In this MA thesis I have studied the relationship between the students’ self-regulation and their knowledge of English at the end of the sixth grade. In the theoretical part, I have discussed various definitions of learning and different factors that have an impact on the process of learning. I have defined the term of learning to learn as the ability to learn, to organize learning and to regulate it. More specifically, I presented self-regulation as a self-directed process which transforms the students’ mental abilities into skills. I have described theoretical paradigms of self-regulation and the characteristics of the students who are self-regulated. In addition, the classification and characteristics of learning strategies are elaborated. The literature review ends with a discussion on the characteristics of early foreign language learning. In the empirical part, I was interested in what learning strategies the Year 6 primary school students most commonly use in learning English and if boys and girls differ in the use of learning strategies in learning English. I was also interested in the correlation between the use of learning strategies and the achievement in the national examination in English. My sample consisted of 122 students, 58 girls and 64 boys from primary schools in central Slovenia. In this study, I have used a questionnaire of learning strategies and the national test for English for Year 6 students that was administered in 2011. The results show that the sixth graders use most commonly motivational strategies for learning English. Another finding is that the boys and the girls do not differ in the frequency of the use of learning strategies and that those students who self-reported using more learning strategies, achieved lower results on the national examination in English.
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