Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language

Andrew D Cohen (1998)

London and New York: Longman
Pp. xi + 294
ISBN 0 582 305888 (paper)
US $19.57
The term strategies, in the second-language-learning sense, has come to be applied to the conscious moves made by
second-language speakers intended to be useful in either learning or using the second language. Strategies can be very
different in nature, ranging from planning the organisation of one’s learning (a metacognitive learning strategy) through
using mnemonic devices to learn vocabulary (cognitive learning strategies) and rehearsing what one expects to say (a
performance strategy) to bolstering one’s self-confidence for a language task by means of “self-talk” (an affective
strategy).
Ever since Naiman et al. (1976) noted that “good” language learners appeared to use a larger number and range of
strategies than “poor” language learners, the implications of understanding strategy use have seemed increasingly
important. However, there are still many questions to resolve. Does strategy use actually aid language learning, or is it
just something that good learners do? Are some strategies better than others, or is it the number and range of strategies
used that counts? Are there “bad” strategies that actually making learning or performance worse? Can “poor” language
learners benefit from being taught the strategies that “good” learners use, or do you need to be a good learner already to
use some of the strategies? Does strategy training affect language learning, and if so is the effect direct, or does such
training serve mainly to raise motivation and awareness? If learners are encouraged to use strategies to organise their
own learning, for example, what are the implications for the role of the classroom teacher? Such issues have already
prompted a considerable volume of research and writing, and directly or indirectly made a significant impact on
language learning, at least in some places. For example, the establishment of self-access centres and the encouragement
of learner independence are essentially based on the assumption that students will be able to use viable metacognitive
learning strategies.

Ellis (1994) writes: “The study of learning strategies holds considerable promise, both for language pedagogy and for
explaining individual differences in second language learning. It is probably true to say, however, that it is still in its
infancy. For this reason, perhaps, discussions of learning strategies typically conclude with the problems that have
surfaced and that need to be addressed before progress can be made” (p. 558). Any new book which [-1-] continues the
exploration of this infant area of study is therefore potentially exciting, especially if it contains accounts of hitherto
unpublished empirical research, as is the case with Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language. Any up-to-
date, comprehensive account of the current state of knowledge about strategies is also likely to be welcome; and Andrew
Cohen’s title certainly sounds as though this might be such a book.
Perhaps my expectations were set too high. The book presents information from a new research project, but it is research
that takes us only a short step further down the road. And, despite the implied promise of the title, this book does not
provide a comprehensive review of the area; nor, in fairness, does it claim to do so.

Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language is in fact something of a patchwork. It consists of a series of
essentially separate articles, some written by Cohen alone, some co-authored with others, which have been stitched
together to form a book. Some of the material has been published previously, though it has been revised for this
publication. Some of the chapters are themselves patchworks, consisting of materials drawn from different articles on
related themes. There is nothing intrinsically wrong, of course, with a patchwork approach–there are many books that
consist of separate articles which together add up to something coherent and significant. In this case, however, the pieces
that form the patchwork do not fit altogether easily with each other. Furthermore, there are gaps in the finished piece:
elements one would expect to be included, but which are not there. Despite the author’s efforts to link the disparate
chapters, the book lacks a strong sense of coherence and unity.
The core of the book is a previously unpublished report of a research study on “The impact of strategies based instruction
on speaking a foreign language.” A total of 55 American university students of French and Norwegian were taught
courses in their respective target languages for a period of ten weeks. Twenty-three students were in classes which
followed the normal syllabuses, while thirty-two were in classes where training in a broad range of strategies was
integrated into the teaching. Before and after the course students reported on their strategy use, and their speaking skills
were tested in three speaking tasks (the pre- and post-tests of speaking skills were identical). Ratings of students’
performances were compared for the treatment and the control groups, and were also correlated with reported changes
in strategy use. The treatment groups generally did better on the post-test than the control groups for the three different
tasks and on the various assessment scales used, though the differences in scores were mostly non-significant. The
picture which emerged when scores on the various scales were correlated with changes in strategy use was very confused.
Where statistically significant relationships were [-2-] discovered, the reasons for them were far from evident; thus, for
example, an increase by the experimental group in reported use of the strategy “translating specific words from English”
correlated significantly with improved performance on a rating scale for grammar, but negatively and significantly with a
rating scale for self-confidence. Patterns in reported strategy use changed for the control groups (who had received no
specific strategy training) as well as the experimental groups. The general impression created was that the effect of
strategy training over this short course had been to some extent beneficial, but the specific nature of the benefit and the
reasons for it are unclear. Even though the conclusions are not clear-cut, however, this is a thorough and quite important
piece of research which has implications for the design of future research projects.

