The Effect of Choosing a Foreign Language Learning Strategy on the Foreign Language Proficiency of Tour Guides: Japanese Reading Comprehension Approach

Abstract

This study aims to research on learning strategies from tour guides as a Japanese class students. The method used in this study is a descriptive method, with a quantitative approach to the data processing process. The research instrument used was in the form of a closed questionnaire, with a Lickert-scale assessment scale and data processing was carried out using statistical data processing, to further elaborate on the data descriptively. The respondents in this study are tour guides who are members of the Tourism Awareness Group who attend the Japanese class. From the results of the study, it is known that there is a positive correlation between meta-cognitive strategies and social strategies in the process of mastering foreign languages. This study also found that the learning method by relying on dictionaries which is part of the compensation strategy in learning foreign languages, is not too prominent in its use, because the background of the tour guide is a self-taught foreign language learner, so it prioritizes the mastery of foreign languages through social contacts made during their profession. Furthermore, to improve the foreign language competence of tour guides, conventional foreign language teaching strategies that focus on teaching grammar, are not very effective and require teaching techniques that use a lot of project-based learning methods, to hone foreign language skills naturally.