used by the teacher for a specific content, this plan includes: structure, desire learner behavior, an outline and goals of instruction.
Learning strategy specific action taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations LEARNING STRATEGIES
When students use strategies, cooperative skill performance is close to 100 percent.
There are no intrinsically good strategies because people need to discover their own. STRATEGIES Students use Learning Strategies to help them understand information and solve problems. Students who do not know or use good learning strategies often learn passively and ultimately fail in school. Learning Strategy instruction focuses on making students more active learners by teaching them how to learn and how to use what they have learned to be successful. Direct Memory Cognitive Compensation Indirect Metacognitive Affective Social Memory strategies Memory strategies are based on simple principles like laying things out in order, making association, and reviewing. These principles are employed when a learner faces challenge of vocabulary learning. The use of memory strategies are most frequently applied in the beginning process of language learning.
Relating concepts When a new concept is introduced, learners associate that to something they now or they are familiarized with ; for example a new Word is related to something they own, know, want or have experienced. mischievous= a politician, Mr. burns I have traveled a lot.= experience (my last trip to Europe) Conspicuous lullaby far-fetched diversion Making sentences Learners make their own sentences to memorize and internalize new grammar concepts or/and vocabulary. e.g. Run Errands. I have to run some errands next Saturday.
Used to. I used to live in a small town.
Might She might need some help.
words Cabbage Cart Shelf Customs office Verbs simple past Saw Dealt Felt Bought practice Make 3 different sentences using the words from the boxes below.
Mental pictures Learners visualize the new word/concept rather than memorize its meaning or function. Flashcards and posters are used in this process. http://www.languageguide.org/english/vocabulary/money/
Practice mental pictures Work in pairs,look at the pictures and describe them to your partner, make a mental image based on the descriptions.
Rhyming learners use of rhymes to memorize new concepts and vocabulary. Clothing vocabulary: jacket,shoes,dress,shrit,skirt,tie,suit,jeans.
For a party I wear a tie jacket-racket And kiss my mom good bye. Suit-foot I have new shoes jeans-beans But I stained them with juice Skirt-flirt Marys wearing a dress, But her hair is a mess.
Rhyming time Make a little poem/rap rhyming the following words:
Food and drinks Tomato-cabbage-sugar-beef- chicken-apple-cream-cheese-bread Soda-coffee-tea-water-wine
Performing/acting out When learning a new word or concept learners perform or act out the action or word in order to record the new information in their brain. e.g Yawn-sneeze-scratch-tip toe-skip-march-spin
Simon says
In pairs: Make a list of 10 action verbs. Play simon says with another group.
Cognitive strategies The target language is manipulated or transformed by repeating, analyzing or summarizing. The four sets in this group are: Practicing, Receiving and Sending Messages, Analyzing and Reasoning, and Creating Structure for Input and Output. Practicing is the most important in this group which can be achieved by repeating, working with sounds and writing, and using patterns.
Problem-solve MAKE A TABLE Question: You save $3 on Monday, each day after that you save twice as much as you saved the day before if this pattern continues, how much would you save on Friday?
Imitation and contrast When learners imitate native speakers accent in order to practice pronunciation of new words and phrases in Videos, movies, songs and TV shows.
Practicing with homonyms Learners practice with homonyms and build word webs with the different meanings for a word depending on its context. e.g Bear (animal) and bear (carry) porter (a weak beer) and porter (a man who carries luggage) lean (thin) and lean (rest against) lap (to drink with tongue) and lap (a circuit) plane (a tool) and plane (a tree) plain (ordinary looking) and plain (flat country) Practice In pairs find a different meaning for the words listed below.
