3.2.2. Learner Training

3.2.2.1. Introduction

Attention given to autonomy as an educational goal has required learners to become aware of the learning process and to possess the "ability, that is strategies and confidence, to take on more responsibility for their own learning" (Ellis & Sinclair 1989:3), which has in turn implied some sort of learner training, either as part of the language lesson, or in addition to it (cf. Griffin, 1979:32; Huang & van Naerssen 1987; Pearson & Dole 1987; Wenden, 1987b; 1991a; Chamot & Kupper 1989; Ellis & Sinclair 1989; Oxford et al. 1990;  Dickinson 1992; Chamot & O'Malley 1994; Oxford 1996a; Williams & Burden, 1997):

If the learner is only vaguely aware that autonomy is his goal, then a degree of learner training seems indicated. And if part of learning to work autonomously involves practising working autonomously, learner training in another 'dimension' ... will also be indicated. (Brooks & Grundy [Eds.] 1988:2)

Research into learner training has been based on the assumptions that: i) individuals learn in different ways and may use a variety of learning strategies at different times depending on a range of variables; and ii) the more informed learners are about language and learning the more effective they will be at managing their own learning (Ellis & Sinclair 1989:2). Together with research and ideas from other disciplines (e.g. general education and psychology), studies on learner training have concentrated on: i) learning strategies (O'Malley & Chamot 1990; Wenden 1987b; 1991a & b; Oxford 1990b); ii) identifying what makes a good language learner (Rubin 1975; Stern 1975, Naiman et al. 1978); and iii) self-directed learning (Holec 1981; Dickinson 1987), though Victori & Lockhart (1995:224) point out that there has been a lack of information on how these areas might be helpful to the teacher, and little attention to the role of metacognitive knowledge in learning. Since self-directed learning has been addressed in section 3.2.1.3. , this review of learner training will concentrate on learning strategies (section 3.2.2.3), the good language learner (section 3.2.2.4),  metacognition in learner training (section 3.2.2.5), and affective influences (section 3.2.2.6).

3.2.2.2. Learner Training: Goals

Learner training (development of learning awareness, learning strategies, self-evaluation, reflection on learning styles, etc.) can be seen as a means of promoting autonomous learning in the long-term (acquisition of life-long learning skills). In language education, it can also be viewed from the shorter perspective of producing successful language learners. One goal of learner training is therefore to empower students by allowing them to take control of the language learning process (Weaver & Cohen, 1998:70), based on the assumption that conscious (aware), responsible, reflective, skilled learners will be more successful language learners than their untrained peers, and another goal is to prepare them for independence, in the belief that "everybody has the right to develop the capacity for taking charge of his or her own affairs and that this development is a basic function of education" (Ellis & Sinclair 1989:3; cf. Illich 1973; Rogers 1969; Gomes de Matos 1986). Ellis & Sinclair suggest that these gaols can be achieved by focusing attention on the process (i.e. on how to learn rather than what to learn) so that students can become more effective learners and take on more responsibility for their own learning (1989:2; cf. Dickinson 1992:13). Oxford (1990b:201) sees the need for  "meaning" in this process - a collaborative spirit between learner and teacher, and practice of strategies that facilitate self-reliance. Such goals require learners to be self-directed, mentally active and aware (Wenden 1995:192), as well as being informed about the language, about language learning techniques and processes, and about themselves as language learners (Blanche & Merino 1989:313; Ellis & Sinclair 1989:2), which in turn implies methodical and psychological preparation (Wenden 1995:192). Anderson also calls for "task knowledge" (knowledge about the nature and purpose of the task that is the focus of student learning), since "it is a learner's knowledge base that distinguishes the expert (or successful learner) from the novice (or less successful learner)" (Anderson 1985) and task knowledge is one component of this base.

