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Strategies in Learning and Using a Second LanguageAndrew D Cohen (1998)
London and New York: Longman
Pp. xi + 294
ISBN 0 582 305888 (paper)
US $19.57
The term strategies, in the second-language-learning sense, has come to be applied to the conscious
moves made by second-language speakers intended to be useful in either learning or using the second
language. Strategies can be very different in nature, ranging from planning the organisation of one’s
learning (a metacognitive learning strategy) through using mnemonic devices to learn vocabulary
(cognitive learning strategies) and rehearsing what one expects to say (a performance strategy) to
bolstering one’s self-confidence for a language task by means of “self-talk” (an affective strategy).
Ever since Naiman et al. (1976) noted that “good” language learners appeared to use a larger number
and range of strategies than “poor” language learners, the implications of understanding strategy use
have seemed increasingly important. However, there are still many questions to resolve. Does strategy
use actually aid language learning, or is it just something that good learners do? Are some strategies
better than others, or is it the number and range of strategies used that counts? Are there “bad”
strategies that actually making learning or performance worse? Can “poor” language learners benefit
from being taught the strategies that “good” learners use, or do you need to be a good learner already
to use some of the strategies? Does strategy training affect language learning, and if so is the effect
direct, or does such training serve mainly to raise motivation and awareness? If learners are
encouraged to use strategies to organise their own learning, for example, what are the implications for
the role of the classroom teacher? Such issues have already prompted a considerable volume of
research and writing, and directly or indirectly made a significant impact on language learning, at least
in some places. For example, the establishment of self-access centres and the encouragement of learner
independence are essentially based on the assumption that students will be able to use viable
metacognitive learning strategies.
Ellis (1994) writes: “The study of learning strategies holds considerable promise, both for language
pedagogy and for explaining individual differences in second language learning. It is probably true to
say, however, that it is still in its infancy. For this reason, perhaps, discussions of learning strategies
typically conclude with the problems that have surfaced and that need to be addressed before progress
can be made” (p. 558). Any new book which [-1-] continues the exploration of this infant area of study is
therefore potentially exciting, especially if it contains accounts of hitherto unpublished empirical
research, as is the case with Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language. Any up-to-date,
comprehensive account of the current state of knowledge about strategies is also likely to be welcome;
and Andrew Cohen’s title certainly sounds as though this might be such a book.
Perhaps my expectations were set too high. The book presents information from a new research project,
but it is research that takes us only a short step further down the road. And, despite the implied promise
of the title, this book does not provide a comprehensive review of the area; nor, in fairness, does it claim
to do so.
Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language is in fact something of a patchwork. It consists of
a series of essentially separate articles, some written by Cohen alone, some co-authored with others,
which have been stitched together to form a book. Some of the material has been published previously,
though it has been revised for this publication. Some of the chapters are themselves patchworks,
consisting of materials drawn from different articles on related themes. There is nothing intrinsically
wrong, of course, with a patchwork approach–there are many books that consist of separate articles
which together add up to something coherent and significant. In this case, however, the pieces that
form the patchwork do not fit altogether easily with each other. Furthermore, there are gaps in the
finished piece: elements one would expect to be included, but which are not there. Despite the author’s
efforts to link the disparate chapters, the book lacks a strong sense of coherence and unity.
The core of the book is a previously unpublished report of a research study on “The impact of strategies
based instruction on speaking a foreign language.” A total of 55 American university students of French
and Norwegian were taught courses in their respective target languages for a period of ten weeks.
Twenty-three students were in classes which followed the normal syllabuses, while thirty-two were in
classes where training in a broad range of strategies was integrated into the teaching. Before and after
the course students reported on their strategy use, and their speaking skills were tested in three
speaking tasks (the pre- and post-tests of speaking skills were identical). Ratings of students’
performances were compared for the treatment and the control groups, and were also correlated with
reported changes in strategy use. The treatment groups generally did better on the post-test than the
control groups for the three different tasks and on the various assessment scales used, though the
differences in scores were mostly non-significant. The picture which emerged when scores on the
various scales were correlated with changes in strategy use was very confused. Where statistically
significant relationships were [-2-] discovered, the reasons for them were far from evident; thus, for
example, an increase by the experimental group in reported use of the strategy “translating specific
words from English” correlated significantly with improved performance on a rating scale for grammar,
but negatively and significantly with a rating scale for self-confidence. Patterns in reported strategy use
changed for the control groups (who had received no specific strategy training) as well as the
experimental groups. The general impression created was that the effect of strategy training over this
short course had been to some extent beneficial, but the specific nature of the benefit and the reasons
for it are unclear. Even though the conclusions are not clear-cut, however, this is a thorough and quite
important piece of research which has implications for the design of future research projects.
