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Language learning strategies as a complex dynamic phenomenon

Carol Griffithscarolgriffiths5@gmail.com

www.carolgriffiths.net

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Strategies

•When the good language learner was first introduced to the language learning literature by Rubin (1975), it was optimistically anticipated that knowledge of strategies would be enough to empower all students to learn language successfully.

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Strategies

•The term “strategy” is derived from warfare•Although some find the aggressive derivation unfortunate, others find likening the learning of language to a battle quite appropriate

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Strategies: definition

• Strategies have four essential characteristicsThey are activeThey are chosen, either deliberately or automaticallyThey are goal-orientedThey are for learning or regulating learning

• A full definition would therefore be:LLS are actions chosen (either deliberately or automatically)

for the purpose of learning or regulating the learning of language

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Strategy use

• There are studies which show that frequency of strategy use is positively correlated with successful learning• Successful learners have also been shown to use many more

strategies than unsuccessful learners• Successful learners know how to orchestrate their strategy repertoires

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Complexity• Strategies, however, do not exist in a vacuum. • In fact, strategy use is mediated by a complex amalgamation of a vast

and complicated network of other variables, such as contextual factors the learning target the learner’s own individual characteristics

• each of these variables interacts like cogs in a wheel, and each one affects how the others behave, and is in constant motion.

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Context

• Among others, Norton and Toohey (2001) stress the need to view language learning as a situated experience. This may include the learning environment (e.g. classroom, distance, study abroad

etc.) all the other factors in the background of the learner’s life (e.g.

family, job, classmates/colleagues, culture, etc.). • All of these variables will impact on the strategies that a

learner wishes or is able to employ and the extent to which self-regulation will be successful or even possible.

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Target

• Not all learners will be aiming at the same target. Some learners may wish to expand their vocabulary, others to improve

their grammar, their pronunciation, their pragmatic competence or their language skills.

Yet others may study English for some specific purpose (ESP), for instance to pursue an academic goal (EAP), to pass an exam (e.g. IELTS or TOEFL) or, perhaps, some goal such as business, teaching or tourism.

Or the language may be integrated into a course which focuses on some particular content (CLIL, e.g. medicine, or law).

• It would be reasonable to expect that the strategies required for these varied purposes would not be identical.

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Individual characteristics

• Strategy selection is also determined in part by individual learner characteristics, of which there is a dauntingly large number (e.g. Pawlak, 2012).

Of these individual variables, perhaps the most important is motivation Motivation is necessary if learners are to be prepared to invest the time and

effort required to develop linguistic capital In turn, investment may depend on learners’ beliefs, of which positive beliefs

about themselves as language learners and about the language they are trying to learn seem to be the most important

In addition, it would seem that good language learners also have the ability to autonomously take control of their own learning

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Individual characteristics

• However, although there is reasonably widespread agreement over the importance of motivation, investment, beliefs and autonomy there is less consensus over the role of various other individual differences such as age genderpersonality learning styleaffect.

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Complexity• The literature, then would seem to suggest that GLLs

are motivatedthey therefore invest considerable time and effort in their learningthey have positive beliefs about themselves and about the

language they are trying to learn they are autonomousthey frequently use and carefully orchestrate a large repertoire of

language learning strategies They choose their strategies to suit their situation, their target and

their own individual characteristics.

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Research question

• The research question therefore is: which of these factors is most salient?

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The study: participants

• The participants in this study were 14 successful learners of English. • All of the respondents were personally known to the researcher who was

therefore able to confirm that they were all able to communicate effectively in English both orally and graphically using generally appropriate vocabulary and accurate grammar, though there may have been the occasional “slip”. • They were all non-native speakers of English either teaching English or in

English at tertiary level, and either working for or already holding post-graduate degrees. • Nine of the respondents were women and five were men• In order to help minimise cultural bias they were deliberately chosen to

represent a variety of national backgrounds.

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The study: participantsNo. Name Gender Nationality

1 Liz F Turkish2 Tina F Russian3 Lana F Czech4 Hanu M Indian5 Lee F Korean6 Hong F Chinese7 Yasu M Japanese8 Aziz M Iranian9 Rose F Kyrgys

10 Ana F Pakistan11 Kris M Polish12 Hamed M Kenyan13 Maria F Brazilian14 Hana F Finnish

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The study: instrument

• A Likert scale was constructed using the findings from the literature review regarding the importance of motivation, investment, beliefs, autonomy and strategy use. Strategy use was further differentiated according to number, frequency, orchestration, target, context, and individual characteristics.

