92-pages-GUIDELINES-FOR-SECONDARY-SCHOOLS-All-Streams-and-Sections

LEARNER TRAINING
Learner training refers to teachers’ intervention to help learners make regular use of various language learning
strategies in order to learn the language effectively, operate competently in real-life situations, and solve real-life
tasks. Learner training involves
• training in all those (potentially conscious) and self-instructional processes, and strategies which may be
used in autonomous learning( or in conventional classroom);
• teaching aimed at…
- enhancing the learner's awareness of language and the process of language learning.
- involving learners in the planning of their learning;
- helping learners to learn how to organize their learning( keeping a log, notebook, portfolio,
dictionary, etc);
- helping learners to think about their learning;
- training learners in self-assessment.
Learner training is conceived of as a way of equipping learners with learning tools and insights into their
learning styles and strategies. It also attempts to increase learners’ awareness as what language is, what learning
is, and especially what role a learner should play in the learning enterprise. Learner training can only be feasible
if we take account of the importance of language learning strategies and styles.
Language Learning Strategies
On the basis of research on the good language learner, many researchers have defined learner strategies in
relation to language learning. Many of their definitions are either complementary or have apparent similarities.
Strategies are; for instance, defined as specific actions, mental steps, operations or techniques that learners often
use deliberately to improve and facilitate the meeting, storage, internalisation, retrieval or use of the new
language. Within the communicative language teaching, these strategies are problem-solving, and geared
towards improving the learners’ communicative competence in its totality: grammatical, sociolinguistic,
discourse, and strategic competence. They are also used by learners to regulate their efforts while learning the
language.
Language Learning Strategies: what every teacher should know 41
It is productive to sum up briefly the various language learning strategies (LLS). Oxford (1990), for instance,
distinguishes between direct language learning strategies "which directly involve the subject matter" and
41 OXFORD, Rebecca. 1990. Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know. New York: Newbury
House Publishers.
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