SAINT PETERS COLLEGE LEYTE NORMAL UNIVERSITY Ormoc City

A Compilation of Strategies

Submitted by: Lilian May S. Ando M.A.T (LT)

Learning Strategies

Learners of English as a Second Language use specific behaviors or thought processes to enhance their own second language learning. The word strategy comes from the ancient Greek word strategia, which means steps or actions taken for the purpose of winning a war. The warlike meaning of strategia has fortunately fallen away, but the control and goal directedness remain in the modern version of the word (Oxford, 2003). According to Oxford, a given strategy is neither good nor bad for it is essentially neutral until the context of its use is thoroughly considered. A strategy is considered valuable if the following conditions are present: (a) the strategy relates well to the L2 task at hand, (b) the strategy fits the particular students learning style preferences to one degree or another, and (c) the student employs the strategy effectively and links it with other relevant strategies. Strategies that fulfill these conditions make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self -directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations. These learning strategies enable students to become more independent lifelong learners. Oxford has identified six major groups of L2 learning strategies. These are: (1) cognitive strategies, (2) metacognitive strategies, (3) Memory-related strategies, (4) Compensatory strategies, (5) Affective strategies, (6) Social strategies. Metacognitive strategies (e.g., identifying ones own learning style preferences and needs, planning for an L2 task, gathering and organizing materials, arranging a study space and a schedule, monitoring mistakes, and evaluating task success, and evaluating the success of any type of learning strategy) are employed for managing the learning process overall. Memory-related strategies help learners link one L2 item or concept with another but do not necessarily involve deep understanding. Various memory-related strategies enable learners to learn and retrieve information in an orderly string (e.g., acronyms), while other techniques create learning and retrieval via sounds (e.g., rhyming), images (e.g., a mental picture of the word itself or the meaning of the word), a combination of sounds and images (e.g., the keyword method), body movement (e.g., total physical response), mechanical means (e.g., flashcards), or location. Compensatory strategies (e.g., guessing from the context in listening and reading; using synonyms and talking around the missing word to aid speaking and writing; and strictly for speaking, using gestures or pause words) help the learner make up for missing knowledge.

Affective strategies, such as identifying ones mood and anxiety level, talking about feelings, rewarding oneself for good performance, and using deep breathing or positive self talk, have been shown to be significantly related to L2 proficiency. Social strategies (e.g., asking questions to get verification, asking for clarification of a confusing point, asking for help in doing a language task, talking with a native-speaking conversation partner, and exploring cultural and social norms) help the learner work with others and understand the target culture as well as the language. These strategies help language learners to take control of their learning, be more competent, and, most important, become autonomous.

These are just some of the many strategies English teachers employ in their classes. 1. Role-playing. In Role-playing, students assume roles and act out those roles. For instance, if the lesson is about giving and asking directions, one pretends he is lost and the other gives directions. 2. Information gap. The idea is for learners to interact and talk to each other to fill out missing bits of information. In teaching new words, for example, you give one student a group of words; and the other, the meaning of those words. Give the students time to match the words with their definitions, but to complete the task, they need to interact, share what they know, and ask each other questions. 3. Reading Aloud. In Reading Aloud, students not only hone their reading skills but also their pronunciation skills. In reading a passage aloud, students will be able to see the word and then they try to position their mouth or tongue to how the letters are written. 4. Pair Work. In Pair Work, the students work in pairs to complete a task. For example, you can ask students to read a dialogue in pairs, or let them clarify what they learned from the dialogue by interacting and asking each other questions. Remember, the idea is to let students work in pairs. 5. Substitution. This technique works best when discussing sentence patterns and structures. A word or group of words is changed with another set. Say, the pattern you are working on is "I feel sad today." You can ask the student to change the word "sad" into another word that connotes feelings. 6. Singing. When teaching pronunciation or when targeting a difficult sound, this strategy comes in handy. Say, for instance, the student has difficulty producing the /r/ and /l/ sounds, you can teach him the song "Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

7.

Repetition. In Repetition, you let your student expose the language by asking him to repeat what you say. This works best for beginners and zero-English students.

8.

Sentence construction. This strategy is very simple. In Sentence Construction, the students create sentences using words you provide. For instance, after explaining the meaning of a new word, you ask the student to make his own sentence using that word.

9.

