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Date Posted: 12:28:36 11/14/04 Sun
Author: Amanda
Subject: Re: Task 5
In reply to: Aparecida 's message, "Re: Task 5" on 05:24:52 11/13/04 Sat

Learning Strategies

Learning Strategies are communicative and mental procedures a student uses to learn a foreign language in an easy, fast and enjoyable way. Since the main goal of a foreign language student is to communicate in the target language, being aware of some strategies may represent a great advantage during the learning process. The foreign language object of this essay is English.

The student himself may not (1) be able to find out which is (2) the best strategy for him to use, so it is up to the teacher to introduce it in the ongoing process of the language lesson as soon as possible. According to Richards (pp.63) “an important aspect of teaching is to promote learners’ awareness and control of effective learning strategies and discourage the use of ineffective (3) ones”. (4) In general I could say that when you quote somebody you should explain the quotation afterwards, I believe that the quotation can’t be considered as a conclusion to your ideas.

However, while there are great advantages of introducing the strategies at the very beginning, if the teacher does not have in mind that students are individuals who bring to their learning their own beliefs, objectives, and behaviors, introducing the inadequate strategy may be a serious issue.

According to Richards “learners belief systems cover a wide range of issues and can influence learners’ motivation to learn, their expectations (5) about language learning, their perceptions about what is easy or difficult about a language, as well as the kind of learning strategies they favor”. (4)

There are a number of beliefs classified by Richards, such as foreign language attitude, the difficulty of language learning, the nature of language learning, learning and communication strategies, and motivations and expectations.

Let us imagine that a student believes that a good teacher is the one who teaches grammar in class and who corrects students all the time they make any kind of mistake, this student has beliefs about teaching. If the teacher believes that the best way of teaching grammar is to do it in a context and does not like to interrupt students to correct them all the time, there will be a conflict between what the student expect and what the teacher thinks it is correct.. The problem may worsen if this teacher decides to introduce one of the learning strategies for example the one in which the students may learn from each other in groups. He may under valuate (6) the activity assigned and will believe that a teacher who does not correct mistakes is not a good teacher.

A wise suggestion might be to (7) prepare a questionnaire in which students could answer about their beliefs, their problems in learning the target language and what kind of activities they enjoy doing. After that he could negotiate, if possible, with students letting it very clear since the beginning what path they will follow. This would avoid disappointment and misunderstandings (8).

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Replies:

  • Re: Task 5 -- Ângela, 15:50:02 11/18/04 Thu
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