3.2.2.3. Learning Strategies

Research indicates that more successful language learners are aware of the strategies they use and why they use them (O'Malley & Chamot 1990; Green & Oxford 1995:262), that they generally tailor their strategies to the language task and to their own personal needs as learners (Wenden 1991a:13), that they use strategies appropriate to their own stage of learning, personality, age, purpose for learning the language, type of language (Bates 1972) and gender[7] (Oxford & Nyikos 1988:326), and that strategy use affects and is affected by other factors such as motivation, gender, cognitive style, language proficiency level, and age (cf. McDonough 1999:4). Students who are less successful at language learning are also able to identify their own strategies, but "do not know how to choose the appropriate strategies or how to link them together into a useful 'strategy chain'" (Block 1986; Galloway & Labarca 1991; Stern 1975; Vann & Abraham 1990). Bialystok (1981) suggests that good language learners use cognitive strategies; metacognitive strategies; affective strategies; and compensation strategies (cf. Cohen 1998, who substitutes communication strategies as the fourth category), and O'Malley (1987) voices a popular conclusion, that "by implication, less competent learners should be able to improve their skills in a second language through training in strategies evidenced among more successful language learners" (1987:133). Thus, strategy training aims to "explicitly teach students how, when, and why strategies can be used to facilitate their efforts at learning and using a foreign language" (Weaver & Cohen 1998:69), and to promote learner autonomy by allowing students to spontaneously choose their own strategies. Readers are referred to the state-of-the-art article on Learner Strategies by Mc.Donough (1999) for a concise outline and discussion of the issues involved in this topic.

3.2.2.3.1. Learning Strategies: History

Research into learning strategies in second language acquisition emerged in the late 1970s, reflecting a concern to identify what it was that made some people more successful learners than others (Naiman et al. 1978; Rubin 1975), in contrast to the innatist view of inherent language learning ability (e.g. Chomsky 1966). Rubin (1975) and Stern (1975) suggested that the "good language learner" might be doing something that less effective students could all learn from (cf. section 3.2.2.4.), anticipating what cognitive psychologists were realising independently, i.e. that information processing strategies are important in language learning, and that these strategies can be learned by others who have not discovered them on their own (cf. Segal, Chipman & Glaser, 1985; Dansereau 1985; Weinstein et al.1988). Research demonstrated further that good learners have an active involvement in language learning, that they have clear ideas and objectives (in addition to the teacher's), that they apply learning strategies while learning a second language and that these strategies can be described and classified (Rubin 1975; Naiman et al. 1978; Bialystok 1981; O'Malley et al. 1985; Chamot et al. 1987; O'Malley & Chamot 1990). Intervention studies in first and second language contexts trained students to use effective learning strategies (Barnett 1988; Cohen & Aphek 1980; Holec 1987; Wenden 1986b), one finding of which was that there may be difficulty in transferring strategies to new tasks, though further research in metacognitive and cognitive learning strategies suggests that transfer can be maximised by pairing metacognitive strategies with appropriate cognitive strategies (Brown et al. 1983). Comprehensive surveys of this field can be found in Wenden & Rubin (Eds.) (1987), O'Malley and Chamot (1990), Oxford (1990b) and Ellis (1994), and a practical application at classroom level, with a selection of activities for teaching learning strategies in Ellis & Sinclair (1989).

More recently, verbal reports have been used to collect data on the strategies for learning a second or foreign language, especially in research on cognitive processes in first-language reading (e.g. Pressley & Afflerbach 1995) and writing (e.g. Smagorinsky [Ed.] 1994). Cohen (1996:6) states that various types of verbal reports using reflective data have enhanced the understanding of L2 learner strategies:

1.  Self-report (cf. Naiman et al. 1978; O'Malley et al. 1985; Wenden 1985; Ramirez 1986; Oxford, Nyikos & Crookall 1987).
2.  Self-observation (cf. Robinson 1991; Cohen et al. 1993; Cohen et al. 1998).
3.  Self-revelation (cf. Robinson 1991; Cohen et al. 1993; Cohen et al. 1998).

