Second Language Learning and Language Teaching

GLL strategy 4: pay constant attention to expanding your
language knowledge
GLLs are not content with their knowledge of a second language, but are always
trying to improve it. They make guesses about things they do not know; they
check whether they are right or wrong by comparing their speech with the new
language they hear; and they ask native speakers to correct them. Some are con-
tinually on the lookout for clues to the second language.
GLL strategy 5: develop the second language as 
a separate system
GLLs try to develop their knowledge of the second language in its own right, and
eventually to think in it. They do not relate everything to their first language, but
make the second language a separate system. One common strategy is to engage
in silent monologues to practise the second language. I have sometimes told stu-
dents to give running commentaries in the second language to themselves about
the passing scene, for example, as they travel on a bus.
Strategies for communicating and learning
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GLL strategy 6: take into account the demands that L2 learning
imposes
GLLs realize that L2 learning can be very demanding. It seems as if you are taking
on a new personality in the second language, and one which you do not particu-
larly care for. It is painful to expose yourself in the L2 classroom by making fool-
ish mistakes. The GLL perseveres in spite of these emotional handicaps. ‘You’ve
got to be able to laugh at your mistakes,’ said one.
Osamu Takeuchi (2003) took a different approach to finding out the strategies of
good learners by analysing books in which 160 Japanese speakers described how
they had successfully learnt another language. To Japanese it is particularly impor-
tant to immerse themselves in the new language, ‘pushing’ themselves into the
new language as often and as hard as possible.
Some qualifications need to be made to this line of research. First of all, it only
describes what GLLs are aware of; this is what they say they do, rather than what
they actually do – introspective evidence. The magic ingredient in their L2 learn-
ing may be something they are unaware of, and hence cannot emerge from inter-
views or autobiographies. Second, the strategies are similar to what teachers
already supposed to be the case, that is, it states the obvious. This is partly a limi-
tation of the original research. Most of the GLLs studied were highly educated
people themselves working in education, probably rather similar to the readers of
this book. The strategies are familiar because we are looking at ourselves in a mir-
ror. As with aptitude, there may be an alternative set of strategies employed in nat-
ural settings by people who are non-academic GLLs. Third, as Steve McDonough
(1995) points out, the GLL strategies are not so much strategies in the sense of a
deliberate approach to solve problems, as ‘wholesome attitudes’ that good learn-
ers have towards language learning. Macaro (2006) reinforces this by pointing out
that it is still unresolved whether GLLs have better strategies than weaker students
or are better at using the same strategies.