Language learning strategies for low-proficiency students

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УДК 378.016:811.111

Language learning strategies for low-proficiency students

Verbiy I.V.

The article analyzes what students have low-proficiency in English and investigates into challenges of work with such students. It is focused on language learning strategies as the thoughts or actions students use to complete learning tasks successfully. The use of grouping strategies is an effective management tool to provide efficient use of teacher and student time. Students can assist each other working in pairs, groups or as a team. Language learning strategies should be taught to students to help them become more effective learners, they are used for problem-solving during language learning. This means that the learner uses strategies when a task is challenging for him and cannot simply be accomplished automatically. Together with grouping strategies, metacognitive and task-based strategies have been highlighted in the work.

Keywords: language learning strategy, low-proficiency students, metacognitive strategies, grouping strategies, task-based strategies.

Вербий И. В.

СТРАТЕГИИ ИЗУЧЕНИЯ ЯЗЫКА ДЛЯ СТУДЕНТОВ С НИЗКИМ УРОВНЕМ ЗНАНИЙ

Статья рассматривает, каких студентов можно отнести к группе с низким уровнем знания английского языка, анализирует трудности работы с такими студентами, а также характеризует стратегии, используемые студентами в качестве мыслей или действий для успешного изучения языка. Групповые стратегии являются инструментом для обеспечения эффективного использования времени преподавателя и студента. Студенты могут помогать друг другу, работая в парах, группах или в команде. Студентов следует обучать стратегиям изучения языков, чтобы помочь им учиться более эффективно. Все стратегии изучения языка используются для решения проблем в процессе изучения языка. Это означает, что учащийся использует стратегии, когда задание является сложным для него, и просто не может быть выполнено автоматически. Наряду с групповыми, в статье рассматриваются метакогнитивные и стратегии на основе заданий.

Ключевые слова: стратегия изучения языка, студенты с низким уровнем знаний, метакогнитивные стратегии, групповые стратегии, стратегии на основе заданий.

Вербій І. В.

СТРАТЕГІЇ ВИВЧЕННЯ МОВИ ДЛЯ СТУДЕНТІВ З НИЗЬКИМ РІВНЕМ ЗНАНЬ

Стаття розглядає, яких студентів можна віднести до групи з низьким рівнем знання англійської мови, аналізує труднощі роботи з ними, а також характеризує стратегії, використовувані студентами як думки або дій для успішного вивчення мови. Стратегічна компетенція включає в себе вербальні й невербальні комунікативні стратегії, які використовуються для компенсації збоїв у комунікації або для її ефективного підвищення. Існують чинники, які зумовлюють низький рівень знань студента. Серед них - освітній рівень своєю рідною мовою, вроджений інтелект і мотивація до навчання. Індивідуальна особистість студента є ще одним фактором, який впливає на знання. Особистість відіграє значну роль у готовності студента брати участь у заходах, приймати виклики, використовуючи англійську мову, і ставати частиною більш великого співтовариства у групі. Використання групових стратегій є ефективним інструментом управління для забезпечення ефективного використання часу викладача і студента. Студенти можуть допомагати один одному, працюючи в парах, группах або в команді. Стратегіям з вивчення мови слід навчати студентів, щоб допомогти їм вчитися ефективніше. Вони використовуються для вирішення проблем у процесі вивчення мови. Це означає, що студент використовує стратегії, коли завдання є складним для нього і просто не може бути виконано автоматично. Разом із груповими, у статті розглядаються метакогнітивні та стратегії на основі завдань.

Ключові слова: стратегія вивчення мови, студенти з низьким рівнем знань, метакогнітивні стратегії, групові стратегії, стратегії на основі завдань.

Recently English has become one of the necessary aspects to obtain a job. It is closely connected with Ukraine's integration into cultural, educational and economic space of the European community. Especially important English is among seafarers working with multilingual crew. That's why English language teachers of Kherson State Maritime Academy (KSMA) are studying language learning strategies to help students become more effective learners. KSMA students are divided into groups according to different proficiency levels andcertain difficulties arise with teaching low-proficiency students.

In this paper we elicit the main strategies for active language learning that can be used for low-proficiency students. Many foreign scientists were involved in the development and study of learning strategies. In this article we refer to K. Iverson, R. Oxford, M. Roberts and scientists of US National capital language resource center. R. Oxford defines language learning strategies as «specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations» [5, p. 8]. Associating a visual image with a word to help remember it, practicing a new word by using it in a sentence and asking for clarification are all examples of language learning strategies. Other examples include identifying the main idea in a paragraph, looking for opportunities to practice the language, and giving oneself encouragement, notes Kimberly J. E. Iverson in her thesis [3].