skip miss pluck type train fluke bow quail fair lie Lead blue
check skip (to jump) and skip (to miss out) miss (unmarried woman) and miss (to overlook) pluck (to remove feathers) and pluck (bravery) type (to write via keyboard) and type (a sort) train (a loco and trucks) and train (to teach) fluke (a stroke of luck Fluke ( the fins on a whales tail) bow (bend forward) bow (front of a ship) quail (cower) quail (bird) fair (appearance) fair (reasonable) lie (horizontal position) lie (falsehood or untruth expressed as truth) lead (metal) Lead (start off in front) blue (the color) blue (the feeling of sadness)
Learning cognates two words that have a common origin are cognates. Most often, cognates are words in two languages that have a common etymology and thus are similar or identical. For example, the English "kiosk" and the Spanish quiosco are cognates because they both come from the Turkish kosk. Industry-industria Bycicle-bicicleta Fragile-fragil
Compensation strategies Learners use compensation strategies for comprehension of the target language when they have insufficient knowledge of the target language. These strategies make up for the deficiency in grammar and vocabulary. When learners do not know new words and expressions, they guess the meaning.
A learner brings own life experience to interpret data by guessing. Students brings own life experience to interpret data by guessing. Compensation strategies are also used in production when grammatical knowledge is incomplete.
Guessing meaning by context The ability to guess meaning from context is a useful skill to practice and try to improve. The things which will help you work out the meaning of an unfamiliar word are:
a) the meaning of the text which surrounds it; b) the way the word is formed; c) your own background knowledge of the subject.
Guessing is useful only when you can interpret/understand the surrounding text. If you think you have exhausted the contextual information available to guess at the word, LOOK IT UP IN A DICTIONARY. Practice 1) The tiger's roar could be heard in villages far away. What does roar probably mean?
A) food a tiger eats B) a tiger's dream C) a tiger's ear D) a sound a tiger makes
2) The thought of eating a rat is abhorrent to most people. What does abhorrent probably mean?
A) fun, lively B) horrible, repugnant C) delicious, tasty D) sweet, sugary
3) You can trust the salesmen at that store because they always conduct business in an aboveboard manner. What does aboveboard probably mean?
A) honestly, openly B) sneaky, dishonest C) horrible, repugnant D) strange, unusual
4) Petra has so many friends because she is a gregarious person. What does gregarious probably mean?
A) introverted, self-contained B) shy, quiet C) friendly, outgoing D) rude, hostile
Anticipating dialogue Learners watch a video clip , movie or listen to a dialogue and predict the response or what the person will say in order to practice comprehension, cohesion and fluency.
Metacognitive strategies These go beyond the cognitive mechanism and give learners to coordinate their learning. This helps them to plan language learning in an efficient way. When new vocabulary, rules, and writing system confuse the learner, these strategies become vital for successful language learning.
Three sets of strategies belong to this group and they are: Centering Your Learning, Arranging and Planning Your Learning, and Evaluating Your Learning.
Centering learning: give a focus to the learner so that the attention could be directed toward certain language activities or skills.
Arranging and planning learning: help learners to organize so they may get maximum benefit from their energy and effort.
Evaluating learning: helps learners with problems like monitoring errors and evaluation of progress.
Here some examples: Learners: Try to speak english all the time. Listen and pay attention everytime someone speaks English. Plan specific time to practice English Look for new reading material Set specific goals
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/ Affective estrategies The affective factors like emotion, attitude, motivation, and values influence learning in an important way. Three sets of strategies are included in this group:
Lowering Your Anxiety, Banish boredom, read and write more plan to succeed Encouraging Yourself Taking Your Emotional Temperature.
Social estrategies These are very important in learning a language because language is used in communication and communication occurs between people. Three sets of strategies are included in this group: Asking Questions Cooperating with others Empathizing with Others.
Learners can apply the strategy of cooperating with others by doing something together in the language they are learning.
Here some Examples.: Chat rooms,movie clubs,reading club, Participating in forums, debate contest, creating a blog, social newworks among others.
Conclusion Language learning strategies, facilitate the learning of the target language by the language learner. Since the factors like age, gender, personality, motivation, self- concept, life-experience, learning style, anxiety, etc. affect the way in which language learners learn the target language, strategies help them understand, learn, or remember new information.