Teaching and Researching Language LearningStrategies

R. L. Oxford

Longman 2011, 360 pp., £20.99

isbn 978 0 582 38129 2

This new addition to Longman’s Applied Linguisticsin Action series is by an author whose track record inthis field is second to none. In 25 years of continuouspublishing of books and papers on this topic (andothers), her range of interests, world-wide activity,stimulation of research by and collaboration with herstudents, and of course the creation of the very widelyused assessment instrument the Strategy Inventoryfor Language Learning (SILL), have been remarkable.

This book offers a model of strategy use in languagelearning that claims superiority over previousformulations in several specific ways, with detaileddiscussion of some pertinent issues in the remainingchapters. The first chapter goes in at the deep endwith presentation of Oxford’s Strategic Self-Regulation model, or S2R for short, and alsointroduces the book’s multifaceted style. There is textwith numbered paragraphs to progress the argument(summarized in a table in each chapter), linkedquotations highlighted in numbered boxes, andnumbered concept boxes summarizing and oftenfilling out the text. There are also numberedillustrations. Each chapter is provided with a set ofpre-reading questions and a selected bibliography forfurther study. So much information is presented in

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these other forms that the continuous text probablyonly takes up about half the pages, giving a ratherdisjointed feel to the whole.

This first chapter argues that the concept ofmetacognitive strategies (roughly, very generalstrategies for organizing particular solutions tospecific problems) should be expanded beyond thecognitive to the affective and social-interactive areas(called here ‘dimensions’) and in passing makessome strong claims about its superiority overcompeting models of strategy use in languagelearning. The next three chapters present furtherdetail on the meta-level strategies and strategies for,in turn, the cognitive dimensions, the affectivedimension, and the sociocultural/interactivedimension of language learning.

What is curious in Oxford’s formulation is theinsistence that each dimension has its owncontrolling meta-strategies. Some, like this reviewer,may have a problem understanding how a meta-strategy on the analogy of metacognition (‘cognitionsabout cognitions’) might be constituted. Although, ofcourse, we have emotions about emotions, a meta-affective strategy seems unlikely to be itself an ‘affectabout affects’, rather a more cognitive operation suchas recognizing an emotional or motivational problemwith the language or the process of learning andcoming to terms with it somehow, or rethinking anattitude and devising a plan of action. A similar worryis raised by the socio/interactive dimension.Paradoxically, this is Oxford’s solution. Each set ofmeta-strategies is the same: Paying Attention,Planning, Obtaining and Using Resources,Organizing, Implementing, Orchestrating,Monitoring, and Evaluating. Since these operationsseem essentially cognitive, this begs the question ofwhy they are replicated in each dimension, or to put itanother way, where the learner is if not in a centralorganizing role. Perhaps it does not matter, because itdoes not seem to be an empirically testable proposal.

The next section has two chapters. Chapter 5 dealswith strategy assessment and prefigures much ofChapter 7 on doing research on strategies. Thischapter, however, is intended as a more practicalguide for teachers to uncover strategy use by theirlearners. Perhaps the most useful section is the sevenpages of highly condensed, but very informative,discussion of Oxford’s own SILL and its derivativesfor particular groups and in languages other thanEnglish. Data from more than 10,000 learners arerare if not unique in language learning research andthis summary of work on Oxford’s flagshipcontribution to the field is very valuable. Chapter 6concerns strategy instruction, looking at various

kinds of direct instruction, learner guidebooks, andthe somewhat curious notion of the strategyinstruction cycle. It is not clear why Stage 6, ‘learnerscontinue and increase ownership: final assessment ofinput possible’ should be followed by Stage 1, ‘teacherassesses strategies and raises initial awareness’(p. 184) unless it simply refers to starting to learna new strategy.

The third section contains two chapters that discussmethods of doing strategy research (Chapter 7) anda resume of the product of some 30 years of researchin the field (Chapter 8). Chapter 7 offers a quick andhighly compressed overview of every method fromexperimentation, through qualitative and mixedmethods research to action research, issues ofinternal and external validity, and several casestudies illustrating ‘how to’ conduct some chosenstyle of research. This chapter could be a useful, ifhard to digest, introduction to doing research, buther intention of comprehensiveness cannot obviatethe need to consult more detailed guides forparticular research avenues. Chapter 8 gives a21-page overview of ‘what we know from L2 learningstrategy research’ with a similar aim ofcomprehensiveness. One might have expected thischapter to return to the terms and structure of the S2Rmodel and give empirical results bearing on theclaims of the model, or an interpretation of the factsproduced by this research activity in the light ofher theoretical model. Oxford chooses not to dothis because the existing research was not conductedusing the model, though as she recognizes, muchof it did concern self-regulation. It is in fact organizedrather traditionally in terms of skill areas: reading,writing, listening, speaking, and grammar.Consequently, the chapter appears as a structuredlist of facts and discoveries which are not alwaysin agreement, with no build-up of a strong argumentor over-arching points or lessons to be drawn,and no organic relationship with the first fourchapters.