Recent advances in Computer-assisted strategy assessment (CASA) exploit computer technology as a means of gathering performance data on learners working in language activities, and use these to make inferences about learners' linguistic competence (e.g. Bland et al. 1990) and strategies for L2 acquisition (Doughty 1992; Chapelle 1996:47). The opportunity to continuously and unobtrusively investigate learners' working styles while they are studying offers an ideal setting for investigating important questions about learners' strategies (Jamieson & Chapelle 1987).

3.2.2.3.2. Learning Strategies: Definitions

Williams & Burden (1997) define the skills and strategies used in learning as:

... the various operations that learners use in order to make sense of their learning. They can be of a higher or lower order. They refer to specific actions that a learner uses in response to a particular problem, rather than describing a learner's general approach to learning. They may be concerned with obtaining information, storage, retrieval or use of the information. Some strategies are observable and some are not. They may be used consciously or unconsciously, and they are amenable to change. In other words, they can be learned. Strategies can be cognitive, that is, they can involve mental processing, or they can be more social in nature, and their effective use is enhanced by metacognitive awareness. (Williams & Burden 1997:112-13)

Helping learners to develop these skills and techniques, specifically through one of these learning "operations" (i.e. learning strategies), is one of Dickinson's (1992) six suggestions for promoting learner independence (section 3.2.1.3.3).

Learning strategies have received a great deal of attention over the past decade (O'Malley & Chamot 1990; Wenden 1987a; 1991a; Oxford 1990b). Wenden (1991a:18) however, points out that there is little consensus in SLA of what a learning strategy is, and that it has been referred to as "technique", "tactic", "potentially conscious plan", "consciously employed operation", "learning skill", "functional skill", "cognitive ability", "problem solving procedure", and "language learning behaviour". Wenden & Rubin (1987) identify some generally agreed characteristics of "learning strategy":

1. Some strategies can be observed - there is an observable behaviour that accompanies the mental act (comprehension checks with the teacher, etc).
2. Other strategies cannot be observed - (inferring, comparing) .
3. Cognitive strategies may be deployed consciously in response to a problem a learner has clearly perceived and analysed.
4. Cognitive strategies may also become automatized.
5. Strategies are amenable to change.
6. Strategies are problem oriented. (Wenden & Rubin, 1987)

Oxford (1990b) sees the aim of language learning strategies as being oriented towards the development of communicative competence, involving interaction among learners. Learning strategies, she argues, must both help learners to participate in communication and to build up their language system. She provides a list of 12 features of language learning strategies:

1. they contribute to the main goal -  communicative competence;
2. they allow learners to become more self-directed;
3. they expand the role of teachers;
4. they are problem-oriented;
5.  they are specific actions taken by the learner;
6. they involve many aspects of the learner, not just the cognitive;
7.  they support learning both directly and indirectly;
8.  they are not always observable;
9.  they are often conscious;
10.  they can be taught;
11. they are flexible;
12. they are influenced by a variety of factors. (Oxford 1990b, cited in Williams & Burden, 1997:151)

Chamot & Kupper (1989:13) and Oxford & Nyikos (1989:291) agree on learning strategies as techniques for comprehending (acquisition), storing, and remembering (retrieval) new information and skills, and Green & Oxford (1995) extend this to "specific actions and techniques that students use, often intentionally, to improve their progress in developing L2 skills" (1995:262). Writing eleven years after Wenden and Rubin, Cohen defines second language learner strategies as encompassing both second language learning and second language use strategies:

Together, they constitute the steps or actions consciously selected by learners either to improve the learning of a second language, the use of it, or both. Language learning strategies include strategies for identifying the material that needs to be learned, distinguishing it from other material if need be, grouping it for easier learning, having repeated contact with the material, and formally committing the material to memory when it does not seem to be acquired naturally. (Cohen, 1998:5)

Cohen divides use strategies into four subsets: i) retrieval strategies; ii) rehearsal strategies; iii) cover strategies; and iv) communication strategies; and differentiates language learning and language use strategies into cognitive, metacognitive, affective and communication strategies, making the point that they are not inherently good nor bad, but have the potential to be used effectively by the learners. Huang & van Naerssen (1987:287), however, observe that research into second/foreign language strategies is still in its infancy, and that it is difficult to make any firm conclusions concerning the learning process and learner strategies. Naiman et al. (1978) propose an alternative classification scheme with 5 broad categories, which were found to be common to all good language learners interviewed: i) an active task approach, ii) realisation of language as a system, iii) realisation of language as a means of communication and interaction, iv) management of affective demands, and v) monitoring of second language performance). Secondary strategies were represented only in some of the good learners. Naiman et al. also identified "techniques" for second language learning, which differed from strategies in their scheme by being focused on specific aspects of language learning.