The rest of the book consists of other articles of varying degrees of interest, arranged before and after
the central study described above. After an introduction and a chapter defining some terminology, there
is an essay on research methodology for the field; this discusses advantages and disadvantages of
several methods of determining which strategies are being used, and focuses particularly on self-report,
the method used in the study described above. An article on strategy training follows; it reviews various
methods of strategy training at considerable length, but is at times frustratingly short on specifics. For
example, despite the fact that we are twice told that the choice of strategies in which learners should be
trained depends on such factors as “their current and intended levels of proficiency, their experience
with foreign language strategy use or with learning other languages, their learning style preferences
and personality characteristics,” etc. (p. 89), and despite the fact that there is a section explicitly
entitled “Selecting the strategies,” there is no systematic discussion as to what strategies, or types of
strategies, would suit what types of learners (though admittedly there are one or two examples of
strategies which “might” suit particular types of learners). The article sets out many questions that have
to be considered, but provides little help in arriving at the answers.
After the central research study, we find a chapter headed “Strategies for choosing the language of
thought.” As Cohen points out, little work has been done in determining the advantages and
disadvantages of deliberately choosing whether to think in the native language, the target language, or
even some other language during learning or use of the target language. The chapter contains a certain
amount of discussion of research on which language people do think in, based in part on published
studies. The latter part of the chapter discusses the findings of a study of the language of thought of
children in a Spanish immersion elementary school. There is quite a lot which is of interest in this
chapter, but its relationship to the concept of strategies is at times tenuous (as the language of thought
is certainly not always a deliberate [-3-] choice), and all the material in this chapter has been published
previously in other forms.
“Strategy use in testing situations” begins with a section which considers strategies from a rather
different angle. The article demonstrates how strategies used by learners in certain types of test (for
example, multiple choice tests of reading comprehension) can undermine the validity of the tests,
because in arriving at their answers, the testees do not use the skills which the tests are intended to
sample. Thus, they may select a particular multiple choice answer on a “reading comprehension” test
because words found in the question stem and in one particular answer option occur together in the
same sentence in the text, or because only one of the answers suggested matches the stem
grammatically, or on the basis of general knowledge. Such test-taking strategies will often result in a
higher score being achieved than the students’ actual ability to understand the text would merit. None
of this will be news to researchers in the field of testing. The second part of the chapter reports on a
study of “Strategies in producing oral speech acts” where the speech acts in question are produced as
part of a language test. Here, appropriate production strategies are perceived as being helpful to the
process of testing. Cohen argues finally that test-taking strategies should be taken into account both in
designing and validating tests and in the process of preparing students to take the tests.
The book ends with a conclusion, which essentially repeats the main points from the various chapters.
The most immediately striking gap in the book is any chapter focussing on direct discussion of actual
strategies and their use, rather than categories of strategies. Various taxonomies of strategies are
referred to, in particularly Rebecca Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (1990), but
there is no systematic presentation here of lists of strategies, nor yet any systematic discussion of what
individual strategies are thought to achieve. Anyone coming new to the subject would find it frustrating
that one only gradually and incidentally discovers some examples of the strategies that students use, or
of strategies which it is thought they might usefully be taught. Another gap which might be felt in the
book, given that it takes as its subject strategies of all types (including strategies for passing
examinations!), is a chapter focussing on the thorny issue of how closely strategies of the different types
are related, and thus the extent to which it is appropriate to consider them all together as aspects of a
single construct.
But is this a fair point for a reviewer to make? Why should such items be included, when perhaps Cohen
has nothing new to say about them? Well, this book really does seem to be intended for a wide audience,
including non-specialists in the field, and thus I feel [-4-] that it should ideally serve to some extent as a
general survey of the topic. The introduction says that it is “primarily for teachers, administrators and
researchers” (p. 1). The next sentence adds “teacher trainers” for good measure, and the discussion
exercises at the end of each chapter might seem to suggest teacher trainees as members of the
potential audience as well. The back cover blurb (for which, of course, Cohen is not responsible) adds
that the book is “highly suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students of applied linguistics and
will be of interest to foreign language students.” Quite a range of people, then, many of them not very
familiar with the subject of strategy use, might think this book was for them. Cohen goes on to state:
“The book is intended to bring together in one volume a series of different themes which . . . focus on
second language learners and their strategies” (p. 1). To me, “bringing together” suggests linking
separate elements to form a whole which has a certain sense of completeness, and which requires that
one examine the central as well as more peripheral themes. Finally, I feel that such chapters would
simply make for a better, more satisfying book for anyone who reads it through as a whole, rather than
dipping into it as a series of separate articles.
This book will undoubtedly find its way onto the shelves of university libraries, as well as many
methodology libraries in school staff-rooms. It is after all a book in a prominent series (Longman’s
Applied Linguistics and Language Studies), on a topic of much current interest, written by a well-known
researcher in the field. It includes the only published report of a recent research study. But I’m afraid I
cannot imagine that this will ever come to be regarded as a key book in the area of strategies study. The
individual chapters will remain as a series of separate articles, read for different purposes by different
people on different occasions, and probably with varying degrees of satisfaction.