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Strategy training in SLA

Page history last edited by Sarah Ruff 12 years, 4 months ago

 

 

Strategy training in SLA

 

 

 

 

What is strategy training?



Strategy training is an approach teachers can use to help language students more efficiently learn a language (Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2011).  It is a tool for teaching beginning and struggling second language (L2) learners reading comprehension in the target language (Grabe, 2009). An example of strategy training in a language classroom is the use of "skimming". Skimming is one of the effective reading strategies that students may use by looking at the title or the pictures and then identifying words in bold, instead of focusing on scrutinizing the pronunciation and meaning of every word  within the text. This strategy will save the students time to focus on improving their comprehension skills in the target language. 

Students who perform exceptionally well over students who struggle in a second language acquisition (SLA ) or foreign language education (FLE) classroom may be using strategies or learning techniques that enable them to show more knowledge of the language curriculum after exerting the same or less study time as their counterpart peers in the classroom.

The example provided in the Larsen-Freeman & Anderson (2011)  textbook shows students reading in their target language of instruction and being assigned the task of demonstrating their comprehension. One strategy used by a student includes reading the assigned text word for word. This reading comprehension strategy takes much time. The second strategy which is demonstrated by the teacher in the language classroom includes reading for key items in the reading. First, students read the title and then they ask themselves what is this reading passage going to be about? Then look at the pictures in the book for supporting information about the reading material. Then scan the bold subheading phrases underneath the title in the readings. Students try to make connections based on skimming before spending many laborious hours in front of the text.

 

 

What is SLA?

 

SLA is an acronym which literally stands for second language   or Second Language Education . SLA is commonly found in US public schools as English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction. The programs designed to meet ESL and culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) student needs in the US public school system include developmental bilingualism and two- way immersion. It is common for foreign language education to be the second language of acquisition for US public schools students whose first or heritage language is English. There are four stages in SLA. Each stage is characterized by behavior characteristic of the student at each stage and the appropriate teacher response.

 

 

What does strategy training in SLA look like in the classroom?

 

Current trends in SLA is always updating the strategy training options available for language teachers to use in the second or foreign language education classroom. Strategy training can take the form of posters, which positively displays the culture of ESL students' heritage background posted on the classroom walls. The sociocultural theory of language learning highlights the importance of validating our language students' cultural background and activating the knowledge they come equipped with to share with the community within the language learning classroom. Strategy training can take the form of important and new vocabulary words with relevant pictures posted on the bulletin board in order to reinforce key vocabulary in the target language. Students should be able to hear these key words in selected audio tapes placed at listening centers.  Students should be able to record their pronunciation of the newly introduced vocabulary in the target language. Poems created by the class together should be strung on the classroom walls displaying the names of all student participants on their cooperatively constructed work. 

 

 

The Traditional Stages of SLA with ELL students:

 

 The first stage in SLA is pre-production.

 

During the first stage of SLA the student's behavior is characterized by the following:

  • Has minimal comprehension
  • Does not verbalize
  • Nods “Yes” and “No”
  • Draws and points
 

Preproduction lasts from  0 to 6 months.

 

The teacher's behavior during scaffolding includes the following:

  • Show me...
  • Circle the...
  • Where is...?
  • Who has...?
 

The second stage of SLA is early production.

 

During the second stage of SLA, the ELL's behavior is characterized by the following:

  • Has limited comprehension
  • Produces one- or two-word responses
  • Participates using key words and familiar phrases
  • Uses present-tense verbs
 

The second stage lasts from six months to one year.

 

The ELL teacher's scaffolding techniques should include the following:

 

  • Yes/no questions
  • Either/or questions
  • One- or two-word answers
  • Lists
  • Labels
 

The third stage of SLA is speech emergence.

 

During the third stage of SLA the ELL student's behavior is characterized by the following:

  • Has good comprehension
  • Can produce simple sentences
  • Makes grammar and pronunciation errors
  • Frequently misunderstands jokes
 

The third stage lasts from one to three years.

 

The ELL teachr scaffolds the target language learning by providing the ELL student the following pedagogy:

  • Why...?
  • How...?
  • Explain...
  • Phrase or short-sentence answers
 

The fourth stage of SLA is intermediate fluency.

 

At the fourth stage of SLA the language learner displays the following:

  • Has excellent comprehension
  • Makes few grammatical errors
 

The fourth stage of SLA lasts from three to five years.

 

The language teacher scaffolds language learning at the fourth level with the following:

  • What would happen if...?
  • Why do you think...?
 

