Revisiting LLS Research 40 Years Later

ANDREW D. COHENProfessor Emeritus, University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota

and

CAROL GRIFFITHSAssociate Professor, Fatih University Istanbul, Turkey In honor of Rubins (1975) seminal article on the good language learner, language learner strategy (LLS) experts join together to present their wish list of possible research to take us into the next four decades. Twenty-six research thrusts in six categories are offered. Ideally these research directions will spawn viable research in the field for years to come and will help to enhance language learner outcomes.

INTRODUCTION

As of 2015, forty golden years have passed since Joan Rubin published her seminal TQ article on what we can learn from the good language learner (Rubin, 1975). We thought this would be a propitious moment to acknowledge that groundbreaking effort. Given how the field of language learner strategies (LLS) has taken off since then, with a dramatic burgeoning of research efforts in the field throughout the world, we thought it would be helpful to ask LLS experts about their current ideas on research in this area. So, as a way of acknowledging the 40 year anniversary of the TQ paper that started many of us off on our quest to determine what makes language learners successful, we decided to gather suggestions for an article on the language learner strategy research that many of us would like to do at this point in time. With this goal in mind, we contacted 25 experts in LLS, many of whom had been contributors to the Cohen and Macaro (2007) volume that took stock of LLS research up to that time. For the current article, we asked the LLS experts to provide us with 200 words in response to the following:

If you had your way (i.e., unlimited time, research assistants, and financial support), briefly state what you personally would like to do language learner strategy research on. If you want to be more specific, how would you conduct the study?

Presenting the experts with an open-ended survey of this kind meant that they were not given a structure within which they had to respond. Hence, this made the categorization of responses somewhat of a challenge. We received 19 responses, involving 23 colleagues. Altogether, there were 28 research directions presented within what appeared to us to be seven broad categories. The surprising finding was how little overlap there was in peoples wish lists of LLS research. For the most part, colleagues had mutually exclusive directions for research. A few colleagues offered more than one research suggestion. Only occasionally was there noticeable overlap, as you will see below. This finding just underscores the breadth of potential research on LLS still left to conduct. So now let us take a look at the suggested LLS research studies on the experts wish lists.

RESEARCHING THE GAPS

Strategies for less researched aspects of language competence Peter Gu (Victoria University, Wellington, NZ)

Research on strategic learning of cohesion and coherence, speech acts, and sociolinguistic competence with a focus on differential strategies for dealing with accuracy, fluency, complexity, and appropriateness. Research on the shifting language target when learning English as an International Language and learning English as an Additional Language (as opposed to learning EFL/ESL). The use of both a cognitive paradigm (i.e., what happens in the learners minds) and sociocultural theory (i.e., what happens between and among people in terms of strategic learning) in conducting these studies.

Macro- and micro-level study of strategies specific to less studied target language subsystems Mirosaw Pawlak (Adam Mickiewicz University, Kalisz, Poland)

I would conduct research on the strategies employed to learn and gain control over target language subsystems rather than more general investigations of strategic learning. The focus would be on areas that have thus far been somewhat neglected in research, namely grammar, pronunciation, and pragmatics. There is a need to devise instruments for data collection that would be validated in different contexts (i.e., for different age groups, educational levels, but also perhaps for different languages). The sampling would be robust in order to tap the relationship of strategy use with other variables (proficiency, individual factors, etc.) and to explore the effects of strategy instruction. Such a macro perspective would be complemented with a micro perspective, where the use of strategies would be investigated in the performance of specific tasks, drawing upon quantitative and qualitative methodology to gain insights into the factors affecting their use.

Different timescales of strategy use Sarah Mercer (University of Graz, Austria)

In line with complexity thinking and the role of different timescales, I would be interested to look at strategy use across micro timescales (such as within an interaction) and across more macro timescales (such as across the duration of a course), and consider how these different types of strategy use interrelate and are potentially differently dynamic.

LLS in learning the less-preferred language Christine Goh (National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technical University, Singapore)

I would conduct research in a bilingual education system (such as Singapore and Hong Kong) on the relationship between motivation and LLS in the attainment in the two languages. How are students in bilingual education systems differentially motivated to learn the two languages? What strategies do students use to learn their preferred language? How are these different from strategies used in learning the less-preferred language? Can increasing learners metacognitive knowledge about their less-preferred language influence the way they use strategies? Will learning to use strategies more effectively help learners develop greater motivation to learn their less-preferred language?

