Oxford, R., (1989) “The role of styles and strategies in second language learning”. (Digest)
This digest serves as a brief introduction to the notions of learning style and learning strategies. It is a summary of what has been researched on these topics between 1975 and 1989. Through the descriptions of the behaviour of six students of foreign languages and their learning preferences, Oxford defines learning styles and explains its most common dimensions. She also provides a general typology of learning strategies and discusses what aspects related to strategies have been studied the most, and what relations still need to be studied. The digest includes an introductory bibliography to the research and theorization on learning styles and strategies.
The notion of learning style is presented as a “blend of cognitive, affective, and behavioral elements” (p.2). It covers four aspects of the person: 1) patterns of mental functioning (cognitive style); 2) patterns of attitudes and interests determining what the individual will focus on in a learning situation; 3) tendency to seek situations compatible with one’s own learning patterns; and 4) tendency to use certain learning strategies and avoid others (p.2).
Oxford highlights the following dimensions of learning style, some of which are widely used in relation to learning strategies in SLA/ESL/EFL research: “Field independence-field dependence”, meaning the ability to identify key elements in a complex background; “analytical-global processing”, “cooperation-competition”, and “tolerance to ambiguity”. She also mentions “extraversion-introversion”, “sensing-intuition”, “thinking-feeling”, “judging-perceiving”, “leveling sharpening of detail”, “reflexivity-impulsivity” and “constricted-flexible thinking”.
Learning strategies are defined as “the often-conscious steps or behaviours used by language learners to enhance the acquisition, storage, retention, recall, and use of new information” (p.3). They are classified in: metacognitive techniques, affective strategies, social strategies, memory strategies and compensation strategies (p.4).
Both learning styles and learning strategies are highly influential in second language performance. Therefore, according to Oxford, strategy training should be part of regular classroom activities in order to improve students’ language performance (p.4). For these reasons, Oxford claims that teacher training should consider the awareness of learning styles and strategies in the teaching practice.
