Saturday, June 23, 2012

Critical Review 2


Critical Review on “Language Learning Styles and Strategies Language Learning Styles and Strategies” by Rebecca L. Oxford

Sukardi
English Language Teaching (ELT) Department, Graduate School,
State University of Malang, Indonesia

Email: skardi70@yahoo.com

INTRODUCTION

Language learning styles and strategies are among the main factors that help determine how—and how well—our students learn a second or a foreign language. The elaboration is that there is a synthesis of the research from various parts of the world focuses on two key variables affecting language learning styles namely one’s general approach to a learning language; and strategies, the specific behaviors or thoughts learners use to en-chance their language learning. These factors influence the students’ ability in particular instructional framework (Oxford: 2001)
Learning styles are the general approaches—for example, global or analytic, auditory or visual—that students use in acquiring a new language or in learning any other subject. Learning strategies  are defined as “specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques—such as seeking out conversation partners, or giving oneself encouragement to tackle a difficult language task—used by students to en-chance their own learning.
In relation to the statement above, the reviewer is eager to write a critical review on “Language Learning Styles and Strategies” written by Rebecca L. Oxford.
Rebecca L Oxford is a Professor, Program in Second Language Education at
University of Maryland. She finished her Ph.D degree from University of North Carolina in 1978. In her career, she has got many awards in education and has published many books as well as writes articles for journals.
In his article, he elaborate clearly the terms so called
language learning styles and strategies and how these two factors affect the language
learning itself.
            This critical review is going to discuss what has Oxford written and what the strength and weakness of his article. Eventually it is going to be presented what should be considered and added related to the similar article.

BODY/SUMMARY
In the early part of his article, Oxford explains what learning style is. Learning styles are not dichotomous (black or white, present or absent), but generally operate on a
continuum or on multiple, intersecting continua. In details he elaborate the kinds of
learning styles based on the following categories as follows:
Sensory Preferences
Sensory preferences refer to the physical, perceptual learning with which student is the most comfortable. They can be broken down into four main areas:
  Visual
  Auditory
  Kinesthetic (movement-oriented)
  Tactile (touch-oriented)
Personality Types
Personality types, often called psychological type consist of four strands:
Ø  Extrovert versus introvert
Ø  Intuitive random versus sensing sequential
Ø  Thinking versus feeling
Ø  Closure-oriented/judging versus open/perceiving
Desired Degree of Generality
It contrasts the learner who focuses on the main idea or big picture with the learner who concentrates on details. They are:
v  Global or holistic students
v  Analytic students
Biological Differences
There are three types of students:
Ø  Biorhythms—reveals the time of day
Ø  Sustenance—the need for food or drink while learning
Ø  Location—involves the nature of environment: temperature, lighting, sound, etc.
Beyond the Stylistic Comfort Zone
v  By providing a wide range of classroom activities that cater to different learning styles, teacher can help L2 students develop beyond the comfort zone dictated by their natural style preferences.
v  The key is systematically offering a great variety of activities within a learner-centered, communicative approach
Assessing L2 Learning Style
  Using written survey
  See Reid (1995) for example of the survey
In the following section he discusses learning strategies. Strategy—Greek word strategia—steps or actions generals take for the purpose of winning war. Learning strategies are specific behavior or thought processes that students use to en-chanceL2 their own L2 learning.
Generally, the learning strategy use relates to style preferences. Without the teacher’s interference, students use learning strategies that reflect their basic learning styles.
Conscious Movement toward Goals
Ø  Strategies imply conscious movement toward a language goal
Ø  A strategy chain is a set of interlocking, related, and mutually supportive strategies
Positive Outcomes from Strategy Use
  Based on the results of some uses of strategy, it is concluded that the use of strategy in language learning give positive impacts on the results of language learning.
  There was no single set of strategies always used by good language learners.
Strategy Instruction Research
v  Researches were done on the application of strategy instruction
v  The most effective strategy instruction appears to include demonstrating when a given strategy might be useful, as well as how to use and evaluate it, and how to transfer it in to other related tasks and situations.
Then he presents the six main categories of L2 learning styles which cope the followings: 1) cognitive strategies; 2) meta-cognitive strategies; 3) memory-related strategies; 4) compensatory strategies;  5) affective strategies; and 6) social strategies
Assessing Learners’ Use of Strategies
  Many language learning strategies were invented
  The next findings were: L2 learning strategy use is significantly related to L2
learning motivation, gender, age, culture, brain hemisphere dominance, career
orientation, academic major, and the nature of L2 task.
The last discussion is on the implications for L2 teaching. The implications for
classroom practice are: a) assessing styles and strategies in the L2 classroom; b) attuning L2 instruction and strategy instruction to learners’ style needs; c) remembering that no single L2 instructional methodology fits all students; and d) preparing for and conducting strategy instruction.
CRITIQUE