• Respondents were asked to respond on a scale of 5 (strongly agree) to 1

(strongly disagree) to a series of statements on which they were also asked to comment

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The study: instrument

No When learning English Rating/comment

1 I was motivated

2 I spent a lot of time working on my English

3 I put a lot of effort into my English studies

4 I used many strategies

5 I used strategies frequently

6 I chose my strategies so that they worked well together

7 I chose strategies to suit my individual needs

8 I chose strategies to suit my learning goal

9 I chose strategies to suit my learning situation

10 I took charge of my own learning

11 I believe I am a good language learner

12 I believe English is a good language to learn

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The study: data collection & analysis

• The questionnaire was sent out by e-mail and returned by respondents at their convenience. • The questionnaire data were analysed for reliability and medians • The comments were examined for clarification and further insights

regarding the ratings. Some of the comments were quite brief, but others were very detailed and contained interesting insights about the participants’ journeys towards becoming good language learners. • Comments were selected according to the extent to which they added

insight to the research question, and also in an attempt to give every participant an opportunity to have his/her voice heard at some stage. An independent colleague checked the reported comments for accuracy.

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Quantitative results• The Alpha co-efficient for reliability for the questionnaire was .720.

Given the relatively low numbers of respondents in the study, this was considered a good result, and suggests that the instrument is reliable and that it can be used as a basis for valid conclusions• All respondents gave median ratings in the agree to strongly agree

range for all items of the questionnaire, with only one exception (Item 6, regarding strategy orchestration. • In other words, the responses to by far the majority of the items (11

out of the 12 or 92%) were on the positive side of the scale, while the remaining item was in the neutral range.

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Quantitative results• With only one exception (respondent 14), all respondents strongly agreed

that they were motivated (Item 1), producing a maximum median rating of 5.0. • Also highly rated with medians of 5 was matching strategies to goals (Item

8), taking charge of one’s own learning (Item 10), and the belief that English is a good language to learn (Item 12). • The investment of time and effort (Items 2 and 3) both received median

ratings of 4.5• The belief in self as a good language learner (Item 11) was rated 4 along

with the frequent choice of many strategies to suit individual needs and situations (Items 4, 5, 7 and 9). • The choice of strategies so that they worked well together (Item 6) was

rated lowest (median = 3).

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Quantitative Results

Number Item Median rating

1 Motivation 5

8 Strategies chosen to suit goal 5

10 Autonomy 5

12 Belief in English as a good language to learn 5

2 Investment of time 4.5

3 Investment of effort 4.5

4 Use of many strategies 4

5 Frequent use of strategies 4

7 Strategies chosen for individual needs 4

9 Strategies chosen to suit situation 4

11 Belief in self as a good language learner 4

6 Orchestration 3

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Qualitative results: motivation (median=5)• “If I learn a foreign language I will be able to communicate with

others and understand the world better” (Liz - integrative)• “Job, social status…undertake higher studies, to maintain friendships

etc” (Hanu - instrumdental) • “I like English, especially the sound of English. Also, I wanted to use

English well since I majored in English (People expect English majors to use English at near-native level)” (Lee – intrinsic/extrinsic)• “I thought learning English will give me more opportunities, will open

the door to the world” (Rose - instrumental)

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Qualitative results: motivation

Yasu provides a lengthy and thoughtful comment regarding what motivated him, including some negative motivational factors:Some people probably feared being proficient in English due to a self-

defence mechanism (a fear of failure or a fear of losing one’s identity)Others are self-consciousness (this is especially true in regards to

Japanese teachers of English who have historically avoided developing proficiency. “He is not good at English because he speaks it” is how they typically ridiculed those who did learn to speak English).

I did not suffer from this crab mentality. Although I’ve experienced periods of English-related apathy, on average, I was highly motivated to learn English.

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Qualitative results: goal-orientation (median=5)

• “to be a member of a multicultural and multilingual world” (Liz) • “to achieve accuracy and fluency and sound like a native speaker” (Tina) • “higher studies, job, dating/social” (Hanu)• “to understand a new/different culture” (Ana). • “My learning goal was to improve the four skills of English so that I was

confident in communicating with others and to pass the TEM-4 and TEM-8 exam”. (Hong)• “The goal was to be able to understand as much of written and spoken

language as I possibly could. At first I was working towards being able to read without checking any vocabulary, but soon realized that it was a utopian scheme, even for native speakers!” (Kris)

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Qualitative: autonomy (median=5)

• Hong reports that “I had good self-control” and learnt “without teachers’ urging”. • Yasu comments that when he took charge of his own learning it

“made a tremendous difference”. • Kris agrees that he took charge of his own learning “with the proviso

that I never questioned my teachers’ decisions or balked at activities which they assigned me [but] I decided to work over and above what I was given”. • Hana sums up her response in one word: “Absolutely” • Ana is equally emphatic “Absolutely yes”.

