Religion, ethnicity and language learning strategies

Previous studies (Liyanage, 2003a, 2003b, 2004) by one of the authors indicated that ethnicity and religion jointly predict the metacognitive, cognitive and social affective strategies of ESL learners in Sri Lanka. The current study further examines which of these two variables (ethnicity or religion) is more important in determining the language learning strategies of ESL students. The study comprised subjects from four ethnic groups: Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim and Japanese. The Sinhalese and Japanese subjects are Buddhists, and the Tamil and Muslim subjects are followers of Hinduism and Islam respectively. The current study indicates that the religious identity of the learners, rather than their ethnic identity, is important in determining their selection of learning strategies.