Students' Achievements and Learning Strategies Across Gender Differences

This case study is intended to investigate students' achievement and learning strategies employed by high achievers in English learning process at a single-gender private Islamic high school in East Java, Indonesia, in which male and female students are put in separated groups. Instruments used in this study are document analysis and interview guidelines. It reveals that the stereotype which is told us female learners tend to outperform male learners in language learning is not applicable in this study. Another conclusion that can be inferred is that all high achievers from both schools employ all learning strategy types which are proposed by Oxford (1990) namely; direct strategies and indirect strategies.


INTRODUCTION
In Indonesia, English holds position as a foreign language, for it is only studied formally at schools and institutes. More specifically, in Indonesian education system, English is learned from elementary level to higher education level. In elementary level English is learned as local content subject, while in secondary schools and higher level its position is as one of compulsory subjects. According to Brown (2004), English has four basic skills that can be learned; listening, speaking, reading, and writing, which are learned in formal education.
In formal teaching and learning activities, students learn four basic skills in order to achieve learning goals; one of which is English mastery. In secondary level, one of the English learning goals is asking the students to master those four basic skills integratively. It is in line with The National Curriculum which obligates horizontal organization coherency between core competence and basic competence. Furthermore, English learning process in Indonesia including in secondary level has been regulated in national curriculum which is called as Kurikulum 2013. English curriculum structure in secondary level, based on Kurikulum 2013, is divided into two types; English as compulsory subject and English as local content. English as compulsory subject asks all students to take and join this subject in class. Meanwhile, the other requires the students to take the class based on their interest and ability 7KH VWXGHQWV· (QJOLVK mastery on those four skills is determined by the teachers through some measurement, so called assessment. One of the assessments which can be conducted is testing. As Harris (1969, p. 3) says that the language testing process has become the principle in educational uses of language test.
´ODQJXDJH WHVWV KDYH PDQ\ uses in educational programs, and quite often the same test will be used for two or more UHODWHG SXUSRVHV « WKH\ Go indicate six different emphasis LQ PHDVXULQJ VWXGHQWV· DELOLW\ RU SRWHQWLDO« WR PHDVXUH WKH H[WHQW RI VWXGHQWV· DFKLHYHPHQW RI WKH instructiRQDO JRDOVµ Harris (1969) also mentions that test can be used WR PHDVXUH WKH VWXGHQWV· achievement after they learn a language ,Q RUGHU WR NQRZ WKH VWXGHQWV· cognitive and psychomotoric achievements towards those four skills, a measurement should be conducted in several ways, for example through quizzes, presentations, oral and written examinations, or projects. Based

