Learning strategies

Introduction:
Changes that occurred in language learning methodologies and approaches led to the
exploration of language learning strategies. Emphasis was no more on the teaching
techniques but rather on the learning processes. In other words, focus shifted from the
teacher to the learner. As a consequence, researches have been conducted to understand
the strategies employed by successful learners which would help inform teachers and
students alike of how to teach and learn languages more effectively.Different researches
came up with different classifications of learning strategies.

Definitions:
Many researchers and experts have defined language learning strategies from
different points of view. Learning strategies have been described as:
Any sets of operations, steps, plans, routines used by the learner to facilitate
the obtaining, storage, retrieval, and use of information (Wenden and Rubin,
1987, p.19).
Special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend,
learn, or retain new information (OMalley and Chamot, 1990, p.1).
Behaviors and thoughts in which a learner engages and which are intended to influence the
lerners encoding process (Weinstein, Mayer, 1983).

The classification:
Omalleys classification:
OMalley et al 1985 divide language-learning strategies into three main
subcategories: Metacognitive Strategies, Cognitive Strategies, and Socioaffective Strategies.
1-Metacognitive strategy:
In this strategy we have two key words which are cognition and
metacognition .By the first one we mean the mental processes involved in
gaining knowledge and comprehension, including thinking, knowing,
remembering, judging, and problem solving and by the second we mean
knowledge and understanding of our own cognitive processes and abilities and
those of others, as well as regulation of these processes.
According to OMalley this term refers to the executive skills, strategies which
require planning for learning, thinking about the learning process that is taking
place, monitoring of ones production or comprehension, and evaluating learning
after an activity is completed. Strategies such as self-monitoring, self-evaluation,
advance organizers, self-management, and selective attention can be placed
among the main metacognitive strategies.

2- Cognitive strategy:

The cognitive strategies are separate learning activities and they are basically
activities that are used by learners in order to understand the linguistic input and
get knowledge. For example, when a learner finds a difficult word in a text and
inferring the meaning of that word from the context, in fact he used the cognitive
strategy.

In addition, cognitive strategies are those that control the input or use a certain
skill to complete a particular task (Holden, 2004; Meang, 2006; Grifith, 2004;
Azumi, 2008; Martinez, 1996). According to O'Malley and Chamot (1990),
cognitive strategies are strategies that "reflect mental manipulation of tasks".
Repetition, resourcing, translation, grouping, note taking, deduction,
recombination, imagery, auditory representation, key word, contextualization,
elaboration, transfer, and inferencing are among the most important cognitive
strategies.

3- socio-affective strategy:
Socioaffective strategies have close relationship with social-mediating activity
and interacting with others. It consists using social interaction to assist in the
comprehension, leaning, or retention of information. The main socioaffective
strategies include cooperation and question for clarification (Brown, 2007).for
example, learning can be enhanced when people interact with each other to
clarify a confusing point or when they participate in a group discussion or
cooperative learning group to solve problem.

Oxfords classification:
In 1990, Rebecca Oxford developed a taxonomy for categorizing strategies.She divided
language learning strategies into two main categories, direct and indirect
strategies which are also subdivided into six classes. Direct strategies are
divided into Memory, cognitive and compensation strategies. As Oxford's (1990)
says, all direct strategies require mental processing of the language (p.37).
Indirect strategies provide indirect support for language learning by employing
different strategies such as focusing, arranging, and evaluating.

Direct strategies
1-Memory strategy:

Memory strategies entail the mental processes for storing new information in the
memory and for retrieving them when needed. They are based on simple
principles:
A. Creating mental images
B. Applying images and sounds
C. Reviewing well
D. Employing action
These principles are employed when a learner faces challenge of vocabulary
learning. The words and phrases can be associated with visual images that can
be stored and retrieved for communication. Many learners make use of visual
images, but some find it easy to connect words and phrases with sound, motion
or touch. Therefore the use of those strategies differs from one learner to
another. For example, to recall a list of words, one could group them into
categories like flowers, animals. The use of memory strategies are most
frequently applied in the beginning process of language learning. As the learners
advance to higher level of proficiency memory strategies are mentioned very
little.

