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CHILDREN'S ESL LEARNING STRATEGIES Strategies

In their Series editors' preface to O'Malley and Chamot's (1990) Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition, Michael H. Long and Jack C. Richards, well-known ESL researchers, comment as follows:

Second language teaching in recent years has moved away from the quest for the perfect teaching method, focusing instead on how successful teachers and learners actually achieve their goals. In the case of teachers, this has led to classroom-centered research on the linguistic, discoursal, and interactional structure of teaching events. In the case of learners, it has led to the study of (1) how learners approach learning, both in and out of classrooms, and (2) the kinds of strategies and cognitive processing they use in second language acquisition (p. viii).

O'Malley and Chamot (1990) deplore the fact that, since the schism between behaviorism and linguistics, cognitive processing has been largely ignored in favor of "acquisition". Acquisition, of course, occurs at unconscious and subconscious levels, and is believed to be most effective when input is made comprehensible. The authors believe that "this notion is only partially accurate, tends to be misleading as stated, and leads to inappropriate consequences for instruction, such as the limited view that a teacher's primary role is to provide comprehensible input" (p. ix). Language learning, rather, involves conscious decisions at both the cognitive and metacognitive levels. In this view, teachers ought to assist learners in using effective strategies and introduce academic language embedded in substantive content.

A learning strategy, according to O'Malley and Chamot (1990), is the complex of "thoughts and behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information" (p. 1). Lynch and Hudson (1991) proceed along the same line of thought when dealing with EST (English for Science and Technology):

To say that EST courses must focus on the needs ...

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CHILDREN'S ESL LEARNING STRATEGIES Strategies. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 10:30, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1707723.html