Teaching Language Learning Strategies

 

Teaching Language Learning Strategies

Teaching Language Learning Strategies

In the previous video you learned about the strategies that good language learners employ, namely:

  • Predicting – using social and contextual clues to guess at the topic
  • Using selective attention – paying attention to only what seems important
  • Preparing – thinking about what one wants to communicate in advance
  • Looking ridiculous – being willing to look foolish in order to complete the task
  • Practicing
  • Monitoring – correcting one’s own speech for accuracy
  • Asking questions
  • Taking notes
  • Using imagery – relating new information to a visualization
  • Finding the answer in multiple ways
  • Using physical response – relating new information to a physical action
  • Playing – experimenting with language

Research has shown that language learners who use these strategies are more likely to acquire a foreign language. Oxford (1990) states that language learning strategies (LLS) allow learners to become more self-directed and expand the role of language teachers. She states that LLS is flexible, problem-oriented, and not just cognitive in nature. She concludes that LLS can be taught, and they are influenced by a variety of factors.

Lessard-Clouston (1997) states that training students to use LLS can help them become better language learners and suggests a three-step approach.

Step 1: Study your teaching context to determine which LLS should be taught. Gather information about your students, such as their goals and motivations, and observe which LLS they are already using. This information can be gathered through informal observation, interviews, questionnaires, or surveys. Look through available teaching materials to determine if LLS training is already incorporated into the lessons. Finally, analyze your own teaching methods and styles to determine which LLS you are already modeling, and how you are modeling them – implicitly, explicitly, or both?

Step 2: Focus on LLS in your teaching. After determining which LLS are the most relevant to your learners, your materials, and your own teaching style, incorporate them into your lessons. Give students clear examples of how LLS can be used to improve their language skills. Give students opportunities to use and develop these LLS so they can use them independently both in and out of the classroom. (Remember the focused and diffuse modes of learning and the 80/20 rule.)

Step 3: Reflect on the use of LLS. As a purposeful teacher, reflect on your own use of LLS and the effectiveness of the LLS training and practice you provided in your lessons. Encourage students to reflect on their use of LLS to determine which ones are more useful to them.

Language learning is an individualized process, and learners need a variety of LLS in order to successfully acquire a foreign language. As teachers, we are not only responsible for teaching our learners what to learn, but also how to learn. Training students on the use of LLS allows them to take responsibility for their own learning and become autonomous, independent communicators.

References:

Lessard-Clouston, Michael. "Language Learning Strategies: An Overview for L2 Teachers." Essays in Languages and Literature. 8. December (1997): Web

Oxford, R. (1990). Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know. New York: Newbury House.

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