Learning Strategies In Language Learning

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The word strategy “comes from the ancient Greek word ‘strategia’, which means steps or actions taken for the purpose of winning a war (Oxford, 1990). The warlike meaning of the word ‘strategia’ has fallen away, but the control and goal directedness remain in the modern version of the word” (Oxford, 1990, p.8). The term “strategy” has been defined differently by different researchers. In the context of language learning, the term ‘strategy’ refers to a specific kind of action resorted by learners to improve their performance in using and learning a language (Naiman, Frohlich, Stern, & Todesco, 1978). Basically, as pointed out by Williams and Burden (1997), improvements in cognitive psychology affected much of the research studies conducted…show more content…
In another definition of the concept, Scarcella and Oxford (1992), consider learning strategies as specific actions, steps, procedures, etc. taken by the learners to encourage them to tackle a difficult language learning task, the result of which is expected to lead to an improvement in learning. Almost at the heart of all definitions of strategies in our field lies the idea of imply the conscious attempts leading to a specific language goal (Bialystok, 1985; Oxford,…show more content…
For example, Rubin (1975) has proposed one of the most important classifications of language learning strategies. In his taxonomy, Rubin makes the distinction between strategies which are directly contributing to learning and strategies which are indirectly contributing to learning. Thus according to Rubin (1975), direct strategies are regarded as those strategies that directly contribute to the student’s language learning and consist of the following types, namely ‘verification or clarification’, ‘memorization’, ‘monitoring’, ‘inductive reasoning or guessing’, ‘deductive reasoning’, and finally ‘practice’. However, according to Rubin (1975), indirect strategies are regarded as those strategies that benefit language learning indirectly, and of the following types, namely, generating openings for practice, employing production actions such as employing substitutes, circumlocutions, or prescribed
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