In the introduction, the writer, Rebecca L. Oxford who is the writer of Language Learning Styles and Strategies, provides all the aspects related to language learning and strategies thoroughly. However, the reviewer thinks that there are some missing aspects, namely: 1) the relationship and the role of the techniques used by the language teacher and 2) the background of the learners themselves, in terms of whether they are immigrant or not.
            This article does not relates the learning styles and strategies of the language learners to the strategies and techniques that the teacher. Related to that aspect, Young (1995:17) proposes that the teaching strategies and techniques applied by the teacher may support the learners’ success in learning a language. There is no comparison and explanation what is the success comparison between the role of the teacher’s strategies and the learners’ styles and strategies in learning a language (English). In other words, the reviewer proposes strategies and techniques used by the language teachers in teaching the language should be discussed and compared their roles in the language teaching to the language learner styles and strategies.
            In addition, the writer of this article does not take into account to who the language learners are. Walqui (2005) argues and explains that who the learners are may affect on the success of their learning. He focuses on helping English Language Learners (ELLs) succeed in mainstream classes on understanding more about who they are and how their family backgrounds can influence their success in school while this issue is not taken into account at all in this article. In other words, the reviewer proposes that the background of the language learners should be taken into account by the language curricula designer in designing curricula for the language learners.
Yet, this articles presents thoroughly everything related to the students’ learning styles and strategies. So, by having this article we may realize that every language learner has his/her own style in learning English. So, the English teacher should facilitate them to learn English in various techniques to en-chance students learn better because they have the right styles of learning. The general approach to learning language a language is comprehensively discussed in this article. By understanding the two issues above, the language learners can have their advantages for learning a language.

CONCLUSION
In short, the this article may make us realize and consider the following items
which  may be advantageous for us, as English teachers:
Both the language learning styles and strategies discussed in this article are
obviously applicable in learning a language. The better the language teachers understand
and apply the theories discussed in this article, the better may they the better they can serve
the language learners in teaching and learning the language.
            In general, this article has met the hope of the language teachers and learners as
the source of information to be good doers in teaching and learning English. In order to make the article more comprehensive, the writer may take into account the role of the teachers in addition to the learning styles and strategies. By doing so, we can have more
complete aspects, the collaboration of the two sides of the language teachers and learners.
Furthermore, the information about the background of the language learners may be beneficial in planning and conducting the teaching and learning activities.
            In conclusion, the discussion in this article presented by Oxford (2005) is basically
the meaningful and purposeful as well as advantageous for both the teachers and learners
of English.






REFERENCES
Oxford, R.L. 2001. Language Learning Styles and Strategies. In Celce-Murcia, M (Ed.),
Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. 3rd Edition, (p.p. 359-366).
Boston: Heinle and Heinle ESL.

Walqui, A. 2005. Who are Our Students? In Amato, P.A.R and Snow, M.A (Eds),
            Academic Success for English Language Learners: Strategies for K-12 Mainstream
            Teachers. New York: Pearson education, Inc.

Young, M.W. 1996. English (as a second) Language Arts Teachers: The Key to
            Mainstreamed ESL Student Success. The English Journal, Vol. 85 No. 8
(Dec.1996), p.p. 17-24


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