The rest of the book consists of other articles of varying degrees of interest, arranged before and after the central study
described above. After an introduction and a chapter defining some terminology, there is an essay on research
methodology for the field; this discusses advantages and disadvantages of several methods of determining which
strategies are being used, and focuses particularly on self-report, the method used in the study described above. An
article on strategy training follows; it reviews various methods of strategy training at considerable length, but is at times
frustratingly short on specifics. For example, despite the fact that we are twice told that the choice of strategies in which
learners should be trained depends on such factors as “their current and intended levels of proficiency, their experience
with foreign language strategy use or with learning other languages, their learning style preferences and personality
characteristics,” etc. (p. 89), and despite the fact that there is a section explicitly entitled “Selecting the strategies,” there
is no systematic discussion as to what strategies, or types of strategies, would suit what types of learners (though
admittedly there are one or two examples of strategies which “might” suit particular types of learners). The article sets
out many questions that have to be considered, but provides little help in arriving at the answers.

After the central research study, we find a chapter headed “Strategies for choosing the language of thought.” As Cohen
points out, little work has been done in determining the advantages and disadvantages of deliberately choosing whether
to think in the native language, the target language, or even some other language during learning or use of the target
language. The chapter contains a certain amount of discussion of research on which language people do think in, based
in part on published studies. The latter part of the chapter discusses the findings of a study of the language of thought of
children in a Spanish immersion elementary school. There is quite a lot which is of interest in this chapter, but its
relationship to the concept of strategies is at times tenuous (as the language of thought is certainly not always a
deliberate [-3-] choice), and all the material in this chapter has been published previously in other forms.

“Strategy use in testing situations” begins with a section which considers strategies from a rather different angle. The
article demonstrates how strategies used by learners in certain types of test (for example, multiple choice tests of reading
comprehension) can undermine the validity of the tests, because in arriving at their answers, the testees do not use the
skills which the tests are intended to sample. Thus, they may select a particular multiple choice answer on a “reading
comprehension” test because words found in the question stem and in one particular answer option occur together in the
same sentence in the text, or because only one of the answers suggested matches the stem grammatically, or on the basis
of general knowledge. Such test-taking strategies will often result in a higher score being achieved than the students’
actual ability to understand the text would merit. None of this will be news to researchers in the field of testing. The
second part of the chapter reports on a study of “Strategies in producing oral speech acts” where the speech acts in
question are produced as part of a language test. Here, appropriate production strategies are perceived as being helpful
to the process of testing. Cohen argues finally that test-taking strategies should be taken into account both in designing
and validating tests and in the process of preparing students to take the tests.

The book ends with a conclusion, which essentially repeats the main points from the various chapters.

The most immediately striking gap in the book is any chapter focussing on direct discussion of actual strategies and their
use, rather than categories of strategies. Various taxonomies of strategies are referred to, in particularly Rebecca
Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (1990), but there is no systematic presentation here of lists of
strategies, nor yet any systematic discussion of what individual strategies are thought to achieve. Anyone coming new to
the subject would find it frustrating that one only gradually and incidentally discovers some examples of the strategies
that students use, or of strategies which it is thought they might usefully be taught. Another gap which might be felt in
the book, given that it takes as its subject strategies of all types (including strategies for passing examinations!), is a
chapter focussing on the thorny issue of how closely strategies of the different types are related, and thus the extent to
which it is appropriate to consider them all together as aspects of a single construct.

But is this a fair point for a reviewer to make? Why should such items be included, when perhaps Cohen has nothing new
to say about them? Well, this book really does seem to be intended for a wide audience, including non-specialists in the
field, and thus I feel [-4-] that it should ideally serve to some extent as a general survey of the topic. The introduction
says that it is “primarily for teachers, administrators and researchers” (p. 1). The next sentence adds “teacher trainers”
for good measure, and the discussion exercises at the end of each chapter might seem to suggest teacher trainees as
members of the potential audience as well. The back cover blurb (for which, of course, Cohen is not responsible) adds
that the book is “highly suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students of applied linguistics and will be of interest
to foreign language students.” Quite a range of people, then, many of them not very familiar with the subject of strategy
use, might think this book was for them. Cohen goes on to state: “The book is intended to bring together in one volume a
series of different themes which . . . focus on second language learners and their strategies” (p. 1). To me, “bringing
together” suggests linking separate elements to form a whole which has a certain sense of completeness, and which
requires that one examine the central as well as more peripheral themes. Finally, I feel that such chapters would simply
make for a better, more satisfying book for anyone who reads it through as a whole, rather than dipping into it as a series
of separate articles.

This book will undoubtedly find its way onto the shelves of university libraries, as well as many methodology libraries in
school staff-rooms. It is after all a book in a prominent series (Longman’s Applied Linguistics and Language Studies), on
a topic of much current interest, written by a well-known researcher in the field. It includes the only published report of
a recent research study. But I’m afraid I cannot imagine that this will ever come to be regarded as a key book in the area
of strategies study. The individual chapters will remain as a series of separate articles, read for different purposes by
different people on different occasions, and probably with varying degrees of satisfaction.