O’Malley et al’s terms, E is referring to translation and world elaboration, two cognitive
strategies to manipulate the linguistic material (O’Malley et al, quoted in O’Malley and
Chamot; 1990, 138).
3) Use of different strategies in different contextual situations. Ge makes uses of
repetition when he does not have time to work it in a different way:
Sometimes I have to Ieam things by repetition because I don’t have time.
Ring, rang, mng, ring, rang, rang, OK, the next one. Pure memorisation.
Another example is the case of F. I already referred to his need to change his
usual risk-taking strategy, a kind social strategy in which F tries out new language and
waits for the reaction of the interactor:
F: When I Ieam a new word, I want to hear myself using it, then, I usually
use it when talking with a native speaker. I don’t care if the person realises
that I make mistakes.
as opposed to what he does when he is in taking part of a class:
F: When I am in a classroom I have to think twice what I am going to say
For him, the classroom pressure calls for the use of a less risk-taking approach.
More than learning strategies, he seems to be talking about face-saving strategies.
4) The discriminatory use of strategies for specific cases. During the project, Ga
agreed with most of the participants about the idea that memorising things was not very
useful. She usually referred to her interest to Ieam grammar and the value of it for
working on vocabulary:
Ga: By knowing the structure of the sentence you can accumulate vocabulary
However she also realised that:
Ga: There are things that are not related to grammar. You have to
memorise them because you have to memorise them.