2- Cognitive strategy:

Cognitive strategies refer the mental strategies that learners use

to make sense of their learning and enable him to manipulate the language
material in directways .These are perhaps the most popular strategies
with language learner.They fall into four sets which include:
Practising:This can be achieved by working with sounds,
repeating, recognizing, and recombining.

Receiving and sending messages:when the learner use

resources for receiving and sending messages and try to get
the main ideas quickly through skimming and scanning.

Analysing and reasoning:learners use this strategy to

understand the meaning and expression of the target
language by translating,reasoning deductively,
analyzingexpression, transferring .by using this strategy
learners are not obliged to check every single word.

3-compensation strategy:
Compensation strategies allow the language learner to communicate in
the target language despite limitations in their knowledge. Compensation
strategies can be used for any of the four basic language skills .For
instance, when learners do not know new words and expressions, they
guess the meaning. It is based on two principles:
A. Guessing intelligently. For example, guessing the meaning of a new
word from the context.
B. Overcoming limitations in speaking and writing. If a word needed is
not known then the learner my seek synonym or try to describe it.
For instance, when a learner wants to talk about an owl he may say
a bird that flies at night.
Indirect strategies
1-Metacognitive strategy:
Metacognitive strategies go beyond the cognitive mechanism and give learners to coordinate
their learning. This helps them to plan language learning in an efficient way. When new
vocabulary, rules, and writing system confuse the learner, these strategies become vital for
successful language learning.
Three sets of strategies belong to this group and they are: Centering Your Learning,
Arrangingand Planning Your Learning, and Evaluating Your Learning. The aim of centering
learning is togive a focus to the learner so that the attention could be directed toward certain
language activitiesor skills. Arranging and planning learning help learners to organize so they
may get maximumbenefit from their energy and effort. Evaluating learning helps learners with
problems like monitoringerrors and evaluation of progress. Research has found that
compared to cognitive strategies metacognitivestrategies are used less consistently by the
learners.
2- Affective strategy:

The affective factors like emotion, attitude, motivation, and values influence learning in an
importantway. Three sets of strategies are included in this group: Lowering Your Anxiety,
EncouragingYourself, and Taking Your Emotional Temperature.
Good language learners control their attitudes and emotions about learning and understand
thatnegative feelings retard learning. Teachers can help generate positive feeling in class by
giving studentsmore responsibility, increasing the amount of natural communication, and
teaching affectivestrategies.
Anxiety could be both helpful and harmful. It is felt that a certain amount of anxiety is
helpfulfor learners because it helps them obtain their optimum level of performance. Too
much anxietyhas the opposite effect where it hinders language learning. Anxiety often takes
forms of worry,frustration, insecurity, fear, and self-doubt. A common high anxiety creating
situation for learnersis to perform before the peers and teacher when they are not prepared.

Sterns classification:
Language learning strategies have been classified into five groups by Stern's
(1992). They are as follows:

1-Management and planning strategy:

These strategies are actually connected with the learners purpose to control his
own learning. A learner has the capability to take responsibility for the
improvement of his own planning when the language instructor supports him as
an advisor or a resource person. In other words, the learner must:
1.

Decide what commitment to make to language learning

2.

Set himself reasonable goals

3.

Decide on an appropriate methodology, select appropriate

resources, and monitor progress.

4.

Evaluate his achievement in the light of previously determined goals

and expectation.

