A01 cohe4573 01 se fm. Qxd

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F U R T H E R I S S U E S I N L E A R N I N G , T E A C H I N G , A N D A S S E S S M E N T
Strategies in language learning and language use
While definitions have varied over the years, there is some agreement among
experts that language learner strategies are conscious or semi-conscious
thoughts and actions deployed by learners, often with the intention of
enhancing their knowledge of, and facility with an L2.
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From the initial
focus some 30 years ago on the strategies that good language learners use,
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there has been a growing consensus that language learner strategies can play
a role in L2 learning. This view led to the introduction of strategy instruction
into the curriculum.
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The basic premise was that if learners have a well-
functioning strategy repertoire, then these strategies will enhance the learn-
ing of an L2, whether in teacher-led, instructional settings or in one of the
alternative options, such as self-access, web-based instructional settings, and
other forms of independent language learning. In recent years, this position
has been increasingly supported both by descriptive studies
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and by studies
involving some form of strategy instruction treatment.
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Such studies have
demonstrated that learners who use strategies produce better results in their
language learning than students who are less strategic. Let us now take a
closer look at language learner strategies.
The act of planning and making a request involves a sequence or cluster
of different strategies. You need what was referred to in Chapter 1 as speech
act strategies, namely, strategies for dealing with specific speech acts (e.g.
acknowledging responsibility or offering repair in an apology). But you 
also need strategies for learning the speech acts in the first place and for