Advanced fluency occurs after the fourth stage of second language acquisition.

Here, The student has a near-native level of speech. 

It takes the non-native language learner from five to seven years to acquire native like language proficiency.

During the advanced proficiency stage, the language learner is ready for language teacher to provide the following prompts:

  • Decide if...
  • Retell...

 

  Source: Retrieved on November 2011 from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/106009/chapters/The-Stages-of-Second-Language-Acquisition.aspx

 

 

 

What do teachers need to know about  strategy training?

 

     Strategy training is a method used to help language learners to better grasp language lessons in the prescribed curriculum. Although promising, strategy training is not useful to students in the classroom if it is implemented incorrectly or ineffectively (Lam & Wong, 2000). I was able to learn more about the meaning of strategy training in a language teaching context after reading the article by Lam and Wong. The goal of these teachers was to increase oral interactive oral skills in their language learning students. Here, strategy training was taught using three strategies: clarifying oneself, seeking clarification, and checking one’s understanding of other people’s messages.There are many strategies that a language teacher can use in the classroom after reading this article. There was an increase in the use of strategy in language learning context after training students on these three aforementioned language strategies. The post-training results showed ineffective use of the strategy training methods. Here, I would challenge the author’s findings by stating that these language students did not have enough practice in using the newly learned language training strategies in oral communication.

 

     In another article Brown and Perry reviewed the use of keyword, semantic, and keyword-semantic strategies in second language vocabulary acquisition. It was found that the most cognitively demanding and higher level thinking strategy training was found in the combined keyword and semantic strategy training. Students using this combined methods produced the greatest second language acquisition vocabulary using this specific method (Brown & Perry, 1991). I support higher order thinking in the language classroom. This finding makes sense to me as I compare it to my previously learned education model using Bloom’s taxonomy of higher order thinking skills in order to retain information in one’s long term memory.  A third article focuses on strategy training in the reading comprehension dimension of foreign language or second language education. Here, the author finds that most students are familiar with the idea of using strategies in reading, results show that teaching specific or detailed strategy and practice of this detailed strategy in training students to read in a foreign or second language has good results overall (Rusciolelli, 1995).

 

     Teachers need to know that strategy training exists as an option among various teaching tools in the classroom.The language teacher can enhance her students' language learning experience by providing such learning strategies in the classroom. The strategies learned in the language classroom need not be used only in the context of second language acquisition or foreign language acquisition. It should be practiced so the students may apply the material artfully in their other academic language bearing subjects such as in reading passages for academic language learned from reading text in literature, math, and the science subject areas.

      The language teacher needs to know her role in teaching language as well as in strategy training. Teachers can gain access to the latest in Foreign language education by keeping up to date with the latest online postings and face to face meetings held by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). The teacher interested in learning or teaching a new foreign language might test out her interest by enrolling in a foreign language course(s) of his interest at the local accredited university. Second language acquisition and foreign language acquisition are academic subjects, which are written in academic language. ESL teachers need to make their students aware of the varieties of spoken English in the US both inside and outside the classroom . ESL teachers have a responsibility to acquaint ESL students with academic English language, which may or may not be spoken widely inside or outside the US schools, which the ESL students are attending.

 

     The author of this wiki has used training strategy in the classroom. Instead of having students use their textbooks at the beginning of the school year, the students were explicitly being taught learning strategies. They did not touch the subject matter or specific contents until they were introduced to and practiced learning strategies that were outlined in the course curriculum. I think this is a good way to help students think outside the box. A lot of times students may be nervous or anxious about learning a new language. By focusing on material with they are more familiar such as learning strategies, teachers can validate what students already know and are capable of using in the language learning context before even opening the book. This might even help to lower language students’ affective filter, which might get in the way of effective foreign language or second language acquisition process.

 

     After reflecting on my independent study of diversity and strategy training, it is safe to conclude that the responsible language teacher will make use of her  students’ previous knowledge and experience of culture and the learning process. The teacher needs to validate her students’ previous knowledge by bringing up topics structured to help students build their knowledge of their L2 using preexisting knowledge of cultures which make up diversity in the world or language speakers and language learners; and communication, which is a part of mastering a new language in the classroom context.

