MAIN TYPES OF STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

Language Learning Strategy

Wenden and Rubin (1987) define learning strategies as "... any sets of operations, steps, plans, routines used by the learner to facilitate the obtaining, storage, retrieval, and use of information." According to Stern (1992:261), "the concept of learning strategy is dependent on the assumption that learners consciously engage in activities to achieve certain goals and learning strategies can be regarded as broadly conceived intentional directions and learning techniques."

All language learners use language learning strategies either consciously or unconsciously when processing new information and performing tasks in the language classroom.

Language classroom is like a problem-solving environment in which language learners are likely to face new input and difficult tasks given by their instructors, learners' attempts to find the quickest or easiest way to do what is required, that is, using language learning strategies is inescapable.

Classification of Language Learning Strategies Rubin's (1987)

There are three types of strategies used by learners that contribute directly or indirectly to language learning. These are: Learning Strategies Communication Strategies Social Strategies

1. Learning Strategies They are of two main types, being the strategies contributing directly to the development of the language system constructed by the learner: 1.1 Cognitive Learning Strategies 1.2 Metacognitive Learning Strategies

Cognitive Learning Strategies - refer to the steps or operations used in learning or problem-solving 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 - are used to oversee, regulate or self-direct language learning. They involve various processes as planning, prioritizing, setting goals, and self-management.

2. Communication Strategies They are less directly related to language learning since their focus is on the process of participating in a conversation and getting meaning across or clarifying what the speaker intended. Communication strategies are used by speakers when faced with some difficulty due to the fact that their communication ends outrun their communication means or when confronted with misunderstanding by a co-speaker.

3. Social Strategies

Social strategies are those activities learners engage in which afford them opportunities to be exposed to and practice their knowledge.
Although these strategies provide exposure to the target language, they contribute indirectly to learning since they do not lead directly to the obtaining, storing, retrieving, and using of language

O'Malley's (1985) Classification of Language Learning Strategies

He divides language learning strategies into three main subcategories:
Metacognitive Strategies Cognitive Strategies Socioaffective Strategies

1.Metacognitive Strategies Require 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. It include advance organizers, directed attention, selective attention, self-management, functional planning, self-monitoring, delayed production, selfevaluation.

2. Cognitive Strategies Are more limited to specific learning tasks and they involve more direct manipulation of the learning material itself. Repetition, resourcing, translation, grouping, note taking, deduction, recombination, imagery, auditory representation, key word, contextualization, elaboration, transfer, inferencing are among the most important cognitive strategies.
3. Socioaffective Strategies Can be stated that they are related with social-mediating activity and transacting with others. Cooperation and question for clarification are the main socioaffective strategies

Importance of Language Learning Strategies in Language Learning and Teaching

Language learning strategies are good indicators of how learners approach tasks or problems encountered during the process of language learning.
Language learning strategies, also give language teachers valuable clues about how their students assess the situation, plan, select appropriate skills so as to understand, learn, or remember new input presented in the language classroom.

Goals of Cooperative Learning Activities for the Foreign Language Classroom

Mr. Pete Jones has taken the educational theory of Cooperative Learning and used it as the basis for several creative activities used successfully in his FL classrooms. The activities are offered in a variety of languages: English, French, German, and Spanish and etc. Main Goals: Share with teachers materials and ideas that have worked well in the modern languages classroom.

Create materials and exercises which can be printed out from the different sites and used by teachers the very next day in their classes. Create on-line treasure hunts on the different holiday pages, which allow teachers to integrate a little bit of technology in the modern language classroom. (Teachers can take their students to the computer lab and have them try the activities or can give them as assignments to be done at home.) Have fun with language and interactive crossword puzzles, multiple choices, unscramble sentences and cloze activities (courtesy of the wonderful Hot Potatoes programme.)

LANGUAGE LEARNING ACTIVITIES

1. is a cooperative reading and writing activity which reinforces the vocabulary and some grammar points of new units. It is adaptable to the teacher's particular text book. Students create sentences in pairs using the words in a grid by moving through adjoining cells in the grid.

2. is a very challenging reading comprehension activity. It must be adapted to the class' particular text. Students read or listen to clues about five characters and collect information in a table that will later allow them to answer questions about these individuals.

3. is a great class building activity that takes little preparation to set up. A students describes an imaginary friend to another student who in turn describes the friend to another, and so on. At the end of the activity we see how much the descriptions have changed through repetition.

4.
is a neat way to increase student-student interaction and talk time in the foreign language classroom. Students work in pairs to describe someone or tell a story. All of the pairs talk at the same time, but only one student in the pair talks. Whenever the teacher says "Flip it!," the other student in the pair takes over talking.

5.
Mr. Jones also has a section devoted to holiday themes. These pages have fun activities for language learners as well as links to other sites that provide a wealth of cultural information about the holidays.

Christmas Easter

Valentines Halloween Fathers Day

Mothers Day

These activities provide FL educators with a place to begin if they wish to incorporate Cooperative Learning in their classroom to enhance student learning. These pages are illustrative of the time and effort one can invest in planning creative lessons for the FL classroom. Much work has already been done here for us. FL teachers and learners will certainly benefit from a visit to these sites.

REFERENCES:
Wenden, A. ,Rubin J. (1987). Learner Strategies in Language Learning. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. OMalley J., et.al. (1985). Learning Strategy Applications with Students of English as a Second Language" in TESOL Quarterly 19: 557-584. http://iteslj.org/Articles/Hismanoglu-Strategies.html LeLoup, J. et.al. (2000). Cooperative Learning Activities for the Foreign Language Classroom. Vol. 3, No. 2. http://llt.msu.edu/vol3num2/onthenet/