Any drastic changes?
Comparing present-day L2 learning strategy use withthat of the past in the Japanese EFL environment
Osamu TAKEUCHI, Ph.D.
Kansai University
Osaka, Japan@ Invited Symposium in SSU3 Conference, Osaka, Japan
October 15, 2019

Introduction
Person, Task, and Context•

Attention paid to variation in strategy use in each learner.

•Person : age, gender, personality, self-efficacy, & motivation••

Task: task types, modes, complexity, difficultyContext: culture, FL vs. SL, classroom vs. out-of-the classroom
with the exception of some metacognitive strategies

Introduction
Person, Task, and Context••••

Attention
paidvariationstrategies
in strategy
use insituatedeach learner.
The use of
L2tolearning
is fully
within a
Person: age, gender,personality,& motivation
given learning
environment,
andself-efficacy,
its use and effectiveness
dependthe learner,
learning difficultytask at hand, and theTask:
taskontypes,modes, thecomplexity,learning
context.FL ofwith theculture,
exception
metacognitive
strategies
Context:
vs.someSL, classroom
vs. out-of-theclassroom

Each learning context has its own unique set of language
Advancements
learning strategies,Technological
specifically tailored
to its social values,
teacher/learner beliefs, and learning conditions.

Introduction
Person, Task, and Context•

Attention paid to variation in strategy use in each learner.

•Person : age, gender, personality, self-efficacy, & motivation••

Task: task types, modes, complexity, difficultyContext: culture, FL vs. SL, classroom vs. out-of-the classroom

Technological Advancements
Person-Task-Context configuration of specific learning
situations by Peter Gu à No strategy is in fact inherently
good or bad, but only has the potential to be used effectively.

The 2000 Study

Shohakusha
2003

SYSTEM, 31
2003

Peter Lang2009

(9th printing in 2019)

All above based on the 2000 study for my Ph.D. dissertation

Summary of the 2000 Study
Examined strategy use of the successful learners situatedin the Japanese EFL environment
••

•
•
•
•

College-level advanced EFL learners (n = 24)
CEFR Upper B2 - C1 levels
English learning biographies, reflecting on their experiences
Highly-advanced professional EFL users (n = 18)
CEFR C1- C2 levelsTwenty years ago
Semi-structured interviews of their L2 learning experiences
Starting full scale learning of English after 12 in Japan
Little experiences in English-speaking countries
Qualitative approach of coding and grouping
No internet service or advanced digital technology available

Summary of the 2000 Study
Metacognitive Strategy Use•••

Maximizing opportunities to use English
Pushing oneself into using English
Having regular practice and exposure

Cognitive Strategy Use••

Memorizing, repeating, borrowing, imitating,Guessing, reading-aloud, and contextualizing

Summary of the 2000 Study

Summary of the 2000 Study

Summary of the 2000 Study
Metacognitive Strategy Use•••

Maximizing opportunities to use English
Pushing oneself into using English
Having regular practice and exposure

20 years have passed.

Cognitive Strategy Use•
Memorizing, repeating, borrowing, imitating,•Guessing, reading-aloud, contextualizing• to theSpeaking,Pronunciation,Listening,Due
rapid changeof society,its values, language teaching
methodology,andReading,the toolsReading-aloud,available for learning•
Writing,Vocabulary→ We can expect changes in strategy use.

Purpose of the Current Study
To compare present-day learning strategy use
with that of the past in the Japanese EFL
environment, and to shed light on any changes
between them.
*Caution needs to be exercised because the results
reported here are based on the pilot stage of the ongoing research project and thus are tentative at best.

Participants and Methods•

College-level advanced EFL learners (n = 21)
CEFR Upper B2 - C1 levels
English learning biographies, reflecting on their experiences•

Highly-advanced professional EFL users (n = 8)
CEFR C1 – C2 levels
Semi-structured interviews of their L2 learning experiences••••

Starting full scale learning of English after 10 in