Learning Strategies and Learning Styles

follow the instructions, rules, or even methods that is used. Whilst she mentioned acquisition, on the other hand, acquisition occurs unconsciously and spontaneously, it does lead to conversational fluency and arises from naturalistic language use. This term is used since acquisition occurs spontaneously and unconsciously, so that the main goal is to master the language use. Oxford 1990:9 adds features of language learning strategies as follows: 1. Contribute to the main goal, communicative competence. 2. Allow learners to become more self-directed. 3. Expand the role of teachers. 4. Are problem-oriented. 5. Are specific actions taken by the learners. 6. Involve many aspects of the learners, not just the cognitive. 7. Support learning, both directly and indirectly. 8. Are not always observable. 9. Are often conscious. 10. Can be taught. 11. Are flexible. 12. Are influenced by a variety of factors. Oxford 1990:8 also adds six learning strategies which are called the “Six Strategy Groups”, which are divided into two groups; they are direct strategies and indirect strategies. The direct strategies are 1 cognitive strategies, 2 memory strategies, 3 compensation strategies; meanwhile the indirect strategies are, 4 social strategies, 5 affective strategies, 6 metacognitive strategies. These strategies stimulate the growth of communicative competence in general as Oxford 1990:8 claims; these can be seen in the following lists. 1. Cognitive strategies are useful for understanding and recalling new information 2. Memory strategies are highly useful for understanding and recalling new information- important functions in the process of becoming competent in using the new language. 3. Compensation strategies aid learners in overcoming knowledge gaps and continuing to communicate authentically. 4. Social strategies provide increases interaction and more empathetic understanding, two qualities necessary to reach communicative competence. 5. Affective strategies develop the self-confidence and perseverance needed for learners to involve themselves actively in language learning, a requirement on attaining communicative competence. 6. Metacognitive strategies help learners to regulate their own cognition and to focus, plan, and evaluate their progress as they move toward communicative competence. Direct strategies will involve the target language directly; on the other hand, indirect strategies support and manage language learning without directly involving the target language. The short discussion of the two types of learning strategies and the learning strategies within them will be presented below. Oxford 1990:37 further claims that direct strategies are language learning strategies that directly involve the target language. All direct strategies require mental processing of the language, means that how these strategies work to the target language. The three groups of direct strategies do the process differently and for different purposes. Oxford further explains the functions of each strategy. Memory strategies have highly specific functions to help students store and retrieve new information. Cognitive strategies enable learners to understand and produce new language by many different means. Compensation strategies allow learners to use language despite their often large gaps in knowledge. Furthermore, Oxford 1990:135 also explains indirect strategies that underpin the business of language learning. Indirect strategies are divided into metacognitive, affective and social. Metacognitive strategies allow learner to control their own cognition —that is, to coordinate the learning process by using functions such as centering, arranging, planning, and evaluating. Affective strategies help to regulate emotions, motivations, and attitudes. Social strategies help students learn through interaction with others. All of these strategies are called indirect because they support and manage language learning without directly involving the target language. Indirect strategies are useful in virtually all language learning situations and are applicable to all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Each of direct and indirect strategy will be presented below.

a. Memory Strategies

Memory Strategies fall into four sets: Creating Mental Linkages, Applying Images and Sounds, Reviewing Well, and Employing Actions. Memory strategies reflect very simple principles, such as arranging things in order, making associations, and reviewing. The arrangement and associations must be personally meaningful to the learner, and the material to be reviewed must have significance for the purpose of learning a new language. Lord in Oxford 1990:39 states that memory strategies help learners to cope with the problem and difficulty regarding vocabulary. They enable learners to store verbal material and then retrieve it when needed for communication. In addition, Oxford 1990:39 adds that the memory strategy of structured reviewing helps learners to move information from the fact level to the skill level, where knowledge is more procedural and automatic. Further she explains that once the information has reached the skill level, it is more easily retrieved and less easily lost after a period of discuses. Memory strategies often involve pairing different types of material. In language learning, giving verbal labels to pictures is commonly used, or to create visual images or pictures for words or phrases. Linking the verbal with the visual is very useful to language learning. There are four reasons for this. First, the mind‘s storage capacity for visual information exceeds its capacity for verbal material. Second, the most effective packaged chunks of information are transferred to long-term memory through visual images. Third, visual images may be the most potent device to aid recall of verbal material. Fourth, a large proportion of learners have a preference for visual learning. Aside from visual images, many language learners have different preferences. Many learners prefer aural sound-oriented, kinesthetic motion-oriented or tactile touch-oriented learning style preferences and therefore they benefit their learning from linking verbal material with sound, motion or touch. The following are the definitions for each memory strategy, as clustered into appropriate strategy sets. i Creating Mental Linkages Three strategies are that form the cornerstone for the rest of the memory strategies: grouping, associatingelaborating, and using context. 1. Grouping This strategy can be described as classifying or reclassifying language material into meaningful units, either mentally or in writing, to make the material easier to remember by reducing the discrete elements. Groups can be distinguished based on their type of word e.g., verb,