This study may initially call for a questionnaire instrument that examines the relationships between motivation to learn languages in a bilingual system and attitude towards developing strategies for learning and using the two languages. Case-study data would also be collected from selected students to examine the impact of a metacognitive approach, involving strategy instruction and metacognitive knowledge enhancement on learners motivation to learn the less-preferred language.

Longitudinal study of metacognitive awareness and strategy use Anna Chamot (George Washington University, Washington, DC)

I would conduct longitudinal studies of childrens emerging metacognitive awareness and strategy use as they learn a second language in immersion, ESL/EFL, bilingual, and CLIL contexts, including both cognitive and sociocultural aspects. The research would include comparisons of childrens metacognitive awareness in classrooms with and without explicit learning strategy instruction.

LLS in reaction to teachers talk and particularly in EMI classrooms Ernesto Macaro (University of Oxford)

While there is a growing use of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in universities, secondary schools, and even primary schools around the world to teach science, mathematics, and geography, relatively little is known of the consequences of introducing EMI on teaching, learning, assessing, and teacher professional development.With regard to LLS, my research interest is in looking at learner strategies in reaction to teachers talk, especially in EMI classrooms. The following are just some of the questions that arise: How does classroom interaction change as the medium of instruction changes and what strategies do the learners use? What are the psycholinguistic representations in the mental lexicon of abstract concepts encountered in academic subjects through EMI? Do abstract concepts result in the restructuring of a developing bilingual lexicon? What strategies are used by learners in EMI classrooms in oral and written comprehension tasks?What are the psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic effects on students L1 resulting from EMI used in various phases of education?

INTEGRATING COGNITIVE, SOCIAL, AND AFFECTIVE VARIABLES Integrated research on LLS Sarah Mercer

I would prefer to do research that takes a more holistic, integrated approach investigating LLS alongside other factors in a situated manner. Other aspects of learner psychology are vital in properly understanding strategy use, such as learners sense of self, their beliefs about the nature of ability (mindsets) and language learning per se, as well as their motivation and their relations to strategy use in context (see Mercer 2011, 2012).

Linking language learner strategies to learning styles and motivation on specific tasks Andrew Cohen

I wish to continue to conduct research that demonstrates the close links between learning style preferences, language strategychoices, and motivation on the completion of specific tasks, as a way to showcase the role of individual differences in language learning (see Cohen, 2012). This would be multiple case-study research so there is a panoply of different languages and task types.

Prototypicality in relating psychological factors to LLS Sarah Mercer

I have been thinking about the potential of exploring the ideas of prototypicality (centrality) in the categorization and analysis of types of learner profiles defined in terms of a constellation of psychological factors including strategy preferences and behaviors considered in a contextualized and more holistic manner.

FOCUS ON SOCIAL AND/OR AFFECTIVE VARIABLES

Relationship among class, gender, and ethnic background in LLS use Mike Grenfell (Trinity College, University of Dublin) and Vee Harris (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

We wish to conduct both quantitative and qualitative research on the role of the socio-cultural factors (i.e., class, gender, and ethnic background) that interactively influence the students' language strategy use. The research would include the development of techniques for triangulating a range of individual factor differences in strategy deployment.

Strategies for dealing with the rules of the game in the social context Ron Darvin and Bonny Norton (University of British Columbia, Vancouver)

We wish to study the changing contexts of language learners and the diverse negotiations of language learner identities research which goes beyond the micro-structures of power to investigate the systemic patterns of control that communicative events are indexical of (Norton, 2013). Tothis end, we need to better understand how power manifests itself materially in the strategies of learners, as well as the practices of classrooms and communities. In an effort to help learners not only develop learner strategies, but develop what Bourdieu (2000) calls asens pratique practical sense or a feel for the game, which comes with knowing the various rules, genres, and discourses that inform agents practices, and help them deliver strategic decisions. With the advancement of technology, where people can inhabit online and offline worlds simultaneously, and also live in contexts of superdiversity (Blommaert, 2013), learners need to know the rules, genres, discourses, and registers for these different contexts, and be able to shift effectively across these spaces. They need to be able to read multimodal cues and communicate with not just the visual, but also the gestural, and other embodied signs, know how to gain access to spaces where communication is taking place, and manage communication gatekeepers, in order to claim the right to speak.

