Learning strategy training
Students of
foreign language are being encouraged to learn and use a broad range of
language learning strategies that can be tapped throughout the learning
process. This approach is based on the belief that learning will be facilitated
by making students aware of the range of strategies from which they can choose
during language learning and use. The most efficient way to heighten learner
awareness is to provide strategy training—explicit instruction in how to apply
language learning strategies—as part of the foreign language curriculum. This
digest discusses the goals of strategy training, highlights approaches to such
training, and lists steps for designing strategy training programs.
Goals of Strategy Training
Strategy training aims to
provide learners with the tools to do the following:
·
Self-diagnose their strengths and weaknesses in
language learning
·
Become aware of what helps them to learn the
target language most efficiently
·
Develop a broad range of problem-solving skills
·
Experiment with familiar and unfamiliar learning
strategies
·
Make decisions about how to approach a language
task
·
Monitor and self-evaluate their performance
·
Transfer successful strategies to new learning
contexts
Strategies
can be categorized as either language learning or language use strategies.
Language learning strategies are conscious thoughts and behaviors used by
learners with the explicit goal of improving their knowledge and understanding
of a target language. They include cognitive strategies for memorizing and
manipulating target language structures, metacognitive strategies for managing
and supervising strategy use, affective strategies for gauging emotional
reactions to learning and for lowering anxieties, and social strategies for
enhancing learning, such as cooperating with other learners and seeking to
interact with native speakers.
Language use strategies come
into play once the language material is already accessible, even in some
preliminary form. Their focus is to help students utilize the language they
have already learned. Language use strategies include strategies for retrieving
information about the language already stored in memory, rehearsing target
language structures, and communicating in the language despite gaps in target
language knowledge.
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