Customer Reviews

Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Language Learning Strategies is a very well organised study of the techniques that learners utilise in order to master a foreign language. The results of Rebecca Oxford's research has yielded a four-level taxonomy of learning strategies, which she presents in outline form as well as in depth, and which is the great strength of this book. At the lowest level of her classification, there are concrete examples of every strategy in a number of different languages, and no matter how hard I tried, I could not think of a new strategy which wasn't already covered somewhere in her diagram. The book also contains strategy awareness surveys, and a mixture of adopted and original strategy training exercises covering all four language skills, which most teachers should find useful. It is well referenced and well cross-referenced, and there is a useful chapter on networking, should you wish to pursue your studies further. The only slight concern that I have about this book is that some of the exercises seem to require quite a high degree of sophistication in order to play, and that there may be a limit to which students want to spend time talking about such strategies in class, however useful they may be.

As a university and now secondary school foreign language teacher, I was extremely excited to find this book--it sounded like exactly what I would need to have on hand when students came to me with problems learning vocabulary, or with their fears of speaking in front of their peers because their accent was not up to par.

While I agree with the review written by Chris Elvin--that there seem to be no major strategies missed in this book, and that the research is nothing if not solid--be prepared to work for the information. This book was not written for classroom teachers--it was written by an academic for an academic audience, by a professor seeking tenure. For this reason, I have docked it a star. If you want an academic source to read, consider my rating five stars. But if you're a classroom teacher like me who simply wants to give my students every opportunity to succeed, you'll spend hours and hours analyzing her research before you can really start to apply any of the materials to your classroom. Just a thought. I'm returning my copy...

This book reviews much of Rebecca Oxford's research on second language (L2) study strategies as of 1990. She is the undisputed heavyweight champion of this field, and this book covers a broad range of research. I believe it is a must read for all language teachers. There are innumerable practical exercises to help students covering: memory, cognitive, metacognitive, compensatory, affective and social, L2 learning strategies. Her 2008 publication in Asian EFL Journal is also well worth reading (and is free to access on their Internet site). Hats off to the Grand Lady of L2 study strategies!

Did you know that you can practice a language by translating? Or by conversing in that language? Or by reading materials which are printed in that language? Did you know that cognates and English borrowings can help you? Did you know that it is worthwhile to learn fixed utterances, such as hello and thank you?

If you do, then you probably don't need this book. I bought this book after ten frustrating years of trying to learn Korean. I was hoping to find something which I haven't already tried.

The last chapter deals with high-tech language learning projects. I would rather resolve the international hostility which inhibits use of the technology which we already have. When ESL students write questions on Yahoo Answers, they get wisecrack answers like "Come back after you learn some English." To register for a Korean discussion forum, one has to enter a Korean citizenship number. When we tell the discussion leaders that we are interested in participating too, they ignore us.

What a deep field is to learn a language! Is to explore an "all", in order to get a good language learning. I have realized about that, when I was considering this book for my oral report based on "Language Learning Strategies, according to Rebeca Oxford", you'll see I'm student of Foreign Languages (English- French)Licenciatura Program, at the University of Pamplona, in Colombia. Now, it's the responsability of everyone who has read this great book, to teach, having in mind these points, in order to encourage students to look for their own strategies in learning a foreign language. It's true what every teacher should know, if you don't know about that you are lost. All the content is so precise, meaningful and detailed. I highly recommend to read and to apply this book .