A Critical Examination of the Beliefs about Learning a Foreign Language at Primary School

4.3.7 Learning Strategies

A considerable amount Ofliterature exists on learning strategies (Rubin 1975,
Naiman, Froehlich, Stem & Todesco 1978, Wenden & Rubin 1987, Skehan
1989, O'Malley & Chamot 1990, Oxford 1990, Wenden 1991, Maclntyre 1994,
Ehrman & Oxford 1995, for example) suggesting that an awareness of the
learning process and the application of strategies, conscious or unconscious, is
necessary for successful language learning. Ehrman & Oxford (1989) defined
strategies as 'the steps taken by the learner to facilitate the acquisition, storage,
retrieval and use of information' and Oxford defined strategies more precisely
as:

"...specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster,
more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to
new situations." (Oxford, 1990: 8)

Maclntyre (1994) suggested that the use of a strategy depended on the
learner's awareness of an appropriate strategy, a reason to use it or a reason
not to use it. Such an awareness, according to MacIntyre, is related to a
learner's intelligence, his aptitude and previous language learning experience.
McLaughIin (1984) in a reference to the work by Olson & Samuels (1973)
argued that younger children lacked precisely such an awareness and that the
performance deficits found in younger children were due to:

"...their failure to organize, plan, monitor, and integrate their information
processing and memory as efficiently as do older children or adults."
(McLaughlin, 1984:22)

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