Strategies for dealing with sociocultural problems like shyness or discrimination Karen Schramm (University of Vienna)

I wish to conduct research on sociocultural strategies for peripheral and legitimate participation. It is time to describe strategies that aim at solving sociocultural problems of L2 learners (and that use various meta-cognitive, cognitive, social and affective means for this goal). This way, strategy research could finally describe learnable action plans for dealing effectively with the wide problem field between shyness and (unwilling or purposeful) exclusion. The concern is with getting access or being denied access to communities of practice. We could and should describe more clearly the social strategies that L2 speakers can use to become a member of (L1) groups. For example, what would be strategies to overcome shyness, strategies to deal with overt or covert discrimination, strategies to position oneself effectively and to deal with positioning by others? Theoretically, this ties in with the sociocultural construct of agency.

Emotions and identities in research on LLS Rebecca Oxford (Professor Emerita, University of Maryland)

I wish to continue conducting research on language learner strategies, emotions, and identities. Language learning is emotion-laden because of challenges to and shifts in learner identity. Also, while learning a language, and hence while using learner strategies, new or expanded personal identities are created, accompanied by emotion (Oxford & Cullar, forthcoming; Oxford et al., forthcoming). Identities, emotions, and learner strategies are engaged in the process of symbolically and sometimes physically crossing borders during the language learning process (seePavlenko & Lantolf, 2000, andDrnyei & Ushioda, 2009 for learner identities). In a multicomponential approach to emotion, there are at least four necessary elements: arousal, action tendencies, attentional orientation, and affective feeling (Lewis, 2005 in Drnyei, 2009, p. 223). These emotional components are related to language learning, and they specifically interact with the changing use of language learner strategies (cognitive, social-interactive, affective, and metacognitive) and with the development of learner identities. A person-in-context relational view (Ushioda, 2009) will be embraced in the conducting of in-depth learner case studies based on written or oral learner histories, with an eye to collecting rich data on learner strategies, emotion, and identity within an intricate pattern of interacting variables. Also connected with this pattern are further data about motivation (MacIntyre, Mackinnon, & Clment, 2009), flow (Cskszentmihlyi, 2008), and resilience (Luthar,Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000). The wish is to continue working with the person-in-context, dynamic-systems perspective within and across cultures in future research.

The positive function of emotions Tammy Gregersen (University of Northern Iowa) and Peter MacIntyre (Cape Breton University, Canada)

In the case of positive-broadening emotion, individuals build resources and become more open to absorbing the language, tapping into the entire spectrum of communication channels to interact meaningfully in the target language.In theory, positive emotion contributes to good language learning. The interest is in exploring intentional and deliberate ways that learners can enhance their own affective well-being while engaging in the target language through tasks that incorporate positive psychology tenets. In addition, the study would also investigate the power of nonverbal communication in target language meaning-making, conveying emotion, and enhancing cognition, and ways to exploit nonverbal communication whether through kinesics, vocal cues, or other culturally significant features of social interaction.

Affective strategies: persistence and a willingness to change your mind Mike Grenfell and Vee Harris

We would like to study the link between LLS as used by school-age pupils and their emotions, beliefs, attitudes, and motivation. These might best be tapped through a combination of think-alouds and retrospective interviews.

STRATEGY INSTRUCTIONThe effects of teacher-presented learning strategies

I wish to conduct research on the uptake that students can attribute to the teachers initiative/presentation. Are students more likely to utilize these teacher-sanctioned strategies or develop and/or rely on their own? Which strategies tend to persist into older age and proficiency stages? Martha Nyikos (Indiana University)

I am interested in distinguishing learner-internal from learner-external antecedents of strategy use. This calls for research on the connection between goals for learning and strategy use, and between beliefs and strategy use, including the analysis of the origin, and nature of learners goals and beliefs, as well as the dynamics of change of goals, beliefs and strategy deployment. Such research is longitudinal in nature, combining quantitative and qualitative methods and instruments. Rosa Manchn Ruiz (University of Murcia, Spain)

Teacher development of expertise in strategy instruction Anna Chamot

I would like to conduct classroom-based studies of K-12 second/foreign teachers development of expertise in strategies-based instruction, their perceptions of its effectiveness, and its actual effectiveness on their students development of language proficiency. How can teachers help their students become strategic language learners?

