Thinking about the Experience
Let us examine this experience now in our usual manner—observations on the left,
and the principles that might account for them on the right.
Observations Principles
1 Prior to the lesson the teacher has been
reading the students’ learning journals,
where the students regularly write
about what and how they are learning.
The teacher has also been interviewing
the students.The students’ prior knowledge and
learning experiences should be valued
and built upon.2 The teacher decides to have the
students work on the strategy of
advance organization.Studying certain learning strategies will
contribute to academic success.3 The teacher models the use of the
strategy using a think-aloud
demonstration.The teacher’s job is not only to teach
language, but to teach learning.4 The students practice the new learning
strategy.For many students, strategies have to be
learned. The best way to do this is with
‘hands-on’ experience.
5 The students evaluate their own success
in learning the strategy. They modify
the strategy to meet their own learning
needs. They share their innovations
with their classmates.Students need to become independent,
self-regulated learners. Self-assessment
contributes to learner autonomy.6 The teacher asks the students to try out
the new strategy on a different reading
they choose for homework that night.An important part of learning a strategy is
being able to transfer it, i.e. use it in a
different situation.It was pointed out at the beginning of this chapter that the methodological trends in
this chapter complement the ones presented in previous chapters. It is easy to see how
learning strategy training would fit with content-based instruction, for example.
Indeed, research has shown that to be effective, strategies should not be taught in
isolation, but rather as part of the content-area or language curriculum (Grabe and
Stoller 1997). An added benefit of learning strategy training is that it can help learners
to continue to learn after they have completed their formal study of the target
language.