 

 

Ellis (2008) suggests to language teachers the following instruction:

 

  1. Instruction needs to ensure that learners develop both a rich repertoire of formulaic expressions and a rule-based competence.
  2. Instruction needs to ensure that learners focus predominantly on meaning
  3. Instruction needs to ensure that learners also focus on form
  4. Instruction needs to focus on developing implicit knowledge of the second language while not neglecting explicit knowledge
  5. Instruction needs to take into account the learner's built in syllabus
  6. Successful instructed language learning requires extensive second language input
  7. Successful instructed language learning also requires opportunities for output
  8. The opportunity to interact in the second language is central to developing second language proficiency
  9. Instruction needs to take into account individual differences in learners
  10. In assessing learner's second language proficiency, it is important to examine free as well as controlled production

 

What do parents need to know about strategy training?

 

Parents should be encouraged to come to the classroom and serve as intercultural speakers to increase appreciation for diversity in culture and language in our local school communities.

 

 

How does strategy training concern students?

 

     The purpose behind strategy training is to improve student performance and motivation on SLA and FLE tasks which is a measure of language assessment. When a student performs well academically in a language course, the student seeks to spend more time and thought learning the target language. Students who are not doing well in a language class need to be trained by the teacher in new language learning strategies.


     The language students need to be aware of the importance of practicing their language lessons inside and outside the classroom. Students need to be aware of strategy training techniques and their purpose in helping them learn relevant information in a shorter time. Students need to know the value of practicing the language strategies with their teacher, with their classmates, and independently. Students need to learn by doing. An important litmus test of whether students learned a material is their ability to transfer it to a context outside its original lesson. If a student is able to practice and learn from using the new strategy in reading the target language in homework exercises at home and present the results to his instructor, the student is practicing and applying the language strategy. If the student is able to modify the strategy and share it with his language learning peers, then he is able to personalize the language learning strategy. If the student is able to apply the reading comprehension strategy to other languages such as the language spoken at home, then the student has shown useful and practical application of the language reading strategy outside his school language learning experience.

 

References:

 

Ellis, R. (2008). Principles of instructed second language acquisition. Center for Applied Linguistics. CALdigest. Retrieved from http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/instructed2ndlang.html.

 

Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a second language: moving from theory to practice. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

 

Lam, W., &Wong, J. (2000). The effects of strategy training on developing discussion skills in

     an ESL classroom. ELT Journal, 54(3), 245–255. doi:10.1093/elt/54.3.245.Retrieved from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/content/54/3/245.full.pdf+html.

 

Larsen-Freedman, D. & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (3rd ed.).
     Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

 

Rusciolelli, J. 1995. Student responses to reading strategies instruction. Foreign Language Annals 28(2), 262-73. doi: z247-1995-028-02-000009. Retrieved from

     http://pao.chadwyck.com.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/articles/displayItem.do?QueryType=articles

     &ResultsID=132B0BFDC45BB9FE7&filterSequence=0&ItemNumber=1&journalID=z247.

Comments (4)

Margarita Malpica said

at 6:30 pm on Nov 10, 2011

Devi, I think you did a great job of researching SLA. I think teaching learning strategies is essential to developing life-long self-regulated learners. Furthermore, I think it is important for second language learners to monitor their learning and feel they have the tools to be successful. In addition, I agree with your emphasis on using culture and the learner's previous experience to plan instruction and to focus on teaching learning strategies before teaching content.

Adam Schwartz said

at 3:54 pm on Nov 17, 2011

Devi, very comprehensive work here. Be sure to revise your APA references (you miss some necessary italics here and there), and also maintain some sort of patterns in color/style throughout. The strikethrough text should probably be emitted. Also, I encourage you to hyperlink further, particularly as you unpack your definitions early in the WIKI.

gabrielap1@mail.usf.edu said

at 11:43 pm on Nov 17, 2011

Good evening Devi,
I highlighted 3 things I wasn't sure you noticed & revised them. The list of general principles offered by Ellis, is a great example of instructional strategies or methods that should be considered in strategy training. As you point out in your page, teaching strategies that can be used continuously, are invaluable tools for students' life-long learning! You've expressed some nice thoughts in this WIKI.

~Gaby

Sarah Ruff said

at 8:26 pm on Nov 27, 2011

Hi Devi!
I already described my "changes" when I made them, but in case you aren't able to see what I said here is what I did: I attempted to make all the font the same size and color. Additionally, I switched around the order of the sentences in your first paragraph because I felt that it originally began and ended with a definition with an example (skimming) in between. So I put both of your definitions at the beginning and then introduced skimming as an example. I hope you approve of the changes!

Great page, Devi. It was very informative and your examples were great.

Sarah

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