Umamah, Hidayanti, Writing Strategy and Factors | 70 Writing Strategy and Factors Contributing to EFL University Students’ Preference Atik Umamah Universitas Islam Malang atikumamah@unisma.ac.id Ika Hidayanti Universitas Islam Malang ikahidayanti@unisma.ac.id Abstract: This study was aimed to identify 1) the significant difference on the learning strategy attainment by male and female students, 2) the significant difference on the use of the strategies in learning writing based on the students’ attitude toward English writing “like or dislike”, and 3) the correlation between learning strategy use and three factors: gender, interest and writing achievement. To elicit research data, a-70 item questionnaire was administered to101 English students of Universitas Islam Malang. Ex-post facto and correlation analysis were designs adopted to deal with the problems proposed in this research. The statistical analysis indicated that female students did not deploy the strategies significantly different from the male counterparts. The second finding revealed that the more interested the students in English writing, the more likely they employed the learning strategies. The last report showed that there was no correlation between writing strategy and two factors: gender and writing achievement. Meanwhile, negative-moderate correlation was found between the strategy choice and the students’ liking for English writing. Keywords: learning strategy, writing, gender, interest, proficiency BACKGROUND Learning strategies, according to Oxford (1990), refer to “specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferrable to new situations” (p.80). It is undeniable that in the context of EFL learning, deploying learning strategies will benefit learners to overcome their difficulties. Anitah, et.al. (2008) argue that the use of strategies could benefit language learners as it gives significant impact toward their learning English achievement. Among the four skills, writing is considered as one way to express and measure someone’s English ability; however, it is regarded as the complicated skill which involves many aspects on one’s motivation, cognition, and social side (Raoofi, et. al., 2014). Every learner has different aspects in terms of age, intelligence, motivation, aptitude, attitude, personality, and cognitive styles; those factors distinguish students’ ways of learning, specifically in learning a second or foreign language (Skehan, 1989 cited in Anitah, et.al., 2008). Beside the individual aspects, gender is also linked to such circumstance. Thus, the selection of ways on learning would greatly affects the students’ success in second language learning (Brown, 2007). Regarding with the teaching four English skills, writing is seen to be the most difficult skill to acquire (Cahyono & Widiati, 2011:69). There are several aims for teaching