The last section consists of a single chapter of‘intellectual geography’ and a list of resources fortaking strategy research further. Three and a halfpages of the first theme return to the main features ofthe S2R model and attempt to site them in the widercontext of applied language education. Thisestablishes that learning strategies are discussed ina wide variety of contexts within applied linguisticsand in the wider field of educational psychology. Therest of the chapter constitutes a useful list of journals,online resources, and databases.

Oxford’s book presents a model of self-regulatorybehaviour in language learning which makes a claim

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to be superior to earlier models and to be appropriatefor data from a wide range of research types. It goeson to present an overview of research on instructionalmethods for strategy learning, and of results of moregeneral strategy research, as well as of methods.Oxford’s practical intentions are very clear, as is herdesire to include as much relevant material as can becrammed into 274 pages of text. However, the bookhas some flaws. It is not clear what the status of the‘model’ is. As a theory of strategic behaviour, it is atleast arguable that one of her central points, the useof separate meta-strategies in each dimension, isempirically indistinguishable from a more traditionalconcept of a rational learner regulating his or herlearning, emotions, cultural reactions, andinteractions. Oxford offers no research plan fordeciding this or any other proposal embodied in hermodel. Furthermore, the book contains no use of hermodel for reinterpreting earlier discoveries andorganizing them into a coherent body of knowledge.One of the main functions of a new theory would be tomake sense of existing data and controversies andpoint the way to new discoveries. But the use of‘model’ rather than ‘theory’ perhaps indicates thatthis formulation is not intended to do this.

In her desire for comprehensiveness, the book readsalmost like a guided bibliography of nearly everythingwritten about strategies. Oxford seems, curiously, toignore the problematic nature of many of the coreissues. For example, there is plenty of discussion ofstrategy instruction in all its forms, but noconsideration of the distribution of time to teachingstrategies and/or language. The general non-linearrelationship between strategy use and proficiency isoften mentioned (low proficiency, low strategy use;medium proficiency, high strategy use; highproficiency, low strategy use), but the possibility thatit may be the learners’ increasing proficiency thatallows more strategies to be used is not takenseriously. Learner autonomy is a recurrent theme, butthere is no recognition of the paradox inherent inteaching learners to be independent of teaching.Strategy research is set in an ‘intellectual geography’of other learning research, but no contact is madebetween that and more linguistics-derived secondlanguage acquisition work, not even in the area ofgrammar, nor is its absence discussed. Is the learningversus acquisition divide still so deep?

The series is clearly aimed at teachers andresearchers in language education, and the bookfollows this. Oxford’s own criteria (p. 272) for thesuccess of the book are: greater communicationbetween teachers and researchers, greater amountsof strategy instruction in curricula, more classroom

research by teachers, and greater strategy use bylearners, in that order. While these aims are highlylaudable, it is odd that the author is apparentlydiffident about helping learners to be more successfulin their second or foreign languages. Perhaps thissimply should go without saying. Clearly classroomteachers are, as always, crucial as the bridge overwhich these aims can be realized. However, rathersurprisingly given the author’s worldwidecollaboration with teachers and research in verydifferent cultures, the book makes few points ofcontact with teachers’ most normal context, theclassroom, spending most of its time on moretheoretical concerns, research results, and processesthat are often hidden and somewhat ineluctable.Although the book is best ‘dipped into’ forinformation on specific topics rather than read asa continuous argument, it presents a relativelycompact, well-resourced, and authoritative guideto the learning strategies field.

The reviewerSteven McDonough was Lecturer in AppliedLinguistics at the University of Essex and is nowretired. His publications include Applied Linguistics inLanguage Education (Arnold 2002), Research Methodsfor English Language Teachers (with J. E. McDonough,Arnold 1997), Strategy and Skill in Learning a ForeignLanguage (Arnold 1995), and Psychology in ForeignLanguage Teaching (Routledge 1986) and a number ofarticles.Email: stevenmcdonough@btinternet.comdoi:10.1093/elt/ccs006

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