Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language

Andrew D. Cohen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317861164
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Langues et linguistique
• Subtopic: Linguistique

Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language examines what it takes to achieve long-term success in languages beyond the first language. Distinguishing language learning from language-use strategies, Andrew D. Cohen disentangles a morass of terminology to help the reader see what language strategies are and how they can enhance performance. Particular areas of research examined in the book include:

- links between the use of task-specific strategies and language performance

- how multilinguals verbalise their thoughts during language learning and use

strategies that learners use in test-taking contexts

In this fully revised and substantially rewritten second edition, every chapter has been reworked, with material either updated or replaced. Entirely new material has also been developed based on examples of specific strategies supplied by actual learners, mostly drawn from a website featuring these strategies in the learning of Spanish grammar.Strategies in Learning and Using a Second language will be an invaluable resource for language teachers and researchers, as well as for administrators of second language programmes and for students of applied linguistics.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

When I first started writing about language learner strategies in the late 1970s, the audience was small and the topic received a relatively indifferent response. When the first edition of this book appeared in 1998, the field was gaining momentum and the response was much more positive, though skepticism still abounded. Now, as this second edition of Strategies in Learning and using a second language appears, the field of language learner strategy research and practice has assumed international and multilingual appeal. Language researchers the world over are now engaged in research on strategies for learning and using a second or foreign language (L2). That is not to say that the field is without its naysayers. There are those, in fact, who feel that the emphasis on learner strategies has out-worn its welcome and that the term deserves to be retired in favor of “self-regulation.” I will address this issue in Chapter 2.

This book is intended for multiple audiences, just as the previous edition was. While it is intended to have appeal to those doing research on L2 learning, it is also meant to be of interest to both faculty in teacher development programs, language teachers, and administrators of language programs. A keen concern of mine is that language teachers take an active role in enhancing the language learning and language use experiences of their students. In addition, both teachers and researchers may find the discussions of multilingual behavior and test-taking strategies helpful to them in their endeavors to understand better their students’ language learning experiences. Researchers and prospective researchers may find the discussions of terminology and research methods of benefit to them as they determine the topics that they wish to investigate and choose their means of investigation.

The book aims to bring together under one cover a series of different themes which nonetheless are tied together by their focus on L2 learners and their strategies. This edition revisits this work, updating the material where relevant, at times replacing it with more current material and at times adding new material, such as examples of language learner strategies supplied by actual learners for very specific purposes – with most of the examples being drawn from a website with strategies for learning Spanish grammar. The major challenge in putting this book together initially and now in revising it a dozen years later has been in creating a framework which enables the various themes to come together in a meaningful whole. The book deals primarily with a particular set of L2 issues, namely those concerning language learning and language use strategies. The main focus is on the adult learner, with one exception, Chapter 6, which includes a study dealing with immersion pupils in the elementary grades, ages 8 through 11. This work was included because it relates well to the theme of multilingual thinking. It is fair to say that the volume at times resembles more a mixed salad with its highly identifiable ingredients than a blended vegetable soup where the individual vegetables are no longer recognizable. This salad-bowl approach to the topic is intended to demonstrate just how diverse the themes related to language learner strategies can be.

Underlying the work presented in this book is a concern that I have had for many years, namely, what it takes for an adult learner to achieve long-term success at, say, three or more nonnative languages, where the onset of L2 learning does not occur in the very early years, but rather in high school or later. Success in this case would mean being able to use the language as the vehicle of communication in a university course, being able to write academic papers in the language, and having control of L2 pragmatics, pronunciation, and grammar. I am concerned with the issue of what it takes to be good enough in a series of especially unrelated languages to be able to:

have people think your L2 pronunciation is native or nearly so

get the L2 pragmatics right in numerous speaking situations

have only negligible grammar errors in your oral language

have the L2 vocabulary trip off your tongue relatively effortlessly

take an active part in an academic meeting conducted entirely through the L2

read and critique academic work in your field of interest in the L2

express yourself in written language at a professional level in the L2 (perhaps with some editing)

Dabbling in a variety of languages may not be all that difficult. You say a few words or phrases, and the L2-speaking addressee perhaps acknowledges you warmly for the effort. But then you would be hard-pressed to do anything more substantive with the language, so you quickly switch back to your first language (L1) or another language (L_O) with which you are more comfortable. In addition, it would appear to me that the U.S. can be characterized as a nation of language attritters, where little remains of what there once was when we were high school students or college students fulfilling our L2 requirement.

But what about getting really good in an L2 so that the skills remain for a lifetime – being good enough, for example, to successfully teach a university-level course through that language? There are factors related to the languages themselves (e.g., the nature of the alphabet, the complexity of the morphology, the similarity of the languages to each other, and so forth). There are undoubtedly factors dependent on genetics, such as having better innate ability (e.g., a brain that allows you to pick up a language later in life and retain the material). Then there are factors that can be developed.¹ One factor is a robust repertoire of language learner strategies, which would include:

strategies for ensuring the learning, practicing, and use of a new language in an already busy life

strategies for monitoring language learning and use

strategies for remembering vocabulary deemed relevant and valuable

Another factor is a self-identity as a language learner with motivation to persevere in times when it may even seem futile. In addition, there are contextual factors such as:

the family you are born into

your language exposures

your immediate context for language learning

the social and material rewards that you gain from using those languages

your current need for the language in actuality

As we all know too well, if you do not make use of the various language skills, you may well lose them:

listening to a radio show in the L2

speaking in the L2 about politics with a friend from the given speech community

reading online feature articles in a major L2 newspaper

writing a family update to sent out in an email message in the L2

fine-tuning your mental lexicon in the L2 by checking on how certain concepts are translated

actively exercising your grammatical knowledge of complex verb tenses

This book focuses on factors that can be developed, and in particular on the language learner strategies that can play a significant role in assisting language learners at numerous crucial moments in the process. The first issue of concern in the book is that of sorting out terms, which is the aim of Chapter 2. This completely rewritten chapter revisits the distinction between language learning and language use strategies and further distinguishes them. While experts in the field may not agree on the nomenclature, it is at least helpful to be clear as to the phenomena that are being described, regardless of whether they are referred to by means of the same labels. Hence, the chapter provides a discussion of terminology. The purpose of these definitions and the ensuing discussion is to facilitate empirical investigation of strategy use in the day-to-day world of L2 learners, rather than to fine-tune theoretical distinctions between different models for analyzing types of strategies viewed as abstractions. I would like to distance myself, for example, from discussions of behaviors labeled as strategies, such as “I use a dictionary,” since I would view using a dictionary as a skill with perhaps 10–20 likely strategies being called upon – from the moment that learners start looking up the word to when they determine that they either have obtained from the dictionary the knowledge that they need or they have no...