Teaching English Toolbox - OPEN ACCESS SANDBOX

Strategies Revisited and Reconsidered

Canva: a cute cat who is a teacher and teaching a class of mice who are thinking really, really hard

You might think about the following questions:

  • When does it make sense for the LEARNERS to state their strategies ("I used the picture to help me understand")? When does it make sense for the teacher to simply teach strategically (e.g. have learners highlight what is in the text that is also in the picture)?
  • When do discussions about metacognition make sense? Do they make sense at the end of a unit? Do they make sense when there's a test (How did you study?)? Do they make sense when learners have to memorize something (How did you memorize the poem?) or are there times when doing the thing is enough (e.g. simply memorizing the poem). 
  • One common strategy mentioned in foreign language classrooms is to call learners' attention to cognates (parallel words). Is this a good strategy?
  • Talking about strategies makes sense perhaps for vocabulary learning,  but not for translating words, rather for learning words in sentences or chunks. Can you name techniques you can use in class that can turn into "strategies"?
  • What are the differences in supporting learners when they read on the computer vs on paper?
  • There has been more and more research questioning what has been traditionally declared as useful strategies, such as: how does one know what a keyword is? How do you get learners to identify them if we can't even identify them and they are subjective? Is underlining parallel words actually conducive to learning? Is highlighting a useful strategy? Is translating words useful?
  • What are newer models of teaching listening/reading/writing/speaking strategies?
  • How can you help learners practice strategies in English language lessons and at the same time, get them to see how the strategy is useful for thinking in general or in another situation (transfer)?
  • When are introducing desirable difficulties into the classroom conducive to learning?
  • How can I teach various note-taking skills to primary learners in a foreign language?
  • What is the role of rehearsal and retrieval in the foreign language classroom?