Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ANDREW D. COHEN
Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
and
CAROL GRIFFITHS
Associate Professor, Fatih University
Istanbul, Turkey
In honor of Rubins (1975) seminal article on the good language learner, language learner
strategy (LLS) experts join together to present their wish list of possible research to take us into
the next four decades. Twenty-six research thrusts in six categories are offered. Ideally these
research directions will spawn viable research in the field for years to come and will help to
enhance language learner outcomes.
INTRODUCTION
As of 2015, forty golden years have passed since Joan Rubin published her seminal TQ article
on what we can learn from the good language learner (Rubin, 1975). We thought this would be a
propitious moment to acknowledge that groundbreaking effort. Given how the field of language
learner strategies (LLS) has taken off since then, with a dramatic burgeoning of research efforts
in the field throughout the world, we thought it would be helpful to ask LLS experts about their
current ideas on research in this area. So, as a way of acknowledging the 40 year anniversary of
the TQ paper that started many of us off on our quest to determine what makes language learners
successful, we decided to gather suggestions for an article on the language learner strategy
research that many of us would like to do at this point in time.
With this goal in mind, we contacted 25 experts in LLS, many of whom had been contributors
to the Cohen and Macaro (2007) volume that took stock of LLS research up to that time. For the
current article, we asked the LLS experts to provide us with 200 words in response to the
following:
If you had your way (i.e., unlimited time, research assistants, and financial support), briefly
state what you personally would like to do language learner strategy research on. If you
want to be more specific, how would you conduct the study?
Presenting the experts with an open-ended survey of this kind meant that they were not given
a structure within which they had to respond. Hence, this made the categorization of responses
somewhat of a challenge. We received 19 responses, involving 23 colleagues. Altogether, there
were 28 research directions presented within what appeared to us to be seven broad categories.
The surprising finding was how little overlap there was in peoples wish lists of LLS research.
For the most part, colleagues had mutually exclusive directions for research. A few colleagues
offered more than one research suggestion. Only occasionally was there noticeable overlap, as
you will see below. This finding just underscores the breadth of potential research on LLS still
left to conduct.
So now let us take a look at the suggested LLS research studies on the experts wish lists.
RESEARCHING THE GAPS
Strategies for less researched aspects of language competence Peter Gu (Victoria
University, Wellington, NZ)
Macro- and micro-level study of strategies specific to less studied target language
subsystems Mirosaw Pawlak (Adam Mickiewicz University, Kalisz, Poland)
I would conduct research on the strategies employed to learn and gain control over target
language subsystems rather than more general investigations of strategic learning. The focus
would be on areas that have thus far been somewhat neglected in research, namely grammar,
pronunciation, and pragmatics. There is a need to devise instruments for data collection that
would be validated in different contexts (i.e., for different age groups, educational levels, but also
perhaps for different languages). The sampling would be robust in order to tap the relationship of
strategy use with other variables (proficiency, individual factors, etc.) and to explore the effects
of strategy instruction. Such a macro perspective would be complemented with a micro
perspective, where the use of strategies would be investigated in the performance of specific
tasks, drawing upon quantitative and qualitative methodology to gain insights into the factors
affecting their use.
Different timescales of strategy use Sarah Mercer (University of Graz, Austria)
In line with complexity thinking and the role of different timescales, I would be interested to
look at strategy use across micro timescales (such as within an interaction) and across more
macro timescales (such as across the duration of a course), and consider how these different
types of strategy use interrelate and are potentially differently dynamic.
Strategies for dealing with the rules of the game in the social context Ron Darvin and
Bonny Norton (University of British Columbia, Vancouver)
We wish to study the changing contexts of language learners and the diverse negotiations of
language learner identities research which goes beyond the micro-structures of power to
investigate the systemic patterns of control that communicative events are indexical of (Norton,
2013). To this end, we need to better understand how power manifests itself materially in the
strategies of learners, as well as the practices of classrooms and communities. In an effort to help
learners not only develop learner strategies, but develop what Bourdieu (2000) calls a sens
pratique practical sense or a feel for the game, which comes with knowing the various rules,
genres, and discourses that inform agents practices, and help them deliver strategic decisions.
With the advancement of technology, where people can inhabit online and offline worlds
simultaneously, and also live in contexts of superdiversity (Blommaert, 2013), learners need to
know the rules, genres, discourses, and registers for these different contexts, and be able to shift
effectively across these spaces. They need to be able to read multimodal cues and communicate
with not just the visual, but also the gestural, and other embodied signs, know how to gain access
to spaces where communication is taking place, and manage communication gatekeepers, in
order to claim the right to speak.
