Language Learning Strategies

Definition of a Language Learning Strategy

The term language learning strategy has been defined by many researchers. Wenden and Rubin (1987:19) define learning strategies as "... any sets of operations, steps, plans, routines used by the learner to facilitate the obtaining, storage, retrieval, and use of information." Learning strategies are "techniques, approaches, or deliberate actions that students take in order to facilitate the learning and recall of both linguistic and content area information" (Wenden, 1987:6). Richards and Platt (1992:209) state that learning strategies are "intentional behavior and thoughts used by learners during learning so as to better help them understand, learn, or remember new information." Faerch Claus and Casper (1983:67) stress that a learning strategy is "an attempt to develop linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in the target language." According to Stern (1992:261), "the concept of learning strategy is dependent on the assumption that learners consciously engage in activities to achieve certain goals and learning strategies can be regarded as broadly conceived intentional directions and learning techniques." All language learners use language learning strategies either consciously or unconsciously when processing new information and performing tasks in the language classroom. Since language classroom is like a problem-solving environment in which language learners are likely to face new input and difficult tasks given by their instructors, learners' attempts to find the quickest or easiest way to do what is required, that is, using language learning strategies is inescapable. Foreign or second language (L2) learning strategies are specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques students use--often consciously--to improve their progress in apprehending, internalizing, and using the L2 (Oxford, 1990b). For example, seek out conversation partners. groups word to be learned and then label each group. uses gesture to communicate in the classroom when the words do not come to mind. learn words by breaking them down into their components. consciously use guessing when reading. Strategies are the tools for active, self-directed involvement needed for developing L2 communicative ability (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990). Research has repeatedly shown that the conscious, tailored use of such strategies is related to language achievement and proficiency. The results of several "good language learner" studies suggest that successful foreign language (FL) learners use a variety of strategies to assist them in gaining command over new language skills (O'Malley, 1987). The selection of appropriate language learning strategies enable students to take responsibility for their own learning by enhancing learner autonomy, independence, and self-direction, necessary attributes for life-long learning (Oxford and Nyikos, 1989). By understanding the strategies that successful FL learners use, less competent learners should be able to improve their skills in a foreign language through training in strategies evidenced among those who are more successful. However, if one of the characteristics of successful FL learners is that they use strategies more effectively, what language learning strategies are poor language learners using that impedes their progress? Knowing this would also help teachers to use language learning strategy training to help deficient students avoid ineffective strategies as well as incorporate those that aid in gaining proficiency. Ellis (1994:555) concluded that "the strategies that learners elect to use reflect their general stage of L2 development." Oxford and Nyikos (1989:291) concur, saying, "Better language learners generally use strategies appropriate to their own stage of learning..." That is to say, that effective strategy use changes as the demands of language proficiency dictate. Although language learning strategies are perceived as positive tools, it may be that at a certain point, strategies cease to be an aid and contrarily turn into a crutch. For example, Oxford (1990) defines "switching to the mother tongue" as a compensation strategy that helps students overcome gaps in their language knowledge in order to keep a conversation moving. Although this strategy may be acceptable for a beginning student, it needs to be diminished as proficiency increases as to not hold the learner back in his FL acquisition process. Thus, the research question that needs an answer is: What are the language learning strategies that less successful FL learners are using, and are these affected by the learner's FL proficiency level? In other words, is it possible that strategies used by beginning FL students are maintained even as their proficiency levels increase and demand the incorporation of others?

What Successful Language Learners Do

Outside of the language learning field, research comparing experts to novices indicates that experts use more systematic and useful problem-solving and native-language reading comprehension strategies. A similar finding occurs with more successful language learners as compared to less successful ones. Better language learners generally use strategies appropriate to their own stage of learning, personality, age, purpose for learning the language and type of language (Oxford and Nyikos, 1989). Ellis (1994) summarizes the results of various "good language learner studies" into five major aspects of successful language learning. The first aspect of successful language learning is a concern for language form. Researchers found that good language learners treat language as a system by making effective crosslingual comparisons, analyzing the target language, and using reference books. Good language learners also pay attention to meaning, searching for it in the L2 data they are exposed to and trying to engage in real communication by seeking out opportunities for natural language use. Thirdly, good language learners show active involvement in language learning. Rather than developing dependence upon the teacher, they take charge of their own learning by identifying and pursuing goals and by trying to introduce new topics into conversations. The fourth characteristic concerned their metacognitive awareness of the learning process. Successful FL learners are thoughtful and aware of themselves, make conscious decisions and follow their own preferred learning style. These are the learners who have the ability to talk effectively about their language learning because they have a well-developed metalanguage with which to do it. Finally, Ellis concluded that successful learners are flexible and appropriately use learning strategies, demonstrating the ability to choose those that were appropriate for particular tasks. O'Malley and Chamot (1990) also undertook investigations comparing effective and ineffective students in their use of language learning strategies. More effective students used a greater variety of strategies in all the strategy groups, and used them in ways that helped the students complete the language task successfully. Less effective students not only had fewer strategy types in their repertoires but also frequently used strategies that were inappropriate to the task or that did not lead to successful task completion. Studying good FL learners provides insight into how strategies affect language learning and what kinds of behavior are associated with successful language acquisition. By comparing the strategies used by successful and unsuccessful FL learners, it may be possible to not only teach those strategies that are effective, but also avoid those that impede progress, particularly those strategies that are effective at the beginning levels of language acquisition but transform into stumbling blocks at higher levels of proficiency.

