The first three hypotheses described in the section 3.3 are mostly demonstrated by the results of this qualitative research. Proficient students meet each of the following conditions: they have (1) high motivation, (2) clear study goals. and (3) career goals. However, the fourth hypothesis that is proficient students try to improve all of their English skills does not seem to be proved in this study. The subjects of this study are likely to prefer auditory or visual-based English input activities in contrast to more production based activities such as writing and speaking. Additionally. some of them had not made sufficient effort to build their vocabulary. A couple of them just relied solely on reference books.
The general results of the study are that all of the students except for one displayed the highest degree of motivation for improving their TOEIC scores and had a desire to use English for their career. Furthermore, all the students reported on extra efforts they made to improve their TOEIC scores.
Successful language learners cannot be distinguished by a single set of learning activities but rather they are identified through their capacity to understand and develop a personal set of effective learning strategies. The subjects of this study have developed or tried to develop their own set of effective learning strategies. In fact, those subjects practicing a variety of learning activities on their own have successfully gained higher scores on the TOEIC exams. Students could benefit if EFL instructors share ideas for effec
tive language learning activities: first, students will choose some of them and then they will develop their own activities later.