HOW TO TEACH STRATEGIES IN THE

CLASSROOMANJENETTE E. COLUMNAS

DIRECT / COGNITIVE STRATEGIES

- LEARNERS APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE

LANGUAGE ITSELF

DIRECT WAYS:•Remembering more effectively•Using all your cognitive processes•Compensating for missing knowledge

INDIRECT / COGNITIVE STRATEGIES

- LEARNERS MANAGE OR CONTROL THEIR

OWN LEARNING PROCESS

INDIRECT WAYS:•Organizing and evaluating your learning•Managing your emotions•Learning with others

1. TEACH STRATEGIES THROUGH INTERACTIVE TECHNIQUES

Many strategies are related to, and actually become, the outward manifestation of styles.

Be specifically geared toward building strategic competence.

BUILDING STRATEGIC TECHNIQUES•To lower inhibitions•To encourage risk-tasking•To build student’s self-confidence•To help them to develop intrinsic motivation•To promote cooperative learning•To encourage them to use right-brain processing•To promote ambiguity tolerance•To help them use their intuition•To get students to make their mistakes work FOR them•To get students to set their own goals

2. USE COMPENSATORY TECHNIQUES

A related avenue for SBI is in the specific identification of techniques that aim to compensate for certain style weaknesses.

•Teach your students how to learn•Increase their opportunities for strategic investment in their learning process

“PACKAGED” MODELS OF SBI

1. TEXTBOOK - EMBEDDED INSTRUCTION

An increasing number of ESL textbooks are offering guidelines and exercises for strategy awareness and practice within the stream of a chapter.

Students are encouraged to continue their learning outside the classroom, sometimes individually , sometimes with a partner.

The teacher’s resource manual for this book gives detailed directions to teachers on how to facilitate these extra-class learning experience.

2. ADJUST SELF – HELP GUIDESA second pre-packed way

of enlightening students about strategies is through the assignment or recommendation of a self-help study guide.

Here are some typical cognitive style “problems” and a few techniques you might prescribe to help overcome each problem.•Low tolerance of ambiguity•Excessive impulsiveness•Excessive reflective / caution•Too much right-brain dominance•Too much left-brain dominance

3. ADMINISTER A STRATEGY INVENTORY

Using a self-checklist and formal style tests in the classroom.

4. MAKE USE OF IMPROMPTU TEACHER – INITIATED ADVICE

Developing style awareness, learners can benefit greatly from your daily attention to the many little tricks of the trade that you can pass on to them.

LEARNING CENTERSMake available to learners a

number of possible types of extra-class assistance in writing, reading, academic study skills, pronunciation, and other oral production.