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE CHOICE OF L2 LEARNING STRATEGIES

Oxford (1990a) synthesized existing research on how the following factors influence the choice of strategies used among students learning a second language. "Motivation." More motivated students tended to use more strategies than less motivated students, and the particular reason for studying the language (motivational orientation, especially as related to career field) was important in the choice of strategies. "Gender." Females reported greater overall strategy use than males in many studies (although sometimes males surpassed females in the use of a particular strategy). "Cultural background." Rote memorization and other forms of memorization were more prevalent among some Asian students than among students from other cultural backgrounds. Certain other cultures also appeared to encourage this strategy among learners.

"Attitudes and beliefs." These were reported to have a profound effect on the strategies learners choose, with negative attitudes and beliefs often causing poor strategy use or lack of orchestration of strategies. "Type of task." The nature of the task helped determine the strategies naturally employed to carry out the task. "Age and L2 stage." Students of different ages and stages of L2 learning used different strategies, with certain strategies often being employed by older or more advanced students. "Learning style." Learning style (general approach to language learning) often determined the choice of L2 learning strategies. For example, analytic-style students preferred strategies such as contrastive analysis, rule-learning, and dissecting words and phrases, while global students used strategies to find meaning (guessing, scanning, predicting) and to converse without knowing all the words (paraphrasing, gesturing). "Tolerance of ambiguity." Students who were more tolerant of ambiguity used significantly different learning strategies in some instances than did students who were less tolerant of ambiguity. Language learning strategies language learners use during the act of processing the new information and performing tasks have been identified and described by researchers. In the following section, how Rebecca L Oxford has categorized language learning strategies will be shortly summarized: Oxford's (1990) Classification of Language Learning Strategies Oxford (1990:9) sees the aim of language learning strategies as being oriented towards the development of communicative competence. Oxford divides language learning strategies into two main classes, direct and indirect, which are further subdivided into 6 groups. In Oxford's system, metacognitive strategies help learners to regulate their learning. Affective strategies are concerned with the learner's emotional requirements such as confidence, while social strategies lead to increased interaction with the target language. Cognitive strategies are the mental strategies learners use to make sense of their learning, memory strategies are those used for storage of information, and compensation strategies help learners to overcome knowledge gaps to continue the communication. Oxford's (1990:17) taxonomy of language learning strategies is shown in the following : DIRECT STRATEGIES o I. Memory A. Creating mental linkages B. Applying images and sounds C. Reviewing well D. Employing action o II.Cognitive A. Practising B. Receiving and sending messages strategies C. Analysing and reasoning D. Creating structure for input and output o III. Compensation strategies A. Guessing intelligently B. Overcoming limitations in speaking and writing INDIRECT STRATEGIES o I. Metacognitive Strategies A. Centering your learning B. Arranging and planning your learning C. Evaluating your learning o II. Affective Strategies A. Lowering your anxiety B. Encouraging yourself

C. Taking your emotional temperature III. Social Strategies A. Asking questions B. Cooperating with others C. Emphathising with others

Oxford (1990) considers that "any specific action taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations" is a language learning strategy. Oxford (1990) divides strategies into two major types, direct and indirect. She defines direct strategies as those requiring mental processing of the language. However, the three groups that compose direct strategies do this processing differently and for different purposes. For example, memory strategies, such as grouping or using imagery, have a highly specific function, which is to help students store and retrieve new information. Cognitive strategies, on the other hand, such as summarizing or reasoning deductively, enable learners to understand and produce new language by many different means. Finally, compensation strategies like guessing or using synonyms, allow learners to use the language despite their often-large gaps in knowledge. The second group of strategies discussed by Oxford (1990) is indirect strategies. These are called "indirect" because they support and manage language learning without directly involving the target language. They are divided into metacognitive, affective, and social strategies. Metacogntive strategies, like centering your learning and evaluating and monitoring, are "actions which go beyond purely cognitive devices, and which provide a way for learners to coordinate their own learning process" (p. 136). Affective strategies, however, such as lowering your anxiety, encouraging yourself, and taking your emotional temperature, deal with emotion, attitudes, motivations, and values. Finally, the third indirect strategy group defined by Oxford involves social strategies, like asking questions, cooperating peers and proficient users of the target language, and empathizing with others.

