English Language Teaching in its Social Context

BEYOND METHODS 173Learner strategiesThe approach to teaching in which methodology is developed from study of classroompractices attributes a primary role to the teacher in the teaching/learning process. Successfullearning is viewed as dependent upon the teacher’s control and management of what takesplace in the classroom. However, what the teacher does is only half ofthe picturc.The otherhalf conccrns what learners do to achieve successful learning, or learner strategies. Promptedby the awareness that learners may succeed despite the teacher’s methods and techniquesrather than because of them, researchers as well as teachers have begun to look more closelyat learners themselves in an attempt to discover how successful learners acheve their results(O’Malley et al. 1985a, b;Willing 1985).Studies of learner strategies attempt to identify the specific techniques and strategieslearners use to facilitate their own learning (Oxford 1985b).The focus is on the particularcognitive operations, processes, procedures, and heuristics that learners apply to the taskof learning a second language. Given any language learning task, such as understanding alecture, reading a text, writing a composition, understanding the meaning of a newgrammatical or lexical item, or preparing a written summary of a text, a number ofstrategies are available to a learner to help carry out the task. But what is the practical valueof knowing which particular strategies a learner employed?Just as research on effective teaching has identified the kinds of teaching behaviors thatappear to account for superior teaching, so research on effective learning seeks to identifythe kinds of learning behaviors that can best facilitate learning. Good language learners seemto be successful because they have a better understanding of and control over their ownlearning than less successful learners. Use of inappropriate learning strategies has beenfound to account for the poor performance of learners on many classroom learning tasks(Hosenfeld 1979). It should therefore be possible to improve student performance onlearning tasks by identifying successful approaches to learning and by directing learncrstoward these kinds of strategies. Research on learner strategies in second language learninghence seeks to identify the strategies employed by successful learners and then to teachthose strategies to other learners in order to improve their language learning capacities(Hosenfeld 1977; Cohen and Aphek 1980; Chamot and O’Malley 1984). The premisesunderlying Cohcn and Aphek’s work, for example, are:Some language learners are more successful than others.Some aspects of the learning process are conscious and others are not.Less successful learners can usc successful Strategies consciously to accelerate learning.Teachers can promote the use of learning strategies.Learners can become the best judges of how they learn most effectively, both in and out ofclasses.The field of learner strategy research in second language learning is hence now animportant domain of classroom research, and differs substantially from previous researchin ths area. Earlier work on learning strategies lacked a sound theoretical basis and consistedlargely of lists of features that good language learners were assumed to possess. Theselists were developed from interviews with successful language learners (e.g., Rubin 1975,1981 ; Stern 1975; Naiman et a/. 1978). Willing (1 987: 275) points out that “while suchgeneralizations have their usefulness as a help in understanding the process of languagelearning from the point of view of the learner, they do not immediately yield prescriptionsfor teaching.”