Language learning strategies in China: A call for teacher-friendly research

Peter Yongqi Gu Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

SSU2015Klagenfurt, Austria16-17 October, 2015

In this session…

1. Studying strategic language learning: What should be our objectives?

2. A quick review of research in China: What has been done?

3. Where from here?

Part 1

• Strategic language learning: – What is it? – What is it for?

Defining strategic learning• Strategic learning refers to a learner’s active, intentional

engagement in the learning process by selectively attending to a learning problem, mobilising available resources, deciding on the best available plan for action, carrying out the plan, monitoring the performance, and evaluating the results for future action.

• Strategic learning is triggered and defined by task demands and is tied to a purpose.

• The purpose of strategic learning is to solve a learning problem, perform a novel task, accelerate the learning rate, or to achieve overall learning success.

Has our vision been too narrow?• Our vision in LLS has been described as ‘micro’,

‘marginalised’, ‘psychologised’, ‘individualised’ and ‘decontextualized’ (e.g., Canagarajah 2006; Pennycook 1997)

• Learner strategy is ‘defined at the most micro level of consideration in somewhat individualistic and psychological terms’, and may therefore ‘lack direction without a larger set of pedagogical principles’ (Canagarajah 2006, p. 20)

• We have ignored the ‘transformative’ role of LLS Brown outlined as early as 1991 about ‘the strategic investment of learners in their own linguistic destinies’ (p. 256)

Learner autonomy:Agency and control in context

a capacity and willingness to act

independently and in cooperation

with others, as a social, responsible

person

the ability to take charge of

one’s own learning

Components of learner autonomy

(Littlewood, 1996, p. 430)

Strategic learning for learner autonomy

Strategic language learning

Learner autonomy

Autonomous person

Autonomous communicator

Autonomous learnerLearning success

Strategic learning is for

Language learning

Communicating

Being

Language learning

Communicating

Being

Language learning

Communicating

Being

Part 2

• LLS research in China

Number of publications by year (1997-2012)

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Foreign LLS 2 1 6 4 5 16 23 25 20 25 34 34 34 31 24 21

English LLS 2 5 9 8 16 26 44 71 77 138 182 217 202 205 206 211

LS 77 129 149 216 296 451 633 777 851 1105 1451 1686 1844 1861 1855 1865

Source: China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI)

My observations based on

• In China – 67 most cited articles with a minimum of

100 citations– the national curriculum standards, and – a widely used textbook series

• 40 years of research on the topic in general

A general summary of LLS research in China 1• A large repertoire of strategies for the

learning of the four skills and vocabulary has been identified; and

• These strategies have been found to be correlated with learning outcomes;

• The relationship between strategy choice, use, and effectiveness has been found to be complicated, and mediated by various learner-, task-, and context-related factors.

A general summary of LLS research in China 2• LLS, or learning to learn, has a lot to do with

cultivating students’ proactive, independent, life-long learning, problem-solving attitudes and habits, as well as balanced social beings who exercise responsible behaviours while pursuing personal goals.

• LLS research, even research on learner autonomy in China, has not gone beyond the narrow, micro, individualistic, psychologised view. In other words, we have focused on LLS for ‘learning’, but quite for ‘communicating’, not to mention for ‘being’.

Has our research reached teachers and learners?

Embarrassingly,

No!

Between the ivory tower of research and the swampy lowlands of the classroom

• When teachers talk about ‘learner strategies’, they talk from their own experiences as learners and from their informal observations as teachers (experience-based), rather than from research findings (research-informed)

• E.g., analysis, revision, induction, planning, memorising words, categorising rules, and making use of resources

(e.g., Wang,2011; Xiang 2010)

Example: A strategy training study among primary school pupils

How is research reported to teachers?

• Done by a large group of high profile teacher trainers at Beijing Normal University

• Published in a flagship journal for school teachers

• No training materials and procedures reported AT ALL

• Report includes 9 statistics tables• Results claim the usefulness of the training

I blame the research community!

• The majority of the large number of publications regurgitate some sort of an introduction to LLS.

• The majority of the empirical studies are exploratory, descriptive, and correlational.

• The few strategy training studies do not include details as to what exactly was trained, why, how the training took place, and how effectiveness was exactly measured.

Encouraging efforts in research application• Curriculum integration• Textbook integration• Learning strategies in learner guidance

Five curriculum objectives(MOE China 2001, 2003, 2011)

Target strategies in the curriculum

LLS in the curriculumExamples for Level 2Level Description of LLS standard

2(Age=12)

Basic strategies (11 strategies)• able to make simple plans for English

learning• attempt to read stories and other

extracurricular materials in English • actively use the English learned to

express themselves• can learn independently by making

use of dictionaries and other tools

Textbook integration: An example(Wang & Editorial team 2009a, p. 24)

LISTENING STRATEGIES: Listening for specific information Before you listen, read the questions. Try to guess

possible answers (e.g. dates, places, names, numbers, objects, actions, reasons).

While you are listening, listen for words from the questions or synonyms of them (e.g. star/celebrity).

Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything. Concentrate on the important words.

Write down your answers in note form. Don’t use full sentences.

Questions re textbook integration of strategies

• Are these strategies related to the curriculum standards?

• Are these strategies derived from research findings?

• Are teachers teaching these strategies?• Are learners learning these strategies?

Online strategic guidanceXiaomei Ma and team, from (Griffiths et al., 2014, p. 57)

A few problems• Overlooking strategic learning of implicit

knowledge• Excessive attention paid to memory

strategies• Not enough task analysis, e.g., what

vocabulary learning involves• Has not gone beyond a narrow and

micro view of strategic learning

Part 3

• Call for teacher/learner-friendly research

Reflection

To what extent do my observations of the Chinese research on LLS reflect the situation in your context?

The social responsibility of the researcher

Improving the usefulness of LLS research must start from researchers,

– in becoming more aware of our social and educational responsibilities, and

– in a re-orientation of research criteria from publishability to usefulness

Gu, Y. (2014). Language learning strategies in China: A call for teacher-friendly research. 当代外语研究 [Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies], 408(12), 1–11. http://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2014.12.001

Thank you!For a pdf copy, email me atpeter.gu@vuw.ac.nz