5. Styles and Strategies
1. Process, Style, and Strategy
: process-characteristic of every human being
: style-vary across individuals
: strategy-vary within an individual
2. Learning Styles
: link between personality and cognition; this link is referred to as cognitive style
: when cognitive styles are specifically related to an educational context, where affective and physiological factors are intermingled, they are usually more generally referred to as learning styles
: cognitive, affective, and physiological
: consistent , enduring tendencies or preferences within an individual
: people's styles are determinded by the way they internalize their total environment, and we find that physical, affective, and cognitive domains merge in learning styles
: differing contexts will evoke differing styles in the same individual
: bicognitive - one who can manipulate both(intelligent and successful) ends of a style continuum
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Field Independence |
: distinguish parts from a whole, to concentrate on something, or to analyze separate variables without the contamination of neighboring variables
: 'tunnel vision' (you see only the parts and not their relationship to the whole)
: affectively, FI tend to be generally more independent, competitive, and self-confident |
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Field dependence |
: the whole picture, the larger view, the general configuration of a problem or idea or event
: FD persons tend to be more socialized, to derive their self-identify from persons around them, and are usually more empathic and perceptive of the feelings and thoughts of others |
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: both FI and FD are necessary for most of the cognitive and affective problems we face
: how does all this relate to second language learning?
① FI is closely related to classroom learning that involves analysis, attention to details, and mastering of exercise, drills, and other focused activites
: Abraham (1985), second language learners who were FI performed better in deductive lessons, while those with FD styles were more successful with inductive lesson designs
② FD style will, by virtue of its association with empathy, social outreach, and perception of other people, yield successful learning of the communicative aspects of a second language |
2-1) Field Independence
: natural language learning in the field beyond the constraints of the classroom is aided by a FD style, and the classroom type of learning is enhanced, conversely, a FI style
: the child, more predominantly FD, may have a cognitive style advantage over the more FI adult
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Left-domain |
: language, logic, reading
: prefer a deductive style of teaching |
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Right-domain |
: emotion, space
: appeared to be more successful in an inductive classroom environment |
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: the left and right hemispheres operate together as a 'team'
: how left-and right-brain functioning differs from FI and FD |
2-2) Left- and Right-Brain Dominance
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ambiguity tolerant |
: relatively open-minded in accepting ideologies and events and facts that contradict their own reviews
: successful language learning necessitates tolerance of such ambiguities, at least for interim periods or stages
: too much tolerance of ambiguity can have a detrimental effect, 'wishy-washy' |
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ambiguity intolerance |
: more closed-minded and dogmatic, tend to reject items that are contradictory or slightly incongruent with their existing system
: a certain intolerance at an optimal level enables one to guard against the wishy-washiness, to deal with the reality of the system that one has built
: intolerance can close the mind too soon, especially of ambiguity is perceived as a threat; too narrow to be creative |
2-3) Ambiguity Tolerance
2-4) Reflectivity and Impulsivity
: quick or gambling (impulsive) guess
: slower, more calculated (reflective) decision
: David Ewing (1977) dimension: systematic and intuitive styles
: ESL teachers tend to judge mistakes too harshly, especially in the case of a learner with an impulsive style who may be more willing than a reflective person to gamble at an answer
: a reflective person may require patience from the teacher
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Visual learners |
reading and studying charts, drawings, and other graphic information |
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Auditory learners |
listening to lectures and audiotapes |
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Kinesthetic learners |
demonstrations and physical activity |
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to become autonomous learners, and then to become aware of their styles, preferences, strength, and weakness, and finally to take appropriate action on their second language learning challenges |
2-5) Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Styles
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Autonomy |
: encourage learners to 'take charge' of their own learning, and to chart their own 'pathways to success' (Brown, 1989)
: 'glocalization' of the concept of autonomy involves 'a critical awareness of... specific cultural backdrops and impacts' as teachers involve students in autonomous learning |
