Pickard (1996) conducted a research involving 20 German-speaking first-year undergraduates and found that the participants applied a wide range of out-of-class strategies such as reading English newspapers, novels, magazines, poetry, and letters; listening to the radio or tapes; watching TV programs; attending theater, lectures, and movies. One of the major trends that she found in her study of out-of-class strategies was that the participants "made most use of the activities which they had chosen for their own needs. Activities imposed by teachers [italics added] seemed to be given less consideration" (p. 157).
The present study has attempted to identify the types of out-of-class strategies employed by a sample of EFL students at graduate and undergraduate levels. It has further intended to specify the most frequently-used as well as the most accessible strategies the participants use. Moreover, a comparison has been made among the participants against the variables gender and level of education in terms of out-of-class strategies they employ to enhance proficiency in English.

2. Method
2.1 Participants
Ninety-two university students at Shiraz University took part in this study. Sixty-eight of them, comprised 30 males and 38 females, were majoring in English as a foreign language to obtain a BA. Thirty-six of this group were seniors and 32 juniors. The remaining 24, comprised 15 males and 9 females, were also studying English to obtain a master's degree. The age of the participants, however, has not been considered as a variable in the study.
2.2 Materials
Both graduates and undergraduates were given the same questionnaire on out-of-class learning strategies that they applied to enhance their proficiency in English. Ten major strategies were included. A couple of items contained more that one choice. Except for the last two open-ended items, the remaining items were supposed to be marked by the participants (cf. Appendix). The item before the last asked if any other strategies, other than those included in the questionnaire, were employed by the students. The last one asked about the most accessible strategies available for the participants.
Looking at the content of the questionnaire skillwise, one may notice that the majority of the items are of receptive skills (i.e. listening and reading); speaking and writing constitute just a minimum of the items.
2.3 Procedure
The questionnaire was administered in 5 different classes at different times. Each class was given the questionnaire during part of a session of the class. Two of the classes were undergraduates and the remaining three were graduates. The required instructions as how to complete the questionnaire were provided by the researcher and the students were allotted time enough to fill it in. As the questionnaire was justifiably brief and to the point, no participant failed to fill it out – even the open-ended items received proper responses on the part of the students.

3. Results
The collected questionnaires were categorized first into two major groups: graduates and undergraduates. Each group was further divided into males and females, so that there were eventually four categories: male undergraduates, female undergraduates, male graduates, and female graduates. Then the number of responses given to each item by each category was counted and recorded (cf. tables 1 and 2).
The next step was to look for significant differences, if any. Having the obtained frequencies and computing the unequal expected frequencies, the chi-square (x2) statistic was applied for each item (i.e., for each out-of-class strategy) on the questionnaire across the four categories, having the obtained frequencies and computing the unequal expected frequencies, bearing in mind that the expected frequencies would be unequal, however, except for three items (i.e., 1b, 1c, and 1d, cf. Appendix), across the entire strategy items, with α<.05, and df=3, no significant differences were found among the four categories of participants in terms of out-of-class strategy use. For clarification reasons, part of the computations undertaken for the three significant items to get the obtained values of x2 follows.
1b. Reading English magazines
Male undergrads Female undergrads Male grads Female grads Total
Observed Frequency (O) 25 5 4 10 6
Expected Frequencies (E) 8.25 10.25 4 2.5 25
The obtained value of x2 = 18.8
The critical value of x2 .05(3) = 8.72

1c. Reading English periodicals
Male undergrads Female undergrads Male grads Female grads Total
Observed Frequency (O) 25 1 2 8 4 15
Expected Frequencies (E) 5 6.15 2.4 1.5 15
The obtained value of x2 = 23.6
The critical value of x2 .05(3) = 8.72

1d. Reading English novels
Male undergrads Female undergrads Male grads Female grads Total
Observed Frequency (O) 25 6 13 9 7 35
Expected Frequencies (E) 11.5 14.35 3.6 3.5 35
The obtained value of x2 = 8.09
The critical value of x2 .05(3) = 8.72
Furthermore, the percentage of the students in each category who had completed a specific item was computed (cf. Tables 3 and 4). The percentage of those having answered an item out of the total number of students at each level of education (i.e., BAs and MAs) was further computed in a separate column on each table.
Finally, in order to come up with an overall picture of out-of-class learning strategies applied by EFL learners, regardless of sex or level of education, the mean of the percentage obtained for each level of education totally on each particular item was computed (cf. Table 5).
Table 1
Out-of-class learning strategies used by EFL undergraduates
Out-of-class Strategy Number of males using the strategy (N=30) Number of females using the strategy (N=38) Total
1. Reading English
a. newspapers 22 27 9
b. magazines 5 4 9
c. periodicals 1 2 3
d. novels 6 13 19
e. short stories 23 23 46
f. poems 5 3 8
2. Listening to radio 26 24 50
3. Watching English TV Programs
a. IRIB 13 21 34
b. Foreign Satellites 10 10 20
4. Finding native speakers to practice conversation 19 18 37
5. Writing to a pen friend 4 4 8
6. Attending movies 19 25 44
7. Visiting Eng.-Speaking countries 2 8 10
8. Subscribing to Eng. Periodicals 6 6 12
9. Other strategies
- listening to tapes 5 3 8
- speaking with classmates 2 0 2
10. The most accessible strategies
- listening to radio/tapes 12 9 21
- watching Eng. TV programs 7 13 20
- reading (novels, magazines, etc) 12 10 22
Table 2
Out-of-class learning strategies used by EFL graduate students
Out-of-class Strategy Number of males using the strategy (N=15) Number of females using the strategy (N=9) Total
1. Reading English
a. newspapers 10 4 4
b. magazines 10 6 16
c. periodicals 8 4 12
d. novels 9 7 16
e. short stories 10 8 18
f. poems 6 2 8
2. Listening to radio 15 7 22
3. Watching English TV Programs
a. IRIB 5 5 10
b. Foreign Satellites 6 6 12
4. Finding native speakers to practice conversation 7 4 11
5. Writing to a pen friend 1 4 5
6. Attending movies 7 7 14
7. Visiting Eng.-Speaking countries 1 2 3
8. Subscribing to Eng. Periodicals 1 1 2
9. Other strategies
- listening to tapes 3 1 4
- speaking with classmates
10. The most accessible strategies
- listening to radio/tapes 8 3 11
- watching Eng. TV programs 9 6 15
- reading (novels, magazines, etc) 11 6 17
- soliloquy (talking to oneself) 1 0 1