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Qualitative: English is a good language to learn (median=5)

• According to Hong, the grammar, pronunciation and structure are easier than Chinese (her native language) • Hamed: “It is, of course, now the dominant intellectual language of the era,

just as Latin and Arabic had been, and ancient Greek had been in its time”. • Ana finds the language aesthetically pleasing: “it’s a beautiful language to

learn, to write in and to use in day to day routine”. • Kris is more pragmatic: “For better or worse, given the geopolitical

situation, knowing English is necessary. • Hana’s reasons also tend towards the practical: “English is a good language

to learn, because it is “the” lingua franca, but also because it is an easy language for a beginner to learn.”

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Qualitative: investment of time (median=4.5)• “Yes, I consulted dictionaries and grammar books, and spent a lot of time doing

assignments and reading recommended and supplementary materials” (Aziz). • Hong gives quite a detailed answer: “Students at my time usually got up at 6 am

and did morning readings and listened to [news in English] at 7 am everyday. We spent our time mostly in the library for some self-study, by which I guess we learned more from the teachers in class. We also went to the English Corner on campus every Thurs. evening to meet different people and improve our speaking skills.” • And Yasu explains: “In an EFL environment, becoming proficient in English is

generally more time consuming”.• Hana, however, confesses: “I rarely studied at home for school”. • Lee is another who explains: “To be honest, I haven’t spent much time nor

made a great effort to improve my English”.

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Qualitative: investment of effort (median=4.5)• Hong: “I regarded learning English as my utmost goal and dedicated

myself to it”. • “I was diligent at what I was doing and gave much attention” (Tina). • Hamed explains that his effort included “reading extensively in

different areas”. • But Hana disagrees: “The only time I remember having been putting

effort into studying was one afternoon when I practiced to memorize 4-5 pages of King Lear verbatim. The extract may have been an “easified” reader, but it contained lots of language that was unknown and difficult to understand for a 14-year-old who had studied English for 3 years (actually 2.5)”

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Qualitative: belief in oneself (median=4)• For Lee, this belief was fostered “because I got many rewards from English (e.g. high

scores, teachers’ praises etc.)”• Aziz also includes positive teacher feedback among the reasons for his positive

beliefs. • Hamed credits environmental factors: “Kenya is a multicultural society with 42

languages. The majority of the people are trilingual, other even more”. • Tina, believes she is a good learner but is self-critical: “I could have done better if I

had been more proactive and not afraid of making mistakes”.• Kris is also positive, but self-critical: “I’m not as pleased with my achievement as I

thought I’d be, but that’s probably due to realizing that there’s always space for improvement”.

• Hong is uncertain: “I don't know the criterior to judge whether I am a good language learner or not. But I have no problem communicating with foreigners and solving real-life problems in English”.

• Hanu, however, appears to have no self doubts: he considers himself to be “as good as a native speaker”.

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Qualitative: quantity (median=4)There were numerous responses to this item, including:• “cognitive” (Liz); “memory” (Yasu)• “drilling; talking to a native speaker; watching English films” (Lana)• “using dictionary…..watching TV” (Hanu) • “I revised, read, tried to talk to colleagues, did exercises, tried to risk

and look for words and resources” (Maria)• “I just read a lot” (Hamed); “I read extracurricular materials” (Kris)• “extensive reading, using dictionaries and other references” (Aziz)• “I wrote down all the new words from every book I read” (Rose)• “I planned what to study and monitored my progress” (Lee)

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Qualitative: frequency (median=4)

• Hana: “I think trying out the language in my head was something I did continuously”.• Lee provides some examples: “I guess I used several other strategies

when reading English often, like predicting, skimming, and summarizing”.• And Hong explains” “I tried to use strategies often and made

reflections on how effective the strategies I used were on learning so that I could adjusted my strategies timely”.• But Yasu comments: “I’m not certain the frequency was vast”.