Kartika & Emaliana, 6WXGHQWV· Achievements and Learning Strategies across Gender Differences
216 on Kurikulum 2013, other effort that can be done by the teacher is DVVHVVLQJ WKH VWXGHQWV· affective aspects such as their politeness, their behavior in class, and their active participation in class. In assessing their students; teachers have already had indicators which are used as standards. At the end, those standards can be used as tools to measure WKHLU VWXGHQWV· DFKLHYHPHQW LQ OHDUQLng English. Therefore, by knowing VWXGHQWV· DFKLHYHPHQW QRW RQO\ WHDFKHUV EXW DOVR VWXGHQWV, even people are often bounded in stereotype.
In relation to the English language learning, there is a widelyknown stereotype called as woman superiority in learning language.
Based on a study conducted by Eisenstein & Farhady (1982), female participants significantly outperformed male participants on listening comprehension test. Another study which was conducted by Baker et al. (1995) found that in countries such as Thailand, where the single-sex sector is small and selective, girls do better academically in single-sex schools. It means that female students tend to outperform male students in academic field, whether it is in single-sex school or co-ed systems.
Younger & Warrington as cited in Smyth (2010) reported mixed results in relation to actual achievement levels and varying perceptions across the case-study schools of the value of single-sex schooling. They suggest that single-sex classes have the potential to raise the achievement of both boys and girls and to have a positive influence on learning climate but only if ´GHYHORSHG ZLWKLQ JHQGHU UHODWLRQDO FRQWH[WVµ 7KH WULJJHU RI WKH stereotype can be caused by some factors, and one of the factors is learning strategies.
Learning strategy is one of factors which influence the results of optimum achievement in English language learning. The core theory that is used by the writers in this aspect is idea of learning strategies proposed by Oxford (1990) Zoghi et al. (2013), their study focused on the effects of JHQGHU LQ VWXGHQWV· DFKLHYHPHQW DQG WKH VHFRQG SUHYLRXV VWXG\ ZDV conducted by Akbar et al. (2014) which focusing on the learning strategies used by EFL learners in Al Azad University. The gap within this current research is that this study is conducted in Indonesia, the country in which English holds position as a foreign language (EFL) and this study takes different level of education. The researchers want to find out whether the stereotype is still applicable in the current setting.
As in Indonesia, EFL is taught in both single-gender school and co-education (co-ed) school systems. Learning strategies, as well as VWXGHQWV· (QJOLVK DFKLHYHPHQW is also worth studying. Notably, singlegender school is no longer trend unlike in the past during the Dutch-Kartika & Emaliana, 6WXGHQWV· Achievements and Learning Strategies across Gender Differences 218 colonialism era; today, the number of single-gender school is rarely found compare to co-ed school, and mostly nowadays, the single-gender school uses religion basis. Different from Indonesian single-gender school, the schools in New Zealand, Australia, United States of America, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, India, South Korea, and Japan VKRZ VDWLVI\LQJ UHVXOWV IRU WKHLU VWXGHQWV· academic achievement (Park et al., 2012). Implicitly, by conducting research in this kind of school, we may discover satisfying results which can contribute to the betterment of education in Indonesia, especially for the betterment and development of single-gender school in Indonesia. Besides, the study on single-gender education in relation to English language teaching in Indonesia is still limited and needs to be improved because most of previous studies involved co-ed system schools. Also, this research is conducted in singlegender school in order to minimize the gender bias, since the male and female students are separated in different classes and are taught by teachers with the same gender. Besides, we also may accurately discover learning strategies which are used by male students and female students.
Definitely, this study hopefully can help teachers apply suitable teaching strategies when they teach male and female students by knowing VWXGHQWV· OHDUQLQJ VWUDWHJLHV SUHIHUHQFH Therefore, this study is delimited for studenWV· DFKLHYHPHQW LQ (QJOLVK VXEMHFW DQG WKH OHDUQLQJ VWUDWHJLHV used by the high achievers from X grade in English subject at a singlegender school in East Java, Indonesia. The present study is also conducted due to the needs of specific information about appropriate teaching strategies seen from the learning strategies used by different genders of single-gender school students.

LITERATURE REVIEW
English language in Indonesia is categorized as a foreign language (EFL). Although it is known as a foreign language, in language field, the English language learning process can be classified into second language acquisition (SLA). SLA refers to the study of individuals and group who are learning a language subsequent to learn their first one as young children. It also refers to the process of that language, the additional language that is called as second language (L2) although its position is not the second language of the country. In the secondary schools, the goal for learning English is that the students are expected to master the four basic skills; listening, reading, speaking, and writing which are integratively learned whether in co-ed and single-gender school system

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Regarding the English subject, there is a stereotype which also can be found in language learning. One of them is about woman superiority in learning language. According to Isnaini et al. (2011, p. 84), ´7KHUH LV D widespread belief in many western cultures that females tend to be better / OHDUQHUV WKDQ PDOHVµ )Xrthermore, this stereotype is based on the previous research done by some experts who found that women outperformed men in some test of verbal fluency (Kimura, 1992), females seemed to be better at memorizing complex forms, while males appeared to be better at computing compositional rules (Halpern, 2000). Besides, Baker et al. (1995) found in countries such as Thailand, where the singlesex sector is small and selective, girls do better academically in single-sex schools. Eisenstein & Farhady (1982) reported mixed results in relation to Beside gender, learning strategies can be another factor affecting English language learning. Language learning strategies which refer to behaviors in which language learners incorporate and keep up as ways of learning a second language are influenced by some factors. Those factors are gender (male and female), ethnicity, economic status, academic background, and the type of school as stated by Ras (2013, p. 22). In relation to learning strategies, Oxford (1990, p. 17) classifies them

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Direct strategies are divided into three categories; memory, cognitive, and compensation strategies. Meanwhile, indirect strategies are also divided into three categories; metacognitive, affective, and social. In short, the learning strategies classification based on Oxford (1990) can be seen in tables below:  According to Oxford (1990), direct strategies can be defined as learning strategies that directly involve the target language. Direct strategies also require mental processing of the language. Direct strategies are grouped into three groups: memory strategies, cognitive strategies, and compensation strategies. Memory strategies are also clustered into appropriate strategy sets: creating mental linkages, applying image and sounds, reviewing well, and employing actions.
Cognitive strategies are also clustered into some strategy sets: practicing, Meanwhile, indirect strategies, based on Oxford (1990, p. 135), can be defined as the strategies that support and manage language learning without directly involving the target language. The strategies are useful and applicable to all four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
The strategies involve things outside language matters like psychological matters and social relationship. According to Oxford (1990, p. 136), this strategies are divided into three main clusters namely metacognitive, affective, and social strategies.