Physical Demonstration. This strategy is useful in many situations such as the following: when teaching a zero-English student a new word or when words alone are not sufficient to let your student understood your point. In Physical Demonstration, you point to where or what something is, you gesture, you act out, or you nod to indicate agreement.

10. Retelling, Summarizing, and /or Paraphrasing. In English classes, remember to give the students many opportunities to use the English language. In Retelling, Summarizing, and /or Paraphrasing, the student is asked to explain something using his own words. With this strategy, the teacher can gauge how well the student has understood a concept. 11. Use of Pictorial Products. Drawings, pictures, and diagrams are not only interesting and lovely to look at, but they are also a very powerful tool in teaching English. You can use drawings to demonstrate what you mean, or you can present pictures to explain the meaning of a new word. 12. Asking Probing Questions. Even though you give your student ample opportunities to speak or use the language, you will encounter students who either do not want to speak or speak only with a "yes" or "no." Ask questions that require them to speak more such as open-ended questions. Instead of yes/no questions, you may want to ask wh- questions. 13. Use of Tongue Twisters or Nursery Rhymes. Tongue twisters are useful when teaching pronunciation. Nursery rhymes are one way of piquing students' interest. 14. Cues. Hints, prompting questions, and (most important) advance organizers. 15. KWL. A publicly posted chart with three columns in which the teacher writes what students already know (K) and want to know (W) about a new topic before they begin a lesson; near the end of the lesson, the teacher writes what they have learned (L) in the third column.

16. Think-Pair-Share an activity in which students think individually for a brief time, discuss ideas in a pair or triad (perhaps while working on a task), and then offer ideas for consideration. 17. Think Alouda form of modeling in which teachers describe their cognitive processing (e.g., interacting with a text to derive meaning, exploring strategies to complete a math task, determining cause and effect in a science experiment). 18. RIQ stands for recall, insights and question. At the end of a lesson teachers can use RIQ to encourage student reflection and monitoring of learning. 1) Recall three things from the lesson. 2) Write down two insights or ideas received during the lesson. 3) Write one question that you still have. 4) Students can share what they have written with a partner. 19. Mind Mirror. The mind mirror activity asks students to synthesise and be creative with their understandings of a given character. In an outline of a character's head, students depict how this character was feeling and thinking at a specific time and what questions the character was considering. To illustrate all these ideas students use (two) relevant quotes from the text and create (two) symbols and (two) drawings that are important in explaining the character's perspective. This activity provides a good opportunity to clarify the difference between a drawing and a symbol. 20. Verbs Story. The teacher tells a story and as the teacher talks she writes the verbs on the whiteboard, each verb on a new line. The students retell the story, using the verbs as prompts. They can then write the story and compare their version with the original. In this way a skills flow is used - the students listen, then speak, then write and lastly they compare and notice the language differences. 21. Jigsaw Listening. Jigsaw Listening activities give students practice in listening to information in English, then conveying that information to someone else. In a Jigsaw exercise, students work in groups of 4 or 5. Each student in each group has a number from 1 to 4 or 5. The teacher gives each group a different text, cut into the samenumber of pieces as the number of students in the group. For example, if there are 4 groups of 4 students each, the teacher might choose 4 different texts about computers and cut each into 4 pieces. Each student would read one piece of one text. Within the groups, students would tell each other what they read, so that each group would then have all the information from one of the 4 texts. Then the

students would form new groups -- all the number 1s would be in one group, all the 2s in another, and so on. Each member of the new group would give the information from the text read by the old group. The result is that each person in the class would get all the information from all 4 texts. 22. Numbered Heads Together. The Numbered Heads Together technique solves several problems with group work; it forces the group to take responsibility for the learning of each member, it ensures that one student in the group does not do all the work while the others sit passively by, it prevents a few students from volunteering all the answers to the teacher's questions, and it guarantees that all students have an equal chance of being called on. Numbered Heads Together is often used to check comprehension of a text students have read or something they have listened to. Instructions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Students work in groups of 3 or 4. Each student has a number from 1 - 3 or 4. The teacher asks a question about a text the students have read or about some topic they have studied. The groups discuss the question for a few seconds, decide on an answer and make sure everyone in the group knows the answer. The teacher calls a number between 1 and 3 (or 4) at random and indicates a group. The student with the indicated number in that group gives the group's answer. If the answer is wrong, the teacher goes to another group.