So far... 

 

In the first semester of 2007, which was my first semester in my Master's program, I read a lot about Language Learning Strategies* in the courses "Language Acquisition" and "Approaches to Language Teaching". Those readings gave me some insights about my big question: what can we, EFL teachers, do not only yo prevent our students from losing everything they have learned, but also help them continue learning after they finish their course? Based on the readings I made, and on fruitful discussions with classmates and professors, I have designed a little plan, and three actions have already been taken so far:

 

---

 

 

In the first semester of 2007 I had a class of advanced students who were in the last semester of their English course. I had 16 students, 14 of them were avarage students, but 2 of them were exceptionally proficient. Sometimes Brazilian students go on exchange programs and when they come back, they go to language institutes just to continue practicing, but because of their experience aborad, they are usually more fluent, have bigger vocabulary banks and have superior accent. I believed those two students in my class had had such an experience, and was surprised when I found out that neither of them had studied, lived or even traveled abroad. This had already happened to me, that is I had already had some brilliant students with no experience abroad, but since I was reflecting about my big question and had some readings and discussions in my mind, I started asking myself some quesitons:

 

• what have those students done that made them (much) more proficient and fluent than the others?
• what do they do towards English language learning that the others could also do in order to learn more?
• what should they (the two more proficient students) do to continue being shining stars as English speakers in Brazil?

 

Those questions drove me into analyzing those two students. One day I asked them if they could, at home, write on a piece of paper everything they could think of that they had already done in order to practice English - from obvious things, like go to class and do homework, to more different things, like watch movies in English or talk to people on the internet. I also asked them to write things they were planning to do in order to continue practicing English. Both of them mentioned as things they had already done and were planning to do after they finished their advanced course:

• listent to music in English
• watch movies and series in English
• read books in English

Something that got me thinking, though, was the fact that one of the students made a much more thorough and careful reflection than the other. This one, besides mentioning these three strategies, also wrote about traveling to English-speaking countries, trying to write down the lyrics of songs as you listen to them, working as a translator for missionaries in her church and speaking in English with Brailian friends who also speak English. Then I had other questions that would guide this project:

 

• "would the student who wrote only those three strategies have written more if he had read all the things the other student wrote?"

 

• "when people reflect about their strategies, are they able to remember everything they do or can do? Do people remember other strategies they use or would like to use by reading other people's reflections?"

 

---

 

 

In one of my Approaches to Language Teaching classes, I could answer the two questions above. Our professor asked us to talk about the strategies we use/have used as language learners, and as people talked about their strategies, sometimes I thought "oh, I used to do that too" but I hadn't added it to my list simply because I hadn't thought of that.

 

Therefore, I believe the answer is "yes, people may remember strategies they use or would like to use by reading or talking about other people's strategies".

 

 

In the second semester of 2007, I didn't have any groups of advanced students, but I had two intermediate groups, and decided to work with strategies with them. In the middle of the semester, I asked them to write on a piece of paper their answers to the following questions:

 

• what have you done so far to learn English?
• what can you do to practice/learn even more?

I read their answers and compiled them on a web page. Since I was blogging with those students, in one of the posts I showed them the web page with their answers, and asked them to answer in the comment area the following questions:

 

 

1. is there anything you read in the "I have already done" section that you didn't answer but now you remembered you have already done?

    

2. which are the two things in the "I could do" section that you think are the most effective to improve your English skills?

    

3. choose at least one thing that you don't do to start doing this semester.

 

 

you can find their answers here:

 

class 1

 

class 2

 

I know that not everything from our "would like to do" list is actually transferred to our "I'm doing" list, but I believe making this reflection and having a page with this great list of strategies which they can accesses anywhere at ay time is alrady profitable. After all, teaching strategies is basically raising awareness.

 

---

 

 

1. Was there any strategy you thought of while you were brainstorming and that is not written on the list? (This will help me update the list)

    

2. Do you think reading this list (and doing your own brainstorming) will help you continue learning/practcing English? How? How much?

    

3. Is there anything you read on the list and you plan on start doing right away? Which one(s)?

 

you can read their answers here.

 

 

 

---

 

* Reading David Nunan and Rebecca Oxford was especially helpful.