From
a list of 32 strategies among which the ones before mentioned are included, the
results of the research show that the students use three strategies which irrespective
of their English proficiency level are employed very frequently. These are
using a dictionary, learning from the teacher and doing homework.
This
research demonstrates that the students’ consider the dictionary as a highly
important tool to learn a language. It is so important that it keeps the same
rate of use in all the levels of proficiency according to the table shown. It goes
without saying the fact that naturalistic theories of SLA take less or no
importance in the use of the dictionary such as Krashen’s who claims no need of
it since it is stated that under ideal conditions exposure to the L1 and
comprehensible input is enough for SLA.
In
second place, learning from the teacher continues to be considered a highly
important strategy used by the students to learn a second language. In fact,
the teachers have a similar perception of their students’ learning strategies
whose statistic variation differs in only one point. Both teachers and students
claim language instruction is useful.
Even though this result does not demonstrate the usefulness of language
instruction in SLA, it can contain information for researchers in the field of
motivation to study students’ strategies preference which may play a role in
the development of their teachers’ and own motivation..
In
third place, another activity highly used by the students is doing homework. Some
students expect to receive assignments from their teachers as a part of a
teacher- guided learning process, however; their teachers assert that the
students privilege other type of activities that are more students’ oriented such
as writing a diary or listening to the radio (Interactional and communicative
activities).
The
results of this research allow researchers of the SLA field to discover the gap
that still exist between teachers and students regarding the way in which the
latter learn. It would be necessary, when designing syllabi, to state the
importance of these strategies, the roles and responsibilities they both have,
and what is expected from the course depending on its orientation, that is,
tasked- based, grammar- based, communicative among other.
SOURCE
Griffiths, C. (2007). Language learning strategies: students' and teachers' perceptions. ElT Journal, 61(2), 91-99.
