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16 Language Learning Strategies in Adult L3 Acquisition: Relationship between L3 Development, Strategy Use, L2 Levels, and Gender HUI-JU LIN Georgetown University PART OF THE LATIN PROJECT,1 the current study investigated the relationship between strategies reported by ninety L1 Mandarin speakers of three different L2 English levels (low, mid, and high) and of both sexes and L3 development when learning to assign semantic functions to noun phrases at the sentence level. One-way ANOVA analyses showed that female participants and higher L2 participants used strategies more frequently than their counterparts. Correlation analyses revealed positive relationships between compensation strategies reported by all the L2 learners and the grammaticality judgment pretest as well as the sentence written production pretest. Positive correlations were identified between the grammaticality judgment pretest and compensation and metacognitive strategies reported by male learners, whereas a negative correlation was found between the grammaticality judgment delayed test and social strategies reported by female learners. Correlation analyses also yielded statistical significance showing that the more frequently strategies were used by low L2 learners, the higher L3 scores they attained. Negative correlations were found for the higher L2 learners. Nevertheless , the overall results support previous studies showing that female and higher L2 learners use strategies more frequently and that strategies play a role in L3 learning (Nation and McLaughlin 1986; Nayak et al. 1990; Sanz et al. 2009; Wharton 2000) by including a measure of strategies with a different group of learners.The results also indicate that factors such as L2 proficiency, sex, and type of language tests, may influence the relationship between learning strategies and L3 development. Introduction Over the last few decades researchers and teachers have attempted to identify the characteristics of good language learners in order to understand what distinguishes them from others and to use the knowledge to enhance language learning and teaching in second or foreign language classrooms. One way researchers have tried has been to 207 examine the performance of multilinguals or bilinguals with monolinguals learning another language because multilinguals or bilinguals are considered to be better and more experienced learners. For instance, research has shown that people with several language skills have different processing strategies than those with single language skills (see below).Although research in strategies has been one of the prominent fields showing that more successful learners use a variety of strategies and use them more frequently, little research has been done on the types of strategies employed by bilinguals or multilinguals when learning another language. As the number of bilinguals grows in the world, the current study attempts to contribute to this line of study by including a measurement of strategies to examine the relationship between strategies and L3 development and to investigate how certain variables, particularly L2 pro- ficiency levels and both sexes, influence strategies used in L3 development. It is hoped that the findings of the current study can provide a more detailed picture of strategy use by bilinguals in L3 development. Review of the Literature Researchers have noted the importance of strategies (e.g., Dörnyei 2006) or published books on theoretical and pedagogical issues (e.g., Cohen and Macaro 2007). Many empirical studies have also been conducted to understand strategies used by L2 learners and variables that influence strategy use (see Wharton 2000 for a short review) or to examine the effects of strategy instruction (e.g., Rivera-Mills and Plonsky 2007). Despite the extensive SLA research in strategies and the fact that researchers often consider bilinguals and multilinguals to be better and more experienced language learners, little research has investigated the strategies employed by bilinguals or multilinguals when they learn another language (Nation and McLaughlin 1986; Nayak et al. 1990; Sanz et al. 2009). Moreover, only one study (Wharton 2000) included a measure of learning strategies to investigate the relationship between learning strategies used by bilinguals when learning another language. Nation and McLaughlin (1986) compared the performance of fourteen multilinguals with fourteen bilinguals and fourteen monolinguals to understand the strategies employed by multilinguals, bilinguals, and monolinguals when learning an artificial language. Nation and McLaughlin first exposed the participants to an implicit condition, in which the participants were told to pay attention to the stimuli, and then to an explicit condition, in which they were told to search for rules. Additionally , the participants were exposed to only random or structured stimuli. After the treatment, the participants completed a grammaticality judgment test and an introspective questionnaire. ANOVA results showed that the...

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