According to R. Oxford [5], language learning strategies allow learners to become more self-directed and contribute to communicative competence. Communicative competence is the fundamental knowledge necessary for communication, and includes grammatical and sociolinguistic competence, as well as strategic competence [2]. Strategic competence incorporates the verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that are used to compensate for breakdowns in communication or to increase the effectiveness of communication [1].

Language proficiency or linguistic proficiency is the ability of an individual to speak or perform in an acquired language. The purpose of this article is to analyze what students are referred to those with low-proficiency and to give overview of effective language learning strategies.

First of all, it is necessary to find out what students refer to low-proficiency ones.Low- proficiency students can have different natural skills for language learning. Some of them are capable, but lazy and the others have a wish to learn but at the same time meet difficulties memorizing grammar structures or vocabulary because of poor innate intelligence. Sometimes their proficiency is low because they are not well-motivated and encouraged to learn. In other cases they have lack of confidence to use English because they are afraid of mistakes and shy. But in all cases it is of vital importance to motivate them and to find the activities that make the lessons interesting and not boring.

There are factors that stipulate student's low-proficiency. Among them there is students' educational background in their first language. Students arrive in an English as Second Language (ESL) classroom with varied educational backgrounds. Some of them are just beginners and have no education in English. Entering KSMA they pass mathematics, Ukrainian language and there is one more exam to choose, physics or English. It means, English is not obligatory to pass and they can be adopted even with poor language proficiency. Some students attended college or university, and then shifted to academy, the others came after school where English wasn't studied good enough. In the same ESL classroom students can range from beginners, elementary to intermediate and upper- intermediate. In KSMA in order to make the groups of students with the same average language level they are divided into subgroups.

In greater partof educational establishments teachers still conduct classes that are 100 percent teacher directed, (i.e., the students sit and listen while the teacher instructs). Students with this kind of educational background may not feel comfortable participating in a communicative ESL classroom. The students may even think the teacher is «bad» for requiring them to ask questions, participate in classroom games and activities, work with partners or in small groups, or self- or peer-correct their assignments [4].

A student's individual personality is another factor that affects his proficiency. Personality plays a huge role in a student's willingness to participate in activities, take risks using English, and become part of the larger classroom community [4]. Well-motivated students that come after school very often succeed in comparison with the students that graduate from lyceums or colleges having higher proficiency but being reluctant and self¬assured.

Research on students' persistence demonstrates that the more specific a student's goal is, the more motivated this student is to attend classes. Students, for example, who are coming to learn English in order tohave interview in crewing company will be more motivated to come to class than those who are coming simply «to learn English» or not to skip the classes and do not set any goals to achieve. learning student language

Melinda Roberts notes that the four language skills - reading, writing, speaking, and listening may be at varying levels. The same student can be an above-level speaker, an at-level listener, an at-level reader, and a below-level writer. A teacher must be cognizant of each student's strengths and weaknesses during instruction and when assigning tasks [4].

The use ofgrouping strategies is an effective management tool to provide efficient use of teacher andstudent time. Students can assist each other, which frees theteacher to work with individuals or small groups. There are four ways to group students:

* Pair work (two students working together)

* Group work (three to ten students working together)

* Teamwork (teams of students working together in competitionwith other teams)

* Whole-class work (the entire class participating in an activity) [4].

Teacher should give step by step instructions and monitor group, pair or individual work of students. It is possible to group in different ways, to make students of the same proficiency level work together or to make a pair of stronger and weaker students where the first helps the second. Especially effective can be group work when inside the group we join students of different levels, but at the same time it is important to make every student participate in task and prevent stronger students from speaking instead of weaker. If atmosphere in the group is friendly, even random division will be lucky. Teamwork brings the spirit of competition but it can be difficult for low proficiency students, that's why teacher should make mixed teams of various proficiency.

According to R. Oxford, language learning strategies involve not only cognitive aspects of the learner, but also metacognitive, social, and emotional aspects. They are often (but not always) conscious, and they are sometimes (but not always) observable. Finally - and significantly - these strategies are teachable [5].

Among effective learning strategies that can be used for low-proficiency students are those, proposed by National capital language resource center that describes learning strategies as the thoughts and/or actions that students use to complete learning tasks [6]. However, a student who is learning a second language in order to fulfill a course requirement and does not anticipate using the language in any other context would probably not be nearly as resourceful or anxious to use all possible strategies for language learning and communication [3].

All consciously used language learning strategies are used for problem-solving during language learning. This means that the learner, no matter how young, uses strategies when a task is challenging, or becomes challenging, and cannot simply be accomplished «without thinking,» i.e. automatically [6].

