Language Learning Strategies Use and Challenges Faced by Adult Arab Learners of Finnish as a Second Language in Finland

Adult Arab learners of Finnish as second language (FSL) often encounter communication difficulty when dealing with official documents. They also cannot help their children in their school homework. FSL proficiency is an essential requirement to get an employment and to obtain the Finnish citizenship. The aim of this paper is to explore the use of the language learning strategies by a number of adult Arabs learning FSL in Finland. In addition to issues and difficulties related to the learning process encountered by this category of learners. Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for language learning was used for the purpose of data collection and SPSS programme was employed to analyse data collected from the questionnaire, however, interview data were analysed manually. 30 (20 male and 10 female) adult Arab FSL learners taking beginning level course in Finnish at Helsinki School for Adult Learners participated in the current study. The results showed that adult Arab learners of Finnish used the language learning strategies at medium level with the average of (m=3.25). The results also showed a number of challenges that impede their second language learning process like the low literacy level of the learners, lack of communication with the Finnish society, and difficulties in reading and writing in Finnish.