ACTS OF AGENCY IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Noor Saazai Mat Saad¹ *, Hamidah Yamat², Harison @ Hanisa Mohd. Sidek³, Hazleena Baharun, Muzhafar Mohd. Idrus
¹Dr.,Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Malaysia, nmatsaad@gmail.com
²Assoc. Prof. Dr., Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia, hamidah_yamat@ukm.edu.my
³Assoc. Prof. Dr., Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Malaysia, harison@usim.edu.my
Dr., Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Malaysia, hazleena@usim.edu.my
Dr., Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Malaysia, muzhafar@usim.edu.my
*Corresponding Author

Abstract

Successful language learners exercise their agency as they experience learning or acquiring the target language. Their agency acts as the push from within themselves; influenced by the need of an end to be fulfilled and the action taken is within the permitted perimeter of the environment. This is evident in the current study on nine international students whose insights were captured through document analysis of their online postings and interviews. Findings revealed that these international students exercised their agency by making relentless efforts in employing language learning strategies despite the challenges they faced to become better learners of the English language. Further findings illustrating agency were investment and imagined community. Although both investment and imagined community concur with existing literature, the findings from this study further highlight ‘experience’ as an impetus for investment in English language learning.

Keywords: agency, English language learning experiences, imagined community, international students, investment