Importance of Language Learning Strategies in Language Learning and Teaching

Since the amount of information to be processed by language learners is high in language classroom, learners use different language learning strategies in performing the tasks and processing the new input they face. Language learning strategies are good indicators of how learners approach tasks or problems encountered during the process of language learning. In other words, language learning strategies, while nonobservable or unconsciously used in some cases, give language teachers valuable clues about how their students assess the situation, plan, select appropriate skills so as to understand, learn, or remember new input presented in the language classroom.. Metacognitive strategies improve organization of learning time, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation. Cognitive strategies include using previous knowledge to help solve new problems. Socioaffective strategies include asking native speakers to correct their pronunciation, or asking a classmate to work together on a particular language problem. Developing skills in three areas, such as metacognitive, cognitive, and socioaffective can help the language learner build up learner independence and autonomy whereby he can take control of his own learning. As Oxford (1990:1) states, language learning strategies "... are especially important for language learning because they are tools for active, self-directed movement, which is essential for developing communicative competence." Besides developing the communicative competence of the students, teachers who train students to use language learning strategies can help them become better language learners. Helping students understand good language learning strategies and training them to develop and use such good language learning strategies can be considered to be the appreciated characteristics of a good language teacher (Lessard-Clouston 1997:3). Research into the good language learning strategies revealed a number of positive strategies so that such strategies could also be used by bad language learners trying to become more successful in language learning. However, there is always the possibility that bad language learners can also use the same good language learning strategies while becoming unsuccessful owing to some other reasons. At this point, it should be strongly stressed that using the same good language learning strategies does not guarantee that bad learners will also become successful in language learning since other factors may also play role in success.

The Teacher's Role in Strategy Training

The language teacher aiming at training his students in using language learning strategies should learn about the students, their interests, motivations, and learning styles. The teacher can learn what language learning strategies students already appear to be using, observing their behavior in class. Do they ask for clarification, verification or correction? Do they cooperate with their peers or seem to have much contact outside of class with proficient foreign language users? Besides observing their behavior in class, the teacher can prepare a short questionnaire so that students can fill in at the beginning of a course to describe themselves and their language learning. Thus, the teacher can learn the purpose of their learning a language, their favorite / least favorite kinds of class activities, and the reason why they learn a language. The teacher can have adequate knowledge about the students, their goals, motivations, language learning strategies, and their understanding of the course to be taught (LessardClouston 1997:5). It is a fact that each learner within the same classroom may have different learning styles and varied awareness of the use of strategies. The teacher cannot attribute importance to only one group and support the analytical approach or only give input by using the auditory mode. The language teacher should, therefore, provide a wide range of learning strategies in order to meet the needs and expectations of his students possessing different learning styles, motivations, strategy preferences, etc. Therefore, it can be stated that the most important teacher role in foreign language teaching is the provision of a range of tasks to match varied learning styles (Hall 1997:4). The language teacher should also study his own teaching method and overall classroom style. Analyzing his lesson plans, the language teacher can determine whether his lesson plans give learners chance to use a variety of learning styles and strategies or not. The teacher can see whether his teaching allows learners to approach the task at hand in different ways or not. The language teacher can also be aware of whether his strategy training is implicit, explicit, or both. It should be emphasized that questioning himself about what he plans to do before each lesson and evaluating his lesson plan after the lesson in terms of strategy training, the teacher can become better prepared to focus on language learning strategies and strategy training during the process of his teaching (Lessard-Clouston 1997:5).

Conclusion
Language learning strategies, being specific actions, behaviors, tactics, or techniques, facilitate the learning of the target language by the language learner. All language learners, needless to say, use language learning strategies in the learning process. Since the factors like age, gender, personality, motivation, self-concept, life-experience, learning style, excitement, anxiety, etc. affect the way in which language learners learn the target language, it is not reasonable to support the idea that all language learners use the same good language learning strategies or should be trained in using and developing the same strategies to become successful learners. As Lessard-Clouston (1997:8) mentions, studies to be done on language learning strategies and strategy training should move beyond descriptive taxonomies of language learning strategies and attempt to seek for answers to a wide range of questions, such as: What types of language learning strategies appear to work best with what learners in which contexts? Does language learning strategies or language learning strategies training transfer easily between L2 and FL contexts? What is the role of language proficiency in language learning strategies use and training? How long does it take to train specific learners in certain language learning strategies? How can one best assess and measure success in language learning strategies use or training? Are certain language learning strategies learned more easily in classroom and non-classroom contexts? What language learning strategies should be taught at different proficiency levels? It can be expected that answers to the above mentioned and many other questions from research in a variety of settings will pave the way for building the theory that seems necessary for more language learning strategies work to be relevant to current L2 / FL teaching practice.