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Awareness |
: demand on learners to become aware of their own processes of learning
: language programs are offering more occasions for learners to develop a metacognitive awareness of their ongoing
: Rosa and Leow (2004) found improved performance under conditions of awareness-raising
: some level of awareness are clearly warranted: the conscious application of appropriate strategies (not too much awareness, too much explicit focus on grammar, or too much devotion to rules) |
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Action |
: once learners can become aware of their predispositions, their styles, and their strengths and weaknesses, they can then take appropriate action in the form of a plethora of strategies that are available to them |
3. Autonomy, Awareness, and Action
4. Strategies
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Skills |
Strategies |
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: Skill is strategy that has become automatic
: Unconscious
e.g.,) word recognition, syntactic parsing, semantic proposition information
: First developed through active attention
-> repetition, practice -> becomes a skill |
: specific 'attacks' that we make on a given problem, and that vary considerably within each individual
: specific actions, behaviors, steps or techniques
used by students to enhance learning
: conscious controlled process
: intentional, goal driven
: cognitive process that are open to conscious
reflection
: BUT for proficient language learners many skills
are employed unconsciously
: Applied in combinations (e.g., previewing, inferencing, skimming, scanning |
: we began to see the importance of individual variation in language learning
: (Rubin, Stern(1975)) 'good' language learners in terms of personal characteristics, styles, and strategies
: we find a shift of focus away from merely searching for universal cognitive and affective characteristics of successful learners
↳ Vygotsky (1978), Bakhtin (1990, 1986)
: looks at learners as participants in a community of language users in 'local contexts'
: the identity that each learner creates in a socially constructed context
: as learners invest in their learning process, they create avenues of success
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Metacognitive |
: in information-processing theory to indicate an 'executive' function, strategies that involve planning for learning, thinking about the learning process as it is taking place, monitoring of one's production or comprehension, and evaluating learning after an activity is completed
: knowledge and control that we have over our cognitive process (e.g., self-______) |
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Cognitive |
more limited to specific learning tasks and involve more direct manipulation of the learning material itself |
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Socioaffective |
have to do with social-mediating activity and interesting with others |
4-1) Learning Strategies
4-2) Communication Strategies
: more recent approaches seem to take a more positive view of communication strategies as elements of an overall strategic competence
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avoidance strategies |
syntactic, lexical, phonological, topic avoidance |
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compensatory strategies |
: code-switching
: appeal to authority
: use of all-purpose words, nonlinguistic signals, time-gaining strategies |
5. Strategies-based Instruction
: teaching learners how to learn in crucial
* strategies-based instruction(SBI) (McDonough, 1990, Cohen, 1998)
: the application of both learning and communication strategies to classroom learning
: Cohen (1998) likes to refer to 'SSBI'-styles and strategies-based instruction-to emphasize the productive link between styles and strategies
: explicit instruction is far more effective than simply asking students to use one or more strategies and also fosters metacognition, students' ability to understand their own thinking and learning processes
: students will benefit from SBI if they
(1) understand the strategy itself
(2) perceive it to be effective
(3) do not consider its implementation to be overtly difficult (MacIntyre & Noel, 1996)
5-1) Identifying Learners' Styles and Strategies
: self-check questionnarie
: Oxford's Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL)
: only style preferences have been identified, a learner can proceed to take action through strategies
: the SILL serves as an instrument to expose learners to possibilities, but teachers must assume the responsibility for seeing to it that learners are aided in putting certain strategies into practice
5-2) Incorporating SBI into the Language Classroom
① discussion of why they responded as they did
② small-group sharing of feelings underlying their responses
③ an informal tabulation of how people responded to each item
④ some advice, from you own experience, on why certain practices may be successful or unsuccessful
⑤ reaching the general consensus that responses in the A and B categories are usually indicative of successful approaches to language learning
5-3) Stimulating Strategic Action Beyond the Classroom
: teachers can help learners to achieve this further step toward autonomy by helping learners to look beyond the classroom and the language course they are in
