Understanding Successful Learners

This paper addresses the subject of individual differences in language learning, a topic whose complexity needs continuing investigation. It reports on a study that was developed and used to examine use of strategies by successful Algerian learners of English inside and outside the classroom. The present study uses multiple data types, for example, interviews, questionnaires, and follow-up emails as a triangulation strategy to provide a rich and complex picture of the experiment. The results establish a range of learning strategies in three broad categories: metacognitive, cognitive and affective/socio-cultural. Key Terms: Language learning strategies, successful learners, competence in English as a Foreign Language.