Table 3
Percentage of undergraduates using each out-of-class strategy
Out-of-class Strategy % of males using the strategy (N=30) % of females using the strategy (N=38)
1. Reading English
a. newspapers 73 71
b. magazines 16.5 10.5
c. periodicals 3.3 5.2
d. novels 20 34.5
e. short stories 76.6 60.5
f. poems 16.6 7.8
2. Listening to radio 86.6 63
3. Watching English TV Programs
a. IRIB 43.3 55.2
b. Foreign Satellites 33.3 26.3
4. Finding native speakers to practice conversation 63.7 47.3
5. Writing to a pen friend 13.3 10.5
6. Attending movies 63.3 65.7
7. Visiting Eng.-Speaking countries 6.6 26.3
8. Subscribing to Eng. Periodicals 20 15.7
9. Other strategies
- listening to tapes 16.6 7.8
- speaking with classmates 6.6 0
10. The most accessible strategies
- listening to radio/tapes 40 24
- watching Eng. TV programs 23.3 34.2
- reading (novels, magazines, etc) 40 26.3




Table 4
Percentage of graduates using each out-of-class strategy
Out-of-class Strategy % of males using the strategy (N=15) % of females using the strategy (N=9)
1. Reading English
a. newspapers 66.6 44.4
b. magazines 66.6 66.6
c. periodicals 53.3 44.4
d. novels 60 77.7
e. short stories 66.6 84.4
f. poems 40 22.2
2. Listening to radio 100 77.7
3. Watching English TV Programs
a. IRIB 33.3 55.5
b. Foreign Satellites 40 66.6
4. Finding native speakers to practice conversation 46.6 44.4
5. Writing to a pen friend 6.6 44.4
6. Attending movies 46.6 77.7
7. Visiting Eng.-Speaking countries 6.6 22.2
8. Subscribing to Eng. Periodicals 6.6 11.1
9. Other strategies
- listening to tapes 20 11.1
- speaking with classmates
10. The most accessible strategies
- listening to radio/tapes 53.3 33.3
- watching Eng. TV programs 60 66.6
- reading (novels, magazines, etc) 73.3 66.6
- soliloquy (talking to oneself) 4.1 0



Table 5
Mean percentage of both grads and undergrads using each out-of-class strategy
Out-of-class Strategy % of students using the strategy (N=92)
1. Reading English
a. newspapers 65
b. magazines 39.5
c. periodicals 27.2
d. novels 47
e. short stories 71.3
f. poems 22.4
2. Listening to radio 82.5
3. Watching English TV Programs
a. IRIB 45.8
b. Foreign Satellites 39.7
4. Finding native speakers to practice conversation 52.2
5. Writing to a pen friend 16.2
6. Attending movies 61.5
7. Visiting Eng.-Speaking countries 15.5
8. Subscribing to Eng. Periodicals 13
9. Other strategies
- listening to tapes 14.2
10. The most accessible strategies
- listening to radio/tapes 38.5
- watching Eng. TV programs 46
- reading (novels, magazines, etc) 51.5

4. Discussion
A passing glance at the data on Tables 1 to 5 would spot the following outstanding features.
As it was mentioned under results, the obtained frequencies on items 1b, 1c, and 1d (reading English magazines, periodicals, and novels, respectively) across the four categories of subjects indicate significant differences after running the chi-square test (α<.05). This means that the number of undergraduates reading English magazines is fewer than what is expected in comparison to graduates, who relatively seem to read more magazines—even more than what is expected. A similar orientation is noticed as for reading English periodicals as well as novels. The reason might be attributable to the undergraduates' poorer vocabulary knowledge, since reading such authentic materials, among other things, demands a fairly rich vocabulary knowledge on the part of the reader. Another reason may be the lack of sufficient familiarity with available sources at the library, partly due to difficulty of access for undergraduates to the periodicals and magazines section of the library. (Undergraduates are not allowed to freely enter the section of the library where periodicals and magazines are kept.)
The overall picture of out-of-class strategies used by EFL learners, regardless of gender and level of education, as portrayed in Table 5, indicates that most use is made of receptive skills, i.e., listening and reading, by the participants, so that all in all 82.5% of the students taking part in this study report applying the strategy of listening to foreign English radios. The activity of listening (to either radio or tapes) has, furthermore, been reported as one of the most accessible out-of-class strategies by some of the participants.
Similarly, reading short stories, preferred to be used by 71.3% of the entire participants, stands the next chance to be undertaken by a majority of the students. The activity of reading materials outside the official educational system has further been reported, along with listening, to be one of the most accessible out-of-class learning strategies by more than 50% of the participants.
The pervasiveness of receptive skills as out-of-class strategies might suggest the fact that availability of speaking opportunities for the students in the learning environment is limited.
Finally, although Huang and Naerssen (1987) report "talking to oneself" (soliloquy) as one of the out-of-class strategies employed by their students, it seems that few students from among the participants in this study made use of this cheapest and most accessible strategy! (Only one participant reported that he applied soliloquy as an out-of-class learning strategy.)

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