Педагогические науки / 2. Проблемы подготовки специалистов

Agadzhanova R. M.

Kharkiv National University of Economics, Ukraine

LEARNER STRATEGIES FOR AUTONOMOUS LEARNING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Learning strategies are one category of learner training content to be included in plans to help learners become more autonomous. Interest in learners’ strategies reflects the radical change in scientific thinking on the nature of the human mind. Wenden and Rubin outline some of the historical developments which made this change so significant and some of the theoretical concerns in several disciplines which led to it [7]. The following outcomes of the change should be mentioned. First, the learner – environment equation tilted in favor of the learner. Learners were no longer viewed as passive organisms responding to environmental influences but were considered as acting upon the environment and through this action defining it. Second, this changed view opened up new avenues of research and an increasing number of studies on learners’ strategic action, i.e. on their use of strategies in a variety of academic disciplines, including the learning of foreign and second languages. It became clear that the use of strategies was the outcome of a variety of factors, especially the subjects’ background knowledge about subject matter content and about learning, the nature of the materials to be learned and the product or outcome that the learner or teacher has in mind [6, p. 30].

The analysis of learner strategies for learner autonomy aims to help teachers acquire the knowledge and skills they need to plan and implement learning that will help language learners become more autonomous. This is a goal with which few teachers will disagree. In fact, since the early 1970-s, our language teaching practices have become increasingly learner centered.

Influenced by insights from humanist and cognitive psychology, classroom teachers and language teaching methodologists have looked at how the tasks we set for our students and the materials we ask them to use can be improved or changed. Humanist psychologists have stressed the importance of self-concept and affective factors in adult learning. According to Dubin and Olshtain language teaching objectives that draw on such humanist views on learning will encompass the following:

1. Emphasize meaningful communication.

2. Place high respect and value on the learner.

3. View learning as a form of self-realization.

4. Give learners considerable say in the decision-making process.

5. Place teachers in the role of facilitator whose task is to develop and maintain a supportive class atmosphere.

6. Stress the role of other learners as a support group [2].

Cognitive psychologists, on the other hand, emphasize learners’ mental processes. They have recognized that learners are actively involved in the process of learning – selectively attending to incoming data, hypothesizing, comparing, elaborating, reconstructing its meaning and integrating it with previously stored information for future use. Language learning tasks on the cognitive view of learning strive to give learners the opportunity to do the following:

1. Test their hypotheses.

2. Draw upon their prior knowledge.

3. Take risks.

4. Use the language to communicate [5].

If humanist and cognitive psychology has encouraged the development of learner-centered teaching methods, new insights from sociolinguistics have led to learner-centered language content. Emphasizing the pragmatic function of language, these insights have brought to our attention the need to make learners’ special purposes for learning a language a determining factor in the selection of content. As a result, courses and materials that focus exclusively on the needs of specific learner groups have been developed.

Teaching practices reflecting ideas from humanist and cognitive psychology and sociolinguistics can now be seen in many classrooms. However, while these practices give the learner a more central role, in fact, they focus on teachers, striving to make them better by changing what they teach and how they teach.

A third set of learner-centered practices has focused on changing the learner – on making the learner a better learner. Writings describing this approach recommend that learner autonomy be included as an objective in language programs. They encourage teachers to help learners learn how to learn and outline methods for providing “learner” training [4].

Learning strategies are mental steps or operations that learners use to learn a new language and to regulate their efforts to do so. They are one type of learner training content that should be included in plans to promote learner autonomy [6, p. 18].

In this article we shall look at two main kinds of learning strategies – cognitive and self-management strategies. They are distinguished on the basis of their function in learning.

Cognitive strategies are mental steps or operations that learners use to process both linguistic and sociolinguistic content. Information processing theorists analyze the act of human learning as falling into the following four stages or steps: selecting information from incoming data; comprehending it; storing it; and retrieving it for use [6, p. 19].

Self-management strategies are utilized by learners to oversee and manage their learning. In the research literature in cognitive psychology, they are referred to as metacognitive strategies or regulatory skills [1] and in the methodological literature they are referred to as the skills of self-directed learning [3].

The cognitive literature refers to three main kinds of self-management strategies: planning, monitoring and evaluating. They are named in terms of the functions that they serve and are applicable across all kinds of learning tasks. Unlike cognitive strategies, self-management strategies are not task specific and therefore are not differentiated and diversified [6, p. 29].

In conclusion it should be emphasized that teacher education is an essential ingredient in the management of educational change. In the promotion of new methods and materials, the teacher is the main change agent – not the materials or techniques in which innovations are packaged. Their acceptance and success will depend on the teacher [6]. In other words, however teacher-proof new materials or techniques may be, they will be used inappropriately by an untrained teacher and not at all by unwilling teachers who may be unwilling because they are unaware of their relevance. Finally, because educational change is human change, the specific needs of learners and the particular learning tasks which respond to these needs will vary. The implementation of new methods and the use of new materials will depend on the creativity of a committed and informed teacher. Therefore it becomes important that opportunities be provided for teachers to educate themselves in the classroom applications of research-based educational innovations.

References:

1. Brown A. Learning, remembering, and understanding / A. Brown, J. Bransford, R. Ferrara, J. Campione. – New York: Wiley, 1982. – 244 p.

2. Dubin F. Course Design: Development programs and materials for language learning / F. Dubin, E. Olshtain. – New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986. – 200 p.

3. Holec H. Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning / H. Holec. – Oxford: Pergamon, 1981. – 150 p.

4. O’Malley J. Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition / J. O’Malley, A. Chamot. – New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. – 144 p.

5. Prator C. An outline of language teaching approaches / C. Prator, M. Celce-Murcia. – New York: Newbury House, 1979. – 198 p.

6. Wenden A. Learner Strategies For Learner Autonomy / A. Wenden. – New York: Prentice Hall International, 1991. – 172 p.

7. Wenden A. Learner Strategies in Language Learning / A. Wenden. – London: Prentice Hall International, 1987. – 164 p.