Strategies for dealing with sociocultural problems like shyness or discrimination Karen
Schramm (University of Vienna)
I wish to conduct research on sociocultural strategies for peripheral and legitimate
participation. It is time to describe strategies that aim at solving sociocultural problems of L2
learners (and that use various meta-cognitive, cognitive, social and affective means for this goal).
This way, strategy research could finally describe learnable action plans for dealing effectively
with the wide problem field between shyness and (unwilling or purposeful) exclusion. The
concern is with getting access or being denied access to communities of practice. We could and
should describe more clearly the social strategies that L2 speakers can use to become a member
of (L1) groups. For example, what would be strategies to overcome shyness, strategies to deal
with overt or covert discrimination, strategies to position oneself effectively and to deal with
positioning by others? Theoretically, this ties in with the sociocultural construct of agency.
Emotions and identities in research on LLS Rebecca Oxford (Professor Emerita,
University of Maryland)
I wish to continue conducting research on language learner strategies, emotions, and
identities. Language learning is emotion-laden because of challenges to and shifts in learner
identity. Also, while learning a language, and hence while using learner strategies, new or
expanded personal identities are created, accompanied by emotion (Oxford & Cullar,
forthcoming; Oxford et al., forthcoming). Identities, emotions, and learner strategies are engaged
in the process of symbolically and sometimes physically crossing borders during the
language learning process (see Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000, and Drnyei & Ushioda, 2009 for
learner identities).
STRATEGY INSTRUCTION
The effects of teacher-presented learning strategies
I wish to conduct research on the uptake that students can attribute to the teachers
initiative/presentation. Are students more likely to utilize these teacher-sanctioned
strategies or develop and/or rely on their own? Which strategies tend to persist into older
age and proficiency stages? Martha Nyikos (Indiana University)
matriculated university students, studying in five majors that are commonly chosen by
international students: Biology, Business, Computer Science, Engineering, and Psychology.
Strategies conceived in the classroom vs. non-classroom strategizing Martha Nyikos
I would like to study the LLS of those who choose to pursue interest-driven learning in very
informal, non-instructional contexts, and to investigate the similarities and differences between
these strategies and those used by students in more formal classroom environments.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLIED TO LLS
The development of LLS websites Andrew Cohen
I would like to continue the research-based development of websites like the Spanish grammar
strategy website developed at the University of Minnesotas Center for Advanced Research on
Language Acquisition (CARLA) (Cohen & Sykes, 2010), followed up with research to determine
the effectiveness of the website as a means of strategy instruction (Cohen, Pinilla-Herrera,
Thompson, & Witzig, 2011). Concurrently, it would be beneficial to conduct research to
determine the pros and cons of creating websites where learners identify and select strategies that
might work for them vs. strategy instruction where all learners are exposed to certain strategies.
In addition, there is value in developing more websites for specialized domains of strategy use,
like the CARLA ones for Japanese and Spanish pragmatics strategies.
Flipped classroom models that provide web-based strategies instruction before classroom
lessons Anna Chamot
I wish to conduct studies as to the effectiveness of flipped1 classroom models that provide
web-based language learning strategies instruction prior to each face-to-face language lesson,
especially for beginning-level students. Would videos and online information in the L1 prepare
students to practice language learning strategies in the classroom?
THE LEARNER AS AGENT IN LLS
Learner self-management Joan Rubin (Joan Rubin Associates, Maryland)
I would like to conduct LLS research with a focus on metacognitive strategies: In order to
select appropriate strategies, learners need to be able to do effective planning which consists of
establishing smart goals and conducting as thorough a task analysis as possible starting with
the task purpose, followed by task classification, and then finally, considering what task demands
(or strategies) might be appropriate, given the task classification which learners have conducted.
1 "Flipped" because what used to be class work is done at home via videos and access to
websites and what used to be homework is now done in class.
My research would focus on (a) consideration of the impact of teaching task analysis
on the development of learner goals, (b) working with teachers to elaborate task classification for
different proficiency levels, and (c) developing techniques to help in-and pre-service teachers
facilitate the learners development of this skill.
The strategies of higher-level students Carol Griffiths
I wish to do research on the plus strategies, namely, strategies that higher-level students
frequently use (e.g., reading without looking up every new word), and which consequently
may also be employed by students in general to promote more effective language learning
(Griffiths, 2013). More could be done to identify and describe such strategies.
