Some Characteristcis of Good Language Learners

Characteristics of a Good Language Learner

1.    Good language learners find their own way and take charge of their learning.  They determine the methods that are best for them as individual learners.  They learn form others and experiment with different methods.

2.    Good language learners organize their study of the language, and they organize information about the language they study.

3.    Good language learners are creative.  They understand that language is creative.  They experiment with the language and play with grammar, words, and sounds.

4.    Good language learners make their own opportunities for practicing the language inside and outside of the classroom.

5.    Good language learners learn to live with uncertainty by focusing on the meaning of what they can understand, by not getting flustered, and by continuing to talk or listen without necessarily understanding every word.

6.    Good language learners use mnemonics and other memory strategies to recall what they are learning.

7.    Good language learners make errors work for them and not against them.

8.    Good language learners use linguistic knowledge, including knowledge of their first language, in learning a second language.

9.    Good language learners use contextual clues to aid their comprehension of the language.  They maximize use of all potential contexts around the language attended to for enhancing comprehension.

10.   Good language learners learn to make intelligent guesses.

11.   Good language learners learn chunks of language as wholes and formalized routines to help them perform beyond their competence.  For example, they may learn idioms, proverbs, or other phrases knowing what the whole phrase means without necessarily understanding each individual part.

12.   Good language learners learn certain tricks that keep conversations going.

13.   Good language learners learn certain production techniques that also fill in the gaps in their own competence.

14.   Good language learners learn different styles of speech or writing to learn to vary their language according to the formality of the situation.

Language learning strategies list (new)

Learning Strategies	Definitions
1. Metacognitive Strategies
Planning
Advance Orginizers	previewing the main ideas and concepts of the material to be learned for  organizing (skimming)
Directed Attention	deciding in advance to attend in general a learning task and to ignore irrelevant distracters
Functional Planning	Planning for linguistic components necessary to carry out an upcoming task
Selective Attention	deciding in advance to attend to specific aspects of input, often by scanning for key words and concepts
Self Management	understanding the conditions that help one learn and arranging for the presence of those conditions
Self Monitoring	Checking one's comprehension during listening or reading and checking the accuracy and appropriateness of one's oral or written production while it is taking place
Self Evaluation	Checking the outcomes of one's own language against a standard after it has been completed
2. Cognitive Strategies
Resourcing	Using references such as dictionaries and books
repetition	Imitating a language model, including overt practice and silent rehearsal
Grouping	classifying words, terminology or concepts according to the attributes or meaning
Deduction	applying rules to understand or produce the foreign language making up rules based on language analysis
Imagery	Using visual images either mental or actual to understand or remember new information
Auditory representation	Planning back in one's mind the sound of a word, phrase or longer language sequence
Key word method	remember a new word in the foreign language by (1) identifying a familiar word in the first language that sounds like or otherwise resembles the new one and (2) generating easily recalled images of some relationship with first language homonym and the new word in the foreign language
Elaboration	Relating new information to prior knowledge, relating different parts of information to each other, or making meaningful personal associations with the new information
Transfer	using previous linguistic knowledge or prior skills to assist comprehension or production
inferencing	using available information to guess meaning of new items, predict outcomes or fill in missing information
Note taking	writing down key words or concepts in abbreviated verbal, graphic or numerical form while listening or reading
Summarizing	Making a mental, oral or writte summary of new information gained through listening or reading
Recombination	constructing a meaningful sentence or larger language sequence by combining known elements in a new way
Translation	using the first language as a base for understand and producing the foreign language
3. Social/Affective Strategies
Question for clarification	eliciting from a teacher or peer additional explanations, rephrasing, examples or verification
Cooperation	working together with one or more peers to solve a problem, pool information, check a learning task, model a language activity or get feedback on oral or written performance
Self talk	reducing anxiety by using mental techniques that make one feel competent to do the learning task
Loud reading	read loudly showing enthusiasm and emotions