Use of learning strategies by students of eight-year and four-year grammar school

After the fall of communism in 1989, there were newly reestablished the eight-year grammar schools, e. g. schools combining both lower and upper secondary comprehensive education and preparing students for higher academic education. Since this change, there has been a continuous discussion on the pros and cons of the eight-year grammar schools and lower secondary level of elementary schools as well as of the eight-year grammar schools in comparison to the four-year grammar schools. The four-year grammar school was the only type of comprehensive higher secondary school in the era of Communism and it still exists nowadays. A specific research on the learning strategies as a part of the competency to learn a foreign language (as stated in the Framework Education Programme for Grammar Schools 2007) was conducted at 13 grammar schools in Brno. Differences in the use of strategies, factors influencing the use of strategies (gender, motivation or self-concept) and factors influenced by the use of learning strategies (proficiency level, development of language competencies or school notes) are described. No systematic differences between the two educational programmes (8-year study and 4-year study) of grammar schools were found. The only differences found were those between particular schools. Students of the eight-year grammar school did not achieve higher level in the use of learning strategies than students of
the four-year study programme.