What is a good language learner

What makes a good language
learner?
Hu Wenzhong(胡文仲)
Beijing Foreign Studies
University
Nature of this talk
 This
is not a commercial
promotion.
 There are no grand promises.
 What we’re interested in is
the plain truth: how students
should learn.
Outline of the talk
What contributes to the outcome of
learning a FL
 What are learning strategies
 Research on learning strategies
 A checklist for good language
learners
 Conclusion

Teaching
FL
Learner
Learning
Outcome
Environment
(Adapted from Naiman et al.)
The learner
Age, personality,
motivation, attitude,
intelligence, language aptitude, past
language experience
Teaching
Syllabus,
Teaching material,
Teaching method,
Activities,
Teacher qualifications
Environment
Opportunities for
second language
contacts and use
Learning
Unconscious learning
Conscious use of learning
strategies
Syllabus,
Teaching material,
TEACHING
Teaching method,
Activities
Teacher qualifications
LEARNER
LEARNING
OUTCOME
Age, personality,
motivation, attitude,
intelligence, language
aptitude, past
language experience
Unconscious processes
Conscious use of learning
strategies
ENVIRONMENT
Proficiency in
the use
of the language
Opportunities for
second language
contacts and use
(Adapted from Naiman et al.)
Studies have shown that…
 other
things being equal, learning
strategies play a significant role in
determining the outcome of
learning.
What are learning strategies(学习
策略)
Learning strategies are “learning
processes which are consciously
selected by the learner.” (Cohen 1990)
 “The techniques or devices which a
learner may use to acquire knowledge.”
(Rubin 1975)
 Measures taken by the learner for
effective study (Wen )

In learning vocabulary
you could
1.read a dictionary from cover to cover
2.learn vocab through copying word lists
3.learn vocab through memorizing texts
4.learn vocab through extensive reading
Which method do you
think is the best?
So this is a talk on
learning how
to learn
Background against which learning
strategies studies started:
 The
focus of research has shifted
from teaching to learning, from
teaching methodology to learning
strategy.
How learning strategies studies
started





Started in the mid-70s of the last century
J. Rubin: “What ‘the good language learner’
can teach us” published in TESOL Quarterly in
1975
N. Naiman et al.:The Good Language Learner
published in 1978
Learning strategies have now become an
important part of second language acquisition
research.
Research in China
Naiman et al’s research
The Adult Interview Study: 34 successful
and 2 unsuccessful learners selected for
study
 The Main Classroom Study: 72 students
from 12 classes of Grades 8,10 and 12 of
schools in Toronto and other areas;
methods used include classroom
observation and interview

Final outcome: research report
N. Naiman et al.:
The Good Language Learner
published by the Ontario Institute for
Studies in Education in 1978
Naiman and his colleagues’
conclusion

“The study has shown that some of the
existing stereotypes do not apply. For
example, some people believe that a
good language learner has to be musical,
or have a high language aptitude or an
exceptionally good memory. The Adult
Interview Study indicated that these
qualities may not be essential.” (p. 103)
3 case studies conducted by
Naiman’s team




In the age group 26-35
Two are females and one male
All three are successful language learners.
They learned and maintained from 5 to 19
languages including Latin, German, French,
Swedish, Polish, Italian, Hebrew,Rumanian,
Icelandic, Spanish, Albanian, Greek, Russian,
Serbo-Croatian, Mohawk, Swahili, Gaelic,
Hungarian, Hittite, Japanese and Lithunian.
Ms A’s story







Born in Virginia, USA.
Studied German and French at school.
Went to France and stayed there for 3 years.
Married a French linguist, who was bilingual in
French and German.
Spent a total of 2 years in Sweden.
Went to Poland for 1 year.
Settled in Quebec and spoke French at home.
Ms A’s French learning
experience
Saw French movies every day.
 Read French newspapers and magazines.
 Monitored her own pronunciation and
tried hard to perfect it.

Ms A recalled:

“…whatever you pick up, whether
it’s one word or two words…use
it…even if it is wrong, try it out, it
doesn’t matter.”
Ms B’s background
Born in Nova Scotia of Canada
 Languages spoken at home: English and
Yiddish
 Languages she studied at school:
German and French
 Went to Italy for teacher training

Ms B recalled:
 “I
wasn’t afraid anymore, I generated
sentences…if they weren’t correct,
people around me told me how to say it.
I was on the look-out for clues.”
Ms B’s experience
 Ms
B pointed out that the immersion
into an Italian environment, and
therefore the motivation for having
to learn to speak the language, were
the most significant factors.
Is
there something we
can learn from Ms A
and Ms B?
Perhaps we could learn
from them
Their interest in foreign languages
 Their perseverance
 Their initiative
 Their use of the environment
 Their outgoing personality

Professor Wen’s case study of two of
her students
 Wang
 Li
Hong
Hua
Professor Wen Qiufang’s research
findings
name
sex age Eng- Chilish
nese
(entr.) (entr.)
Wang
Hong
F
19
95
75
Hours CET
Per
Band
week 4
20.5
90.5
Li
Hua
F
20
96
75
40
64.2
5
Wang Hong:

“I’m very active in class because I think
this is a good chance to practice
speaking. I like to talk with my fellow
students and my teachers in English. I
also like to talk to myself in English.
Sometimes when I work in the kitchen I
speak English to myself. “
Li Hua:
“I don’t like to answer questions in class.
Sometimes even when I do know the
answer, I still feel reluctant to speak. I do
not practise outside class because there
isn’t such an environment. Occasionally I
talk to myself. When I cannot remember
an English word I use gestures or simply
do not speak at all.”
Wang Hong:
 Wang
Hong likes to reflect on the
strategies she has used. She
evaluates her learning. When she
could not answer the teacher’s
questions fluently or got an
unsatisfactory score, she would try
to find out why before she went to
bed.
Li Hua:
not clear what strategies I’ve
used. I just preview, review, do my
homework and memorize new
words. That’s all. There’s no
strategy to speak of.”
 “I’m
Professor Wen’s book
俞弘：
“如果说学习外语和婴儿学话有所不同的话，
那就在于我们缺乏语言环境。这一缺陷需要
靠广泛的阅读来弥补。普通中学或非英语院
系一般没有大量的阅读课，这要求大家在课
外增加英语阅读的数量。”
“我想，阅读的材料从简单的入手，从自己的
熟悉的课题入手，在于‘泛’而不在于
‘精’，在于数量而不在于质量。”
吴珺：
“那末这种语感如何培养呢？那就得靠平
时多花功夫，大量阅读课外书。从二年
级开始，我一直不间断地广泛阅读课外
书籍，几乎一大半英文名著我都看过，
还有许多科幻体裁的通俗作品，另外我
也喜欢看《读者文摘》和《时代周
刊》。”
What is common to the GLLs
A
strong interest in the foreign
language
 Hard work
 Constantly checking on one’s own
progress and the strategies used
O’Malley and Chamot’s classification
Learning strategies
m
metacognitive
e
t
a
cognitive
social/affective
Metacognitive strategies
(元认知策略)








Advance organizers
Directed attention
Selective attention
Self- management
Advance preparation
Self-monitoring
Delayed production
Self-evaluation
Be a good manager of your
studies
 You
need to be a good planner.
 You need to use your attention wisely.
 You need to make preparations
beforehand.
 You need to monitor your studies.
 You need to evaluate the methods you
used.
Cognitve strategies(认知策略)
Repetition
 Resourcing
 Translation
 Grouping
 Note-taking
 Deduction
 Recombination

Cognitive strategies(认知策略)
Imagery
 Auditory representation
 Key word
 Contextualization
 Elaboration
 Transfer
 Inferencing

Social/affective strategies(社会/情
感策略)
 Cooperation
 Question
for clarification
Rebecca Oxford’s classification

Direct strategies
Memory strategies
Cognitive strategies
Compensation strategies

Indirect strategies
Metacognitive strategies
Affective strategies
Social strategies
Research findings by Li Jiongying:

“The learning strategies Chinese
students most commonly use are
memory strategies, cognitive and
metacognitive strategies. Next are
compensation strategies. The least
commonly used strategies are
social/affective strategies.” (Li 2003)
A study of the differences between English
majors and non-English majors




Subjects:515 non-English majors and 317
English majors at a university in Shandong
Questionnaire consists of two parts: personal
information and 47 questions based on
Oxford’s questionnaire.
Conducted in May 2002.
Scores of each student for the six strategies
and the mean score of English majors and
non-English majors worked out.
Differences between English majors
and non-English majors
Non-English
majors
m.s.
s.d.
Meta-cognitive 3.03
.73
Cognitive
2.80 .63
Memory
3.35 .73
Social
2.71 .73
Affective
2.75 .75
Compensation 3.19
.68
English
majors
m.s.
3.37
3.17
2.94
3.14
2.98
3.40
s.d.
.64
.50
.51
.60
.68
.58
The research shows
Non-English majors use fewer strategies
than English majors.
 Non-English majors use memory
strategies more often than English
majors.
 Non-English majors need to improve
their learning strategies.

Rubin’s list of strategies







The GLL is a willing and accurate guesser.
The GLL has a strong drive to communicate.
The GLL is not inhibited.
The GLL pays attention to form.
The GLL practises.
The GLL monitors his own speech and the
speech of others.
The GLL attends to meaning.
Be a good guesser
Guessing,in a way, is learning.
 You may make a wrong guess, but you learn
in the process.
 You don’t make wild guesses. You use your
previous knowledge to make an intelligent
guess.

Now look at this sentence:

“I’d like to close tonight with words from the
second inaugural address of Abraham
Lincoln—a great leader who knew a few
things about healing deadly divisions in this
land. They are uncannily appropriate
tonight.”
Have a strong drive to communicate
Talk to your fellow students, your teachers,
your foreign teacher or anyone who wishes
to listen to you.
 Don’t be afraid of making mistakes.
 If you have no one to talk to, talk to yourself.

Don’t be shy
 Take
the initiative to communicate
with people.
 Don’t worry about your “face”.
 Learn to speak in public.
Pay attention to both meaning and
form
Fluency and accuracy are both important,
but at the beginning you should not worry
too much about making mistakes.
 Practise as much as you can.
 Watch what you say and write. Be a good
monitor of yourself.

Be a thinking learner
Find strategies suitable for yourself.
 Constantly reflect on your study and sum
up your experience.
 Improve your strategies.

Beiwai’s past experience
Oral activities
 Speaking pairs and small group activities
 Reading aloud contest
 English evening
 Field work
 Summing up learning methods and
exchange experiences

Now you can ask yourself the
following questions:





Do you actively involve yourself in language
learning practice?
Do you make guesses when you come up
against a new language item?
Do you try to sum up rules yourself?
Do you make conscious efforts to overcome
your shyness?
Do you seek opportunities to communicate
with others in English?
Ask yourself the following
questions:





Do you monitor your writing and speaking?
Do you often use a dictionary and sometimes a
grammar book?
Do you sometimes sit down and reflect on your
learning experience?
Are you worried when there’s something you
don’t understand?
Are you afraid of making mistakes?
If your answers to the first eight
questions are all positive and
your answers to the last two are
in the negative, I’m sure you’re a
good language learner.
Thank you.

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