Here is the example that demonstrates the relationship between problem solving and using learning strategies. Imagine that the student George, is a fourth grader in a French immersion program. George has grown a bean plant from a seed in his science class. His task is to write a paragraph (in French) about the effects of sun and water on plant growth. George considers the task, his skills, his resources and how he can use them to problem-solve, i. e. to complete the assignment. This is metacognitive thinking. He plans to write an outline before he writes the paragraph (Plan). He writes the outline (Use Graphic Organizer). George focuses on the task (Manage). He reads over his outline to see if it makes sense (Monitor). He finds that he needs more vocabulary words to express his ideas and looks up words in a dictionary (Use Resources). After using a variety of metacognitive and task-based strategies to accomplish the task, George evaluates his work (Evaluate). He either decides that the paragraph is not good enough, and continues to work - initiating another series of metacognitive and task-based strategies, or he decides that he is satisfied with his work, it meets his goals, and he stops [6, p. 6].

Metacognitive strategies help students to plan and organize their learning, here are the examples:

1. Organize. That includes planning the task or content sequence, setting goals and planning how to accomplish the task. This strategy helps to complete intricate tasks.

2. Manage your own learning.This strategy is central to problem solving. Student determines how he learns best, arranges conditions that help him to learn, seeks opportunities for practice and focuses his attention on the task.

3. Monitor. While working on a task student checks his progress on the task, checks his comprehension and production as he uses the language. Student is aware of how well a task is progressing and notices when comprehension breaks down.

4. Evaluate. After completing a task student assesses how well he has accomplished the learning task and how well he has applied the strategies. He decides how effective the strategies were in helping him to accomplish the task [6].

Task-based strategies focus on asking students to do meaningful tasks using the target language. They include using of background knowledge when students reflect on what they already know about a task or topic so that it is easier to learn and understand new information. The next strategy includes making interferences. Using context clues, students manage to decipher new vocabulary or figure out the meaning of a text or speech. They make logical guesses based on pictures, headlines, surrounding text, gestures and body language, or other information related to the task. At a more advanced level, students «read (or listen) between the lines» to infer meaning that is not stated in the text. Along with it we often use personalization when a word or idea can be related to something personally important to students. Making predictions means usage of the previous knowledge in order to reveal something new. Students figure out what they can expect in a task based on their background knowledge and information about the task at hand.Cognates are used when words look or sound similar in the two languages or when knowledge of a language system, such as grammar, can aid in the understanding of the new language [6]. For example Russian and Ukrainian «телефон' sounds like English «telephone' and there is no need to translate, these words are cognates.

Along with these strategies would be productive to make your students paraphrase if they don't know the appropriate word; bring real objects and images to the classroom; make summary of activities, it gives them time to revise the task and to correct mistakes if there are any; make notes of the tasks, especially listening or watching video; make students working together, cooperating, it allows them to give each other feedback on their individual work and complete new tasks together. And of course, praise your students, your compliment will make them believe in themselves. Make them believe they can do it and they will really do.

Nowadays there is a variety of language learning strategies that can be used for low proficiency students. Summing up, we should say that among them we analyzed grouping, metacognitive and task-based strategies as the most effective ones. A teacher must be cognizant of each student's strengths and weaknesses organizing pair or group work.Metacognitive strategies are aimed to make students control their cognitive processes, the examples of such strategies are: organize, manage your own learning, monitor and evaluate. Task-based strategies basedon asking students to do meaningful tasks using the languageinclude using predictions, images, cognates and personalizationshould be taken into account when assigning students' tasks.

Further research could be devoted to detailed analysis of implementation of the strategies for low-proficiency students in large groups as well as developing the other effective language learning strategies.

References

1. Canale M. From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy / M. Canale. - New York : Longman, 1983. - P. 2-27.

2. Canale M. Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing / M. Canale, M. Swain // Applied Linguistics. - 1980. - I (1). -P. 1-47.

3. Iverson K. The instruction of language learning strategies for low-proficiency ESL learners [Electronic resource] / K. Iverson. - Available from : http://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/ hse_all/317/.

4. Roberts M. Teaching in the multilevel classroom [Electronic resource] / M. Roberts //

Newsletter of Pierson Education. - 2007. - P. 1-4. - Available from :

http://www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/download/adulted/multilevel_monograph.pdf.

5. Oxford R. L. Language learning styles and strategies: an overview [Electronic resource] / R. L. Oxford // Learning Styles & Strategies. - Oxford : GALA. - 2003. - P. 1-8. - Available from : http://web.ntpu.edu.tw/~language/workshop/read2.pdf.

6. The Elementary Immersion Learning Strategies Resource Guide [Electronic resource] / A. U. Chamot, K. Anstrom, A. Bartoshesky [and others]. - 2nd edition. - Washington, 2011. - 155 p. - Available from : http://www.nclrc.org/eils/.

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