2- Cognitive strategy:
The term "cognitive strategies" in its simplest form is the use of the mind
(cognition) to solve a problem or complete a task.
They operate directly on incoming information and manipulate it in a way that
enhances learning. They are more limited to specific learning tasks and include
typical strategies such as:
1-Rehearsal or repetition of certain words;
2-Organization, grouping and classifying words or concepts according to their
syntactic or semantic attributes;
3- Inferencing, i.e. guessing meaning of unknown words in a text, predicting
outcomes or completing missing parts.
4- Summarizing or synthesizing new information.
5-Deduction or applying rules.
6-Using imagery to understand and remember.
7-Transfer of known linguistic information.
8- Elaboration, i.e. integrating new ideas with known information.

3- Interpersonal strategy:
According to Stern (1992), interpersonal strategies monitor the learners
development and evaluate their performance. Learners need to have

communication with native speakers and cooperate with them. Learners need to
get familiar with the culture of the target language.

4- Affective strategy:
Evidently, in the process of language learning, good language
learners use various kinds of affective strategies. Sometimes, it
can be frustrating to learn another language. It can arouse feeling
of unfamiliarity and confusion. In some other cases, learners
might not have a positive perspective towards native speakers.
On the other hand, good language learners are relatively aware of
these emotions, and they try to build positive feelings towards
the foreign language and its speakers as well as the learning
activities. To a great deal, training can be of assistance to the
students to face these controversial feelings and to overcome
them by drawing attention to the possible frustrations or
mentioning them as they come up (Stern, 1992).
5- Communicative and experiential strategy:
This strategy is one strategy in which gesturing, paraphrasing, or asking for
repetition and explanation are employed by learners to keep the conversation
going. In other words, communication strategies involve the use of verbal or
nonverbal instruments for the useful transfer of knowledge.The main aim of this
strategy is to avoid interrupting the course of communication.Within this strategy
there are two sub strategies that are used to transfer knowledge which are:
1-Seeking opportunities for unrehearsed, authentic language use for example by
Reading materials of interest, listening to the radio, watching films, engaging
other people in conversation
2-Using communication strategies to maintain the flow of conversation for
example by Using circumlocution, gesturing, paraphrasing, or asking for
repetition and explanation.

Rubins classification:

1- Learning strategy:
Rubin divided learning strategies into two main types, being the
strategies contributing directly to the development of the
language system constructed by the learner:
Cognitive Learning Strategies:
They refer to the steps or operations used in learning or problemsolving that require direct analysis, transformation, or synthesis
of learning materials. Rubin identified 6 main cognitive learning
strategies contributing directly to language learning:

Clarification / Verification

Guessing / Inductive Inferencing

Deductive Reasoning

Practice

Memorization

Monitoring

Metacognitive Learning Strategies

These strategies are used to oversee, control or self-direct
language learning. They involve various processes such as
planning, prioritizing, setting goals, and self-management
2- Communication strategy:
Communication strategies are strategies needed to overcome a
misunderstanding or when difficulties occur during the communication process.A
usual communication strategy is to make use of ones linguistic or
communicative knowledge to remain in the conversation. In the course of
learning a second language, learners will frequently encounter common problems
caused by a lack of linguistic resources. To overcome these problems, learners
use such strategies in order to convey their intended meaning. Strategies used
may include:
1-paraphrasing: For example, if learners do not know the word grandfather,
they may paraphrase it by saying my fathers father.
2-coining new words:For example, learners might refer to an art gallery a
picture place.
3-language switch: learners may insert a word from their first language
into a sentence hoping that their interlocutors will understand.
4-asking for clarification: the strategy of asking interlocutors for the correct
word will be helpful in communication strategies.
5-non.verbal strategies: this can refer to strategies such as the use of
gestures and mime to augment or replace verbal communication.
6-avoidance: learners of second language may learn to avoid talking about
topics for which they lack the necessary vocabulary or other language
skills in the second language.

3- Social strategy:

Social strategies are activities in which learners are exposed to

the opportunities that can be a great help to practice their
knowledge.
Even though these strategies offer exposure to the target
language, they contribute to learning indirectly since they do

not lead directly to the obtaining, storing, retrieving, and using

of language (Rubin, 1987).