Models for strategy instruction Anna Chamot

I wish to study the development, implementation, and evaluation of models of differentiated strategies-based instruction for K-16 second/foreign language students. Since some students already have good language learning strategies while others have few or ineffective strategies, how can the language teacher provide effective strategies instruction for all students?

Bringing listening strategy instruction into the high school classroom Suzanne Graham (University of Reading, UK)

I would like to conduct research on how to bring strategy instruction into the classroom at high school level, with aparticular focus on listening, and particularly within results and examination-focused environments. This would involve developing teacher understanding of listening as a process, which is currently one of the main barriers to research having an impact on practice.

Metacognitive strategies in reading Neil Anderson (Brigham Young University, Provo, UT)

My wish is to conduct more research on the role of metacognition and strategy use using Think Sheets that allow learners to make their thinking visible. A variety of appropriate academic reading strategies that learners can use for academic tasks are selected. The think sheets structure the use of each of these strategies so as to allow the learners to walk through using a strategy multiple times in order to give each strategy a fair chance. Then after introducing a variety of think sheets on the strategies, the students are surveyed to see which of all of the strategies they preferred using. A semester later, a delayed post-survey is administered to see which strategies they continue to use. Participants would be both US and international matriculated university students, studying in five majors that are commonly chosen by international students: Biology, Business, Computer Science, Engineering, and Psychology.

Strategies conceived in the classroom vs. non-classroom strategizing Martha Nyikos

I would like to study the LLS of those who choose to pursue interest-driven learning in very informal, non-instructional contexts, and to investigate the similarities and differences between these strategies and those used by students in more formal classroom environments.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLIED TO LLS

The development of LLS websites Andrew Cohen

I would like to continue the research-based development of websites like the Spanish grammar strategywebsite developed at the University of Minnesotas Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) (Cohen & Sykes, 2010), followed up with research to determine the effectiveness of the website as a means of strategy instruction (Cohen, Pinilla-Herrera, Thompson, & Witzig, 2011). Concurrently, it would be beneficial to conduct research to determine the pros and cons of creating websites where learners identify and select strategies that might work for them vs. strategy instruction where all learners are exposed to certain strategies. In addition, there is value in developing more websites for specialized domains of strategy use, like the CARLA ones for Japanese and Spanish pragmatics strategies.

Flipped classroom models that provide web-based strategies instruction before classroom lessons Anna Chamot

I wish to conduct studies as to the effectiveness of flipped[footnoteRef:1] classroom models that provide web-based language learning strategies instruction prior to each face-to-face language lesson, especially for beginning-level students. Would videos and online information in the L1 prepare students to practice language learning strategies in the classroom? [1: "Flipped" because what used to be class work is done at home via videos and access to websites and what used to be homework is now done in class.]

THE LEARNER AS AGENT IN LLS

Learner self-management Joan Rubin (Joan Rubin Associates, Maryland)

I would like to conduct LLS research with a focus on metacognitive strategies: In order to select appropriate strategies, learners need to be able to do effective planning which consists of establishing smart goals and conducting as thorough a task analysis as possible starting with the task purpose, followed by task classification, and then finally, considering what task demands (or strategies) might be appropriate, given the task classification which learners have conducted. My research would focus on (a) consideration of the impact of teaching task analysison the development of learner goals, (b) working with teachers to elaborate task classification for different proficiency levels, and (c) developing techniques to help in-and pre-service teachers facilitate the learners development of this skill.

The strategies of higher-level students Carol Griffiths

I wish to do research on the plus strategies, namely, strategies that higher-level students frequently use (e.g., reading without looking up every new word), and which consequently may also be employed by students in general to promote more effective language learning (Griffiths, 2013). More could be done to identify and describe such strategies.

