The Role of Bourdieu’s Social and Cultural Capital in L2 Learners’ Use of Language Learning Strategies

The present study investigated the role of Bourdieu’s constructs of social and cultural capital in secondlanguage (L2) learners’ use of learning strategies. One hundred university students were asked to fill out two questionnaires: the Social and Cultural Capital Questionnaire (SCCQ) and Strategies Inventory of Language Learning(SILL). Results from the Pearson product-moment correlation showed that there was a significant positive correlation between learners’ total social and cultural capital scores and their strategy use. Moreover, significant positive correlations were found between learners’ use of language learning strategies and Social Competence, SocialSolidarity, Extraversion, Literacy, and Cultural Competence. In order to find the predictors of language learning strategies in social and cultural capital components, the researchers opted for multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that the social and cultural capital components explained 83% of the variance in language learning strategies scores. Further, to find out which of the variables included in the model contributed to the prediction of the dependent variable, the researchers found that the largest beta coefficient (Beta = .657) belonged to social solidarity, as the strongest contributing factor to learners’ use of language learning strategies. Moreover, the Beta value for cultural competence was also significant, pointing to the fact that this component also made a significant contribution to the prediction of the dependent variable. The implication of the findings are discussed

Keywords:

Bourdieu , social capital , cultural capital , L2 learning strategies