APPLYING INDIRECT STRATEGIES TO

THE 4 LANGUAGE SKILLS

• BY LILIBETH MELO HERNANDEZ
 Metacognitive Strategies

- Centering your learning

- Arranging and planning your learning
- Evaluating your learning
 Centering your learning

- Overviewing and linking with already known material:

• Application:

• Previewing the basic principles and/or material (including new vocabulary) for an
upcoming language activity, and linking these with what the learners already know.

• Depends in part on the skill level of the learners.

• The main focus is on the act of overviewing/linking, not on how the language is used
in that act
• Preparing for a listening exercise, Ricky and his classmates preview French
vocabulary about irritation and exasperation, like C'est insupportable,
inadmissible, inacceptable, révoltant, dégoutant, incroyable!, Ça m'énerve, and
so on, because they know their upcoming task will be to check off these phrases
as they hear them on the tape. As they preview, Ricky and his friends
demonstrate each expression in the context of a sentence, add some other
relevant French expressions they already know, and finally compare the French
expressions for irritation with those in their own language.
• Paying attention:

• Application:

• The strategy of paying attention is necessary for all of the language skills.
This strategy involves two modes, directed attention and selective
attention.
• Murray's mind begins to wander when he is listening to someone talk in the new
language, so he consciously directs his attention to the conversation.

• In reading, Emily decides to pay close attention to the way characters in her German
short story bring conversations to a close and how they use polite phrases.

• Lorraine, a student of Russian, decides to engage herself fully in the conversation with
her Russian friends, and in the conversation she intends to pay special attention to
using the correct forms of nouns and pronouns after prepositions.

• Sangeeta determines she will concentrate whole-heartedly on writing a letter in her

new language, Chinese, blocking out noise and interruptions until she is finished.
• Delaying speech production to focus on listening:

• Application:

• This strategy relates to listening and speaking rather than reading and
writing. You do not have to teach or encourage this strategy, because
many learners do it automatically by postponing their speaking in the
target language for hours, days, weeks, or possibly even months.
• Judy lets others speak in her German class, while she repeats silently
because she does not yet feel confident enough to speak.

• Jon, a traveler in Israel, decides he is ready to try pronouncing the names

of the items on the menu, but he feels unable to speak the language in
normal conversations with Israelis.
 Arranging and planning your learning

• Finding out about language learning:

• Application:

• Help your students by allowing them to talk about their language learning
problems, ask questions, and share ideas with each other about effective
strategies they have tried. Taking class time to talk about the learning
process will reap rewards for the students.
• Organizing:

• Application:

• This strategy includes a variety of tools, such as creating the best possible
physical environment, scheduling well, and keeping a language learning
notebook.
• Setting goals and objectives:

• Application:

• Goals and objectives are expressions of students' aims for language

learning. Students without aims do not know where they are going, so they
might never get there! Goals and objectives should be noted in the
language learning notebook, along with deadlines for accomplishing them
and an indication as to whether those deadlines were met.
• Betty will tune in to the Spanish-language news this evening and will try to
understand at least half of it.

• Helmuth wants to share the first draft of his autobiography with Wilhelm by
the following Tuesday.

• Johann decides to master the Cyrillic alphabet by Friday, so he can

proceed with learning simple Russian words.

• Sonya decides to master the common German greetings before the next
class meets.
• Juana, who has a job interview in English, has more serious purposes in
mind. Her listening purpose is to understand key questions, and her
speaking purpose is to respond appropriately and convince the interviewer
that she is qualified for the job.

• Bridget reads a Spanish editorial carefully and in detail, trying to separate

the assumptions and opinions from the facts.

• Walt wants to write a funny story in Spanish to entertain his classmates.

• Planning for a language task:

• Application:

• Regardless of the language skill(s) involved, this strategy always involves

identifying the general nature of the task, the specific requirements of the
task, the resources available within the learner, and the need for further
aids. These four steps can be illustrated for each of the language skills.
• Seeking practice opportunities:

• Application:
• Language learners must seek out, or create, opportunities to practice any
and all of the four language skills.

• Viva, who is learning Spanish, decides to practice her listening

comprehension skills by listening to popular songs on the radio.