Up to now, there has been much research investigating the learning strategies. Previous studies on teaching learning strategies have been conducted in different contexts with different focus. This research reviews up- to-date examples from the relevant literature on teaching learning strategies to determine the research gap for which this study was conducted. In order to support the writing of the research methodology and methods, the researcher reviewed previous empirical studies that are related to the topic of the current research.
An experimental study on the effects of different types of strategy training on listening comprehension for high school Spanish students found some benefits of strategy training, especially when the material was difficult for students (Rubin, Quinn & Enos, 1988). An important conclusion of the study was that teachers need as much time to understand and become proficient in teaching learning strategies as students do in understanding and applying learning strategies. Further, the study suggested that teachers should
be involved in the design of learning strategy lessons.
A multicase study carried out by Émilie Tremblay-Wragg, Carole Raby, Louise Ménard and Isabelle Plante describes the use of diversified teaching strategies in university courses and examines the contribution of these strategies and their context of use on student learning motivation. For this purpose, classroom observations and interviews were conducted with four teachers using diversified strategies, and 40 targeted students. Furthermore, the motivation of 195 students was measured at the beginning and end of the semester. Results reveal that the teachers used between six and nine different teaching strategies and that student motivation increased during the semester for two groups but remained the same or decreased for the other groups. In addition, other more or less positive contextual factors seemed to modulate the benefits of strategy diversification on students’ motivation to learn. These findings highlight the importance of diversifying teaching strategies in higher education as well as to take into account their context of use in order to promote their positive contribution.
Utilizing learning strategies is regarded as one of the principal factors that led to the successful acquisition of foreign vocabulary. Heng's case study in 2011 studied five Cambodian teachers and five high school students employing semi-structured interviews to collect data to find out the most effective learning strategies used by teachers and students. The results reported a wide range of effective learning strategies for learning vocabulary as well as a number of common problems faced by Cambodian EFL teachers and students.
Jafari (2013) examined the strategies employed by Iranian EFL students in three different English learning levels. A questionnaire on vocabulary
strategies was completed by 110 randomly selected students of three levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced). The study results showed that there was no significant difference among the students with diverse competence levels in employing learning strategies.
Teaching learning strategies has recently received due attention from both teachers and EFL learners in Vietnamese contexts. This was reported by several investigations about perceptions and implementation of learning strategies in various Vietnamese educational institutions at various levels, particularly high schools. Bui (2019) investigated the learning strategies towards learning English and the correlation between gender and the learner's field of study and English learning strategies. The researcher interviewed 67 students who were taking a language course as part of their high school program. Participants were 35 students of English major and another 32 participants of non-English major at a gifted high school in Hai Phong, Vietnam. Findings revealed that both majored and non-majored English learners used strategies in learning English. However, the English-majored learners were reported to make more use of strategies in learning than the non-English majored ones. This study also revealed that the learning strategies used between the two genders were not much varied.
In another study with teenage Vietnamese EFL learners, Luong (2014) attempted to investigate vocabulary learning strategies used by the tenth-form students at a high school in a rural area of Hanoi. The research was done with seven teachers and 140 students working and studying at a public school in Hanoi. The results showed that both teachers and learners at this high school value the importance of teaching and learning vocabulary in foreign language classes. They employ a variety of vocabulary teaching and learning strategies.
But some strategies like inferring from the context of the text, using an
English-Vietnamese dictionary, translating, taking notes in class, and using the vocabulary section in the textbook are often used. Students with majors sometimes use the others instead of those without majors. To improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning vocabulary, strategies should be promoted in classrooms.
As we can see from the above researches, different studies gave different learning strategies’ aspects and the studies were conducted in certain regions. However, a number of these studies were carried out among students not teachers.
2.2.2 Gaps in existing research.
From the above sections of previous research, it is clear that many researchers have investigated learning strategies, but most of them pay attention to some certain aspects but not to teaching learning strategies to EFL students. Moreover, there is not much research that investigates the roles of teachers’ perceptions in teaching learning strategies to EFL students.
Therefore, the gap about this issue appears.