Learning Strategies

Learning strategies are the specific actions, behaviours, steps, or techniques learners use to enhance their own language learning (Oxford, 1990). They represent the learner's active contribution to the learning process — conscious or semi-conscious choices about how to approach, process, store, retrieve, and use L2 knowledge.

Major Taxonomies

Two influential classification systems emerged in the same year:

Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL)

Oxford divided strategies into two major classes with six subcategories:

Class	Strategy type	Description	Examples
Direct	Memory	Storing and retrieving information	Grouping, imagery, keyword method, reviewing
	Cognitive	Manipulating the language directly	Practising, analysing, note-taking, summarising
	Compensation	Overcoming gaps in knowledge	Guessing from context, using synonyms, gestures
Indirect	Metacognitive	Managing the learning process	Planning, monitoring, evaluating, self-assessment
	Affective	Managing emotions	Anxiety reduction, self-encouragement, emotional temperature
	Social	Learning through interaction	Asking questions, cooperating, empathising

The SILL questionnaire (50 items) became the most widely used instrument in strategy research, with translations into dozens of languages.

O'Malley & Chamot's (1990) Classification

O'Malley and Chamot drew on cognitive psychology (Anderson's ACT theory) and proposed a simpler three-part taxonomy:

Category	Description	Examples
Metacognitive Strategies	Executive processes: planning, monitoring, evaluating	Advance organising, selective attention, self-monitoring
Cognitive Strategies	Operating directly on incoming information	Repetition, note-taking, deduction, imagery, transfer
Socio-affective	Interaction and affect regulation	Cooperation, questioning for clarification, self-talk

O'Malley and Chamot embedded their taxonomy within information-processing theory, arguing that strategies are complex cognitive skills that move from declarative knowledge (knowing what the strategy is) to procedural knowledge (using it automatically).

The Good Language Learner

The learning strategies research tradition originated in studies of the good language learner (Rubin, 1975; Stern, 1975; Naiman et al., 1978). Key findings:

• Good language learners use a wider range of strategies.
• They use strategies more frequently and more appropriately (matching strategy to task).
• They combine cognitive and metacognitive strategies — they not only practise but also plan, monitor, and evaluate.
• They are active and willing to take risks.

These findings motivated the development of learner training programs designed to teach less effective learners the strategies used by successful ones.

Debate: Strategies or Self-Regulation?

From the mid-2000s, the learning strategies construct came under critique:

Dörnyei (2005) argued that strategy research suffered from definitional fuzziness, overlapping categories, and reliance on self-report questionnaires. He proposed replacing "learning strategies" with self-regulation — a broader construct from educational psychology (Zimmerman, 2000) that encompasses goal-setting, strategy use, monitoring, and motivational regulation.

Macaro (2006) partially agreed, defining strategies as "conscious mental activity" that must contain a goal and a learning situation — tightening the definition and excluding automatic processes.

Oxford (2011) responded by updating her framework as Strategic Self-Regulation (S²R), integrating strategy research with self-regulation theory while retaining the practical taxonomy that teachers find useful.

Cohen & Macaro (2007) argued that regardless of theoretical framing, the practical question remains: what do effective learners do, and can it be taught?

Research Evidence

Green & Oxford (1995) — Surveyed 374 university EFL learners in Puerto Rico and found that higher proficiency correlated with more frequent use of all strategy categories, with the largest differences in cognitive and metacognitive strategies.

Chamot (2004) — Reviewed two decades of strategy instruction research and concluded that explicit strategy instruction generally improves learning outcomes, especially when embedded in regular classroom activities rather than taught in isolation.

Plonsky (2011) — Meta-analysis of 61 strategy instruction studies: overall effect size d = 0.49 (medium). Instruction was most effective for younger and lower-proficiency learners, and when strategies were taught explicitly with practice and feedback.

Griffiths (2013) — Proposed that the most important variable is not which strategies learners use but how orchestrated their strategy use is — combining multiple strategies in task-appropriate ways.

Why It Matters for ELT

• Strategy instruction works. The evidence consistently shows that teaching strategies explicitly improves learning, especially for weaker learners.
• Model strategy use. Teachers should make their own cognitive and metacognitive processes visible: "Watch how I approach this reading text — first I look at the title and predict..."
• Integrate, don't isolate. Strategies taught within meaningful tasks transfer better than those taught in stand-alone workshops.
• Match strategy to task. Different tasks demand different strategies. Reading for gist requires different strategies than reading for detail. Help learners build a repertoire and learn to select appropriately.
• Develop metacognitive awareness. The metacognitive layer — planning, monitoring, evaluating — is what distinguishes expert from novice learners.
• Use questionnaires with caution. Self-report instruments like the SILL are useful for raising awareness but are unreliable as measures of actual strategy use (Dörnyei, 2005).

References

• Chamot, A. U. (2004). Issues in language learning strategy research and teaching. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 1(1), 14–26.
• Cohen, A. D., & Macaro, E. (Eds.). (2007). Language Learner Strategies. Oxford University Press.
• Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The Psychology of the Language Learner. Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Green, J. M., & Oxford, R. (1995). A closer look at learning strategies, L2 proficiency, and gender. TESOL Quarterly, 29(2), 261–297.
• Griffiths, C. (2013). The Strategy Factor in Successful Language Learning. Multilingual Matters.
• Macaro, E. (2006). Strategies for language learning and for language use: Revising the theoretical framework. The Modern Language Journal, 90(3), 320–337.
• Naiman, N., Fröhlich, M., Stern, H. H., & Todesco, A. (1978). The Good Language Learner. Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
• O'Malley, J. M., & Chamot, A. U. (1990). Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge University Press.
• Oxford, R. L. (1990). Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know. Newbury House.
• Oxford, R. L. (2011). Teaching and Researching Language Learning Strategies. Longman.
• Plonsky, L. (2011). The effectiveness of second language strategy instruction: A meta-analysis. Language Learning, 61(4), 993–1038.
• Rubin, J. (1975). What the "good language learner" can teach us. TESOL Quarterly, 9(1), 41–51.