O'Malley & Chamot (1990:19) see language learning as a complex cognitive skill, for which they derive a list of cognitive learning strategies (table XV, below):

Rubin (1981, 1987) also includes cognitive and metacognitive strategies in the first of three major types of strategies which contribute directly or indirectly to language acquisition:

1. learning strategies: contributing directly to the development of the language system which the learner constructs.
• 6 main cognitive strategies: i) clarification/verification; ii) guessing/inductive inferencing; iii) deductive reasoning; iv) practice; v) memorisation; vi) monitoring.
• 4 metacognitive strategies; (regulating self-directed learning): i) planning; ii) prioritising; iii) setting goals; iv) self-management
2. communicaton strategies: used to promote communication with others. These contribute indirectly to learning.
3. Social strategies: activities that learners use in an attempt to increase exposure to the language. These contribute indirectly to learning.

Chamot & Kupper (1989) identify metacognitive, cognitive, and social and affective strategies (table XVI, below). In this classification, mbold">etacognitive strategies involve thinking about the learning process, planning for learning, monitoring the learning task, and evaluating how well one has learned; cbold">ognitive strategies involve interacting with the material to be learned, manipulating the material mentally or physically, or applying a specific technique to a learning task; and sbold">ocial and affective strategies involve interacting with another person to assist learning, or using effective control to assist a learning task.

The most well-known and widely-used learning strategy scheme is that of Oxford (1985, 1990b), who based her work on an extensive list of strategies identified in studies by Rubin (1981), Naiman et al.(1978), Tarone (1981), Dansereau (1978, 1985), Weinstein et al. (1988) and Chamot & O'Malley (1987), though it is difficult to identify strategies and techniques which are fundamental for learning, since those of Rubin and Naiman et al. have little grounding in theory (cf. O'Malley & Chamot 1990:7). Oxford divides strategies into two main classes ( direct and indirectitalic">), which are further subdivided into six groups, each of which can support and connect with another (cf. Williams & Burden, 1997:152).

This scheme (figure 9, below) has received practical application in the Strategy Inventory of Language Learning (SILL) (Oxford 1969-1989), which has been translated into various languages, and which, in contrast to most other published strategy questionnaires (e.g. Bialystok 1981; Politzer 1983; Politzer & McGroarty 1985; McGroarty 1987; Chamot,  Kupper & Impink-Hernandez 1987; Padron & Waxman 1988; Bedell (1993a,b); Huang, 1984; Huang & Naerssen, 1987) includes social and affective factors as well as the more intellectual (cognitive) and executive-managerial (metacognitive) ones, implying that language learning "is an adventure of the whole learner, not just a mental exercise" (Oxford 1996a:27). Oxford also makes the point that the SILL is the only learning strategy questionnaire to have been found free of social desirability response bias (as tested by Yang [1992], using the Marlowe-Crown Social Desirability Scale) and that few of the other instruments have any published reliability or validity data. A Korean version of SILL was produced for third-year students in this study (Appendix C59).  

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[7] Hashin & Sahil, (1994:14) found no significant differences in strategy use between male and female subjects, or between different races, whereas studies described in Oxford & Nyikos's study (1988:326) showed "a wide range of sex differences in strategy use".
[8] Presentation, Practice, Performance
[9] Gange's (1980) definition of a good learner includes "good thinkers and problem solvers (whose) cognitive strategies enable them to exercise control over their own learning." Rubin's 'successful learner' seems lacking in such qualities.