METHOD
The strategy of inquiry of this research was case study since the researcher explored in depth a program, event, activity, process or one or more individuals. Since the data that emerged from qualitative study was descriptive, they were explained in words and images rather than in numbers (Creswell, 2009 p. 195 Oxford (1990) had been validated.
In this study, the data collection was started by purposefully selecting the participants to be involved in this study. From the 1 st term of English final examination score on academic year 2015/2016 there were one male student from the boys and two female students from girls becoming the participants. Next, by using the interview guide, they were interviewed to obtain information about their learning strategies used in studying English. Afterward, the two teachers were also interviewed to confirm the results of the interviews.
In order to analyze the gathered data, the writer referred to the procedure proposed by Miles and Hubberman (1994); data collection, data reduction, and conclusion drawing. The data reduction was done in order to find the important points which were needed in answering problems of the study. The data were then displayed in the form of tables.
Finally, the conclusions were drawn.

RESULTS
In this part, the findings are presented LQ WZR SDUWV VWXGHQWV· achievement and the learning strategies used by students seen from different genders. version 7.0 proposed by Oxford (1990). The questions were translated into Bahasa Indonesia in order to avoid the misunderstanding due to the language differences.      In short, from those twenty nine questions A.N.R answered all questions that she applied the strategies thus, she applied some actions that indicate to use of direct strategies when she learned English. Therefore, from those twenty one questions, A.N.R answered eighteen questions that she applied the strategies and the rest are answered by never applied, thus she applied some actions that indicated to the use of indirect strategies. The results from the female student representative named M.L from Language and Literature class showed that she employed some actions that indicated to the use of direct strategies which are represented by twenty nine questions (Table 7) Table 8 in which nine numbers of   questions as the representative for metacognitive strategies, six  It can be inferred from the interview results that although all participants already applied the learning strategies, there is a stark difference between them. The difference is the intensity or the degree of learning strategies use. Male learner prefers use cognitive strategies but did not prefer to apply some actions regarding to both direct and indirect strategies like reviewing, creating structure for input and output, evaluating learning, encouraging self, and asking question. It is known that female learners use more strategies rather than male learner (See Table 9 and 10).

Woman Supremacy in Language Learning
Having completed the analysis, the writers got fourteen main scores from the total number of male students. The results showed that the highest score was ninety and the lowest score was seventy five. The writer also got forty one main scores from the total number of female students. The results showed that the highest score was eighty three and the lowest score was thirty. The score range is different and wide on the male and female groups. The finding also against Baker (1995) who believed that female students tended to be reach better achievement in single-gender school.
Unfortunately, the findings also against the previous study conducted by Zoghi et al. (2013) which found female learners outperform male learners.

Learning Strategies Use
Another point that can be discussed is learning strategies. The use of learning strategies is influenced by gender. As stated by Ras (2013, p.22) that language learning strategies are influenced by some factors. using teaching strategies such as doing practice, using many resources when teaching English, translating, or note taking.

CONCLUSION
The first conclusion of this research is that the male student is not outperformed by female students in English final examination. It was shown by the result of English final examination score that male student achieved score ninety in the test while the females achieved eighty three in the test. The second conclusion of the research is related to learning strategies used by those students. Both of male and female students were applying learning strategies ideas that are proposed by Oxford (1990), but there is difference between them which is the degree or the intensity of learning strategies use. Female learners use more strategies rather than male learner. suggestions are for future researchers. The writers suggest that the next researchers could do descriptive qualitative research to cover more than one school. Hence, the research results will be more insightful. The writers want to suggest the next researcher to do study on middle and low achievers, since this study focuses on high achiever only. The writers also give suggestion to the next researchers who will conduct research DERXW VWXGHQWV· DFKLHYHPHQW DQG OHDUQLQJ VWUDWHJLHV LQ VLQJOH-gender schools to prepare a partner with the same gender as the schools in order to deal with the school rule which forbids the opposite gender researcher come to school. Finally, the writers also suggest to the next researcher to find out more sources about single-gender education system school which is rarely found in Indonesia and learning strategies idea to support the research in this issue.