Human agency Osamu Takeuchi (Kansai University, Osaka) and Michiko Ueki (Ochanomizu University, Tokyo)

We would like to continue doing research on agency in ones own learning namely, the type of social perception that can be activated or promoted through interaction with others (e.g., peers and instructors) in a specific, situated learning context. The research would aim at describing how human agency could be activated in L2 learning, either through the influence of others, through the interplay of individual and group cognition, or through self-initiation, depending on the contexts where L2 learners are situated, the difficulty of tasks, and the learners L2 proficiency. The study would be a longitudinal study of reading and writing in college EFL classes, with special attention paid to several successful L2 learners. The data would be collected through a combination of semi-structured and stimulated recall interviews, learners journals, writing products, audio/video-recordings of collaborative work, and traditional questionnaires.

Strategies in long-term language retention Martha Nyikos

I would like to do research on the long-term language retention garnered through the intentional, metacognitively-aware application of strategies.Studying how students move from short-term strategies for immediate retention to specific/specified strategies they continue to use in order to maintain language proficiency, the focus would be on strategies that make the transition into use to assist long-term memory. What do the bilingual/multilingual elderly report? It would be interesting to pair up with people in the life sciences, and to do brain scans as elderly subjects apply well-thought-through strategizing to problems in order to see how the brain works for different learners.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research tools for LLS Peter Gu

Methodologically, there is a need to choose and construct new research tools to use along with existing ones. For example, we need more effective means for studying classroom discourse, and for documenting situated and mediated strategic development. Another potentially promising avenue for strategy research would be to rigorously study brain activity through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. This would open up the representation and processing side of LLS i.e., the neurological basis of LLS research.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Seven general areas for research emerged from polling LLS strategy experts. 1) Experts would like to see more research in areas that until now have received only limited attention.2) There is value in conducting research that looks at the crucial links among cognitive, social, and affective variables. 3) We can benefit from studying at close range both the social and affective variables associated with LLS, paying particular attention to emotion. 4) A useful niche for research would be focusing on strategy instruction, both in terms of what teachers know and how they use it, and in terms of what learners get out of this instruction. 5) There is advantage in exploring ways to harness information technology in LLS, whether through websites or other means. 6) Various experts recommend pursuing a research agenda that puts a spotlight on language learners as agents in the use of LLS their self-management skills, the contribution of their proficiency level to LLS, their LLS in reaction to teacher talk, their LLS over the long term and especially at different times in their lives. 7) We need to continue investigating the research methods and instruments used to collect our data and produce our LLS findings. So what might we consider to be trends in the areas identified? One area of interest is the role of consciousness in the context of LLS, and the challenge of researching this. What a learner is conscious of and actually attends to will help to shape the developmental and possibly emergent nature of strategies, strategy instruction, also the relationship between the strategies that they select and what they learn. So consciousness provides a context for developing our conceptualization of LSS, and for understanding how such conceptualizations can be put to use in the design of learning tasks and the education of teachers. Another theme of interest is the apparent divide between i) research in more traditional cognitive psychology, focusing on the learners mind, and ii) more social, neo-Vygotskian approaches, where strategies tend to be embedded in interactions, identities, and communities of practice. The former approach to researching LSS allows for greater reliability and aligns itself with established LSS conceptualizations, while the latter provides higher levels of validity in terms of variability and the complexity of the language learning and language use experience. Predictably, the next generation of LSS researchers will be engaging in the issue of which approach to take, a matter that is already being discussed in other areas of research (see, for example, Hulstijn, Young, Ortega, & Bigelow, 2014). Hopefully this article will serve to stimulate ongoing LLS research in the field. Ideally the fruits from such research would help to enhance to results from language learning around the globe.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We would like to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments that helped us revise our categorization of the experts input and also helped alert us to trends in the experts suggestions about LLS research.

Andrew Cohen (Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota) also taught at UCLA and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is co-editor of Language learning strategies (OUP, 2007) and author of Strategies in learning and using a second language (Routledge, 2011). He has recently written a guide to language strategies for young learners. Carol Griffiths has been a teacher, manager, and teacher trainer of ELT and has taught in many places, including New Zealand, Indonesia, Japan, China, North Korea, and the UK. She currently works as Associate Professor at Fatih University in Istanbul, has presented at numerous conferences, and has published widely.

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