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Qualitative: situation (median=4)A variety of situations is noted, including precise locations, such as “Istanbul University” (Liz), while others focus on the characteristics of their situations, many of which were less than ideal:• “being taught by non-native English speakers” (Tina)• “I had to study in a room where many students study together” (Lee)• “my high school teacher never pronounced correctly, so that I went

through a very hard time on correcting my own mispronunciations” (Hong)• “I was not exposed to authentic English” (Yasu)• “I started during the Communist regime. Therefore the learning situation

was quite difficult, e.g. to talk to a native speaker or buy an English Book” (Lana)

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Qualitative: individual needs (median=4)• Lee considers her strategies in relation to her learning style: “I guess I

understood my learning styles when I was a high school student, so I used the strategies fit for my styles (e.g., step by step, detail oriented, auditory, and so on)”.• Individual learning style is also considered by Yasu: “Because I am a

visual learner, I often use texts, tables and charts. I was not good at hands-on classroom activities, but I tried expanding my range. I am not sociable and I have trouble asking for help although I try to do so intentionally”. • Others did not consider individual needs important: “I only chose

strategies that were useful for my English learning without considering my individual needs” (Hong).

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Qualitative: orchestration (median=3)• The item on combining strategies did not attract much comment and

was given the lowest median rating (=3). • Yasu, however, comments that in the beginning “I did not pay

attention to the effective combination of strategies. I could only hope that a relatively decent combination of strategies was chosen by Buddha…..After I became familiar with the strategies…..I may have tried more than was necessary”. • This comment underlines an important point: that strategy

orchestration does not always come easily, but may require trial and error to get it right.

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Dynamics

In addition to learner complexity, we must consider that these attributes may not remain stable. Variability is evident in several of the responses: • According to Yasu, “My goals changed during the course of my English

studies. Prior to entering the university, preparing for entrance exams was the most important objective. After entering the university, developing proficiency was the goal”. • Kris talks about his changing perspective on strategy orchestration: “I

don’t think I considered how the strategies worked vis a vis one another – not until I myself became a teacher at least”.

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Dynamics

• Lee attributes her willingness to invest time directly to her situation: “I studied English in a private language institute before going to the States, but I didn’t like it. It was while studying in the States that I spent the most time working on my English”. • And change is implied in Ana’s description of language learning as

“liberating…..[since] learning of a new language exposes one to a trans-cultural experience, opening vistas to experience things in life with a different cultural context, thereby releasing one from one particular cultural fixity/limitation”.

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Implications• Since strategy use is a common feature of good language learners, it would

seem to make sense for teachers to encourage learners to expand their strategy repertoires and to use these repertoires frequently and appropriately. • Although there are those who question the value of strategy instruction (for

instance Rees-Miller, 1993), there are others (for instance Chamot, 2005; Cohen, 2011) who can point to successful efforts to teach strategies.• Since language learning strategies have the potential to be such a

“powerful learning tool” (O’Malley et al. 1985, p.43), learners should surely at least be exposed to strategy possibilities so that they can make up their own minds about which ones are useful for their own individual characteristics, situations and goals.

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Implications

• Since motivation is a major factor related to good language learning, it would seem only common sense to suggest that teachers need to attend to the motivational levels of their learners so that they will be willing to invest the time and effort which is required for success. • One way of promoting motivation may well be to respect learners’

autonomy, which is another recurring theme as a characteristic of successful language learners. • Learner beliefs should also be reinforced. Especially important may be

the belief that what they are trying to do is worth doing and that they are able to do it.

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Questions for ongoing research

• The current study spread the net widely in order to obtain a broad picture. It would also be useful to take a more in-depth look at successful language learners in specific locations. • The criterion for “successful” in this study is relatively imprecise. A more

exact definition of “good language learner” might be helpful, perhaps using standardised test results (such as TOEFL, IELTS or FCE) as a proficiency criterion.• Although it was possible to infer some dynamic aspects of good

language learner development from this cross-sectional study, this perspective might be more effectively surveyed by means of a longitudinal research design

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Conclusions

• A learner is not just a repertoire of strategies, an embodiment of various characteristics, a learner of some linguistic target, or an inhabitant of a particular environment.

• Every learner is the sum of all possible variables, the permutations of which are more-or-less infinite, and it is important that they are viewed holistically and the complexities and dynamics borne constantly in mind.

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ConclusionsNevertheless, we can conclude that good language learners:frequently use and carefully orchestrate many strategiesinvest a great deal of time and effort. are goal-orientedare able to adapt to a range of contextual variables according to

their individual needsdisplay motivation, autonomy and positive beliefs.

• Therefore, it would seem that these are the qualities we should be especially aiming to develop in our students.

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Please contact me if you would like any further information

Carol Griffithscarolgriffiths5@gmail.com

www.carolgriffiths.net