Human agency Osamu Takeuchi (Kansai University, Osaka) and Michiko Ueki
(Ochanomizu University, Tokyo)
We would like to continue doing research on agency in ones own learning namely, the type
of social perception that can be activated or promoted through interaction with others (e.g., peers
and instructors) in a specific, situated learning context. The research would aim at describing
how human agency could be activated in L2 learning, either through the influence of others,
through the interplay of individual and group cognition, or through self-initiation, depending on
the contexts where L2 learners are situated, the difficulty of tasks, and the learners L2
proficiency. The study would be a longitudinal study of reading and writing in college EFL
classes, with special attention paid to several successful L2 learners. The data would be collected
through a combination of semi-structured and stimulated recall interviews, learners journals,
writing products, audio/video-recordings of collaborative work, and traditional questionnaires.
Strategies in long-term language retention Martha Nyikos
I would like to do research on the long-term language retention garnered through the
intentional, metacognitively-aware application of strategies. Studying how students move from
short-term strategies for immediate retention to specific/specified strategies they continue to use
in order to maintain language proficiency, the focus would be on strategies that make the
transition into use to assist long-term memory. What do the bilingual/multilingual elderly report?
It would be interesting to pair up with people in the life sciences, and to do brain scans as elderly
subjects apply well-thought-through strategizing to problems in order to see how the brain works
for different learners.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research tools for LLS Peter Gu
Methodologically, there is a need to choose and construct new research tools to use along with
existing ones. For example, we need more effective means for studying classroom discourse, and
for documenting situated and mediated strategic development. Another potentially promising
avenue for strategy research would be to rigorously study brain activity through functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. This would open up the representation and
processing side of LLS i.e., the neurological basis of LLS research.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Seven general areas for research emerged from polling LLS strategy experts.
1) Experts would like to see more research in areas that until now have received only
limited attention.
2) There is value in conducting research that looks at the crucial links among cognitive,
social, and affective variables.
3) We can benefit from studying at close range both the social and affective variables
associated with LLS, paying particular attention to emotion.
4) A useful niche for research would be focusing on strategy instruction, both in terms of
what teachers know and how they use it, and in terms of what learners get out of this
instruction.
5) There is advantage in exploring ways to harness information technology in LLS, whether
through websites or other means.
6) Various experts recommend pursuing a research agenda that puts a spotlight on language
learners as agents in the use of LLS their self-management skills, the contribution of
their proficiency level to LLS, their LLS in reaction to teacher talk, their LLS over the
long term and especially at different times in their lives.
7) We need to continue investigating the research methods and instruments used to collect
our data and produce our LLS findings.
So what might we consider to be trends in the areas identified? One area of interest is the role
of consciousness in the context of LLS, and the challenge of researching this. What a learner is
conscious of and actually attends to will help to shape the developmental and possibly emergent
nature of strategies, strategy instruction, also the relationship between the strategies that they
select and what they learn. So consciousness provides a context for developing our
conceptualization of LSS, and for understanding how such conceptualizations can be put to use
in the design of learning tasks and the education of teachers.
Another theme of interest is the apparent divide between i) research in more traditional
cognitive psychology, focusing on the learners mind, and ii) more social, neo-Vygotskian
approaches, where strategies tend to be embedded in interactions, identities, and communities of
practice. The former approach to researching LSS allows for greater reliability and aligns itself
with established LSS conceptualizations, while the latter provides higher levels of validity in
terms of variability and the complexity of the language learning and language use experience.
Predictably, the next generation of LSS researchers will be engaging in the issue of which
approach to take, a matter that is already being discussed in other areas of research (see, for
example, Hulstijn, Young, Ortega, & Bigelow, 2014).
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Hopefully this article will serve to stimulate ongoing LLS research in the field. Ideally the
fruits from such research would help to enhance to results from language learning around the
globe.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments that
helped us revise our categorization of the experts input and also helped alert us to trends in the
experts suggestions about LLS research.
Andrew Cohen (Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota) also taught at UCLA and at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is co-editor of Language learning strategies (OUP, 2007)
and author of Strategies in learning and using a second language (Routledge, 2011). He has
recently written a guide to language strategies for young learners.
Carol Griffiths has been a teacher, manager, and teacher trainer of ELT and has taught in many
places, including New Zealand, Indonesia, Japan, China, North Korea, and the UK. She currently
works as Associate Professor at Fatih University in Istanbul, has presented at numerous
conferences, and has published widely.
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