French Language Learning Strategies Employed by High-Achieving Students at the University of Maiduguri

Language learning strategies are deliberate cognitive, metacognitive, and social behaviours that learners employ to manage the process of acquiring a new language, and their relationship to academic achievement in French has implications for how French instruction might be redesigned to promote strategic learning. This study investigates the language learning strategies employed by high-achieving French language students at the University of Maiduguri, drawing on Oxford's Strategy Inventory for Language Learning as the primary measurement framework. A descriptive survey design was employed, with the adapted Strategy Inventory for Language Learning administered to 60 students identified as high-achieving based on their cumulative grade point average in French courses over two academic years. In-depth interviews with fifteen purposively selected high-achievers provided qualitative data on strategy deployment in specific learning contexts. Results reveal that high-achieving students at the University of Maiduguri rely most heavily on metacognitive strategies including self-monitoring and goal-setting, followed by memory strategies for vocabulary retention using visual and auditory association techniques. Social strategies, particularly seeking conversation practice with Cameroonian and Nigerien students on campus, were significantly more frequent among the highest-performing quartile. Compensation strategies including circumlocution and approximation were reported as more frequent in oral production contexts than in writing. The study recommends explicit strategy training for all French students at the University of Maiduguri, with particular emphasis on metacognitive planning and social practice-seeking strategies. Keywords: language learning strategies, French language, high-achieving students, University of Maiduguri, Strategy Inventory for Language Learning