Learning strategies employed by Greek students learning foreign languages in an academic contextHelen Tsakiridou, Department of Primary Education, University of Western MacedoniaEleni Griva, Department of Preschool Education, University of Western Macedonia,Triantafilia Kadoglou, Department of Balkan Studies, University of Western MacedoniaABSTRACTThis paper stresses the importance of learning strategies in foreign language learning for specific-academic purposes, that is how learners process new information and what kinds of tactics and actions they employ to understand, learn or remember the information. It provides the theoretical background of language learning strategies, it gives various definitions and taxonomies of strategies presented by some researchers (O' Malley, Oxford, Rubin, Stern), emphases teacher's role in strategy training and supports the idea that all language learners do not use the same good strategies. Taking into consideration Oxford's (1990) classification of language strategies - direct: cognitive, memory, compensation and indirect: metacognitive, affective, social - we carried out a study to investigate University students' learning strategies. 320 students of Western Macedonia University (departments of Primary Education, Early Childhood Education and Balkan Studies) participated in the study conducted in January- February 2004. 215 of them attend English for academic purposes courses and 85 French for academic purposes courses, where they are provided with language skills and strategies so that they can participate in academic conversations and operate in studying specific articles and books related to the field of science.A self- administered questionnaire was used to obtain the data needed for this study. The study tries to identify the range of learning strategies these students use, to investigate what types of strategies appear to work best with the learners in the specific process, what the role of language proficiency in language learning strategies use is. Moreover, it attempts to identify the week points regarding the students' employment of these strategies so that the instructor can provide them with a wide range of language learning strategies in order to meet their needs and help them become better language learners.The results provided a wealth of data about the types and range of learning strategies used, as well as the difficulties students face. As a whole group, these students appear to be using some "productive" strategies, however there are differences in foreign language learning strategy use between students of higher and lower level of language proficiency. It should be noted that students with lower language proficiency prefer using some "negative" strategies relying often on translating, frequent dictionary use, word-by-word reading etc. and they rarely use "compensation", "social" and "metacognitive" strategies, which are thought to be most difficult. Knowledge about student strategy use and learning preferences on the part of teachers as well as students should lead to an increase in student reflection about their learning processes. Moreover, through strategy training students with limited language proficiency would be discouraged to use "negative" strategies and develop a wider range of productive strategies for use. The study is limited in its scope and therefore it should not be generalized at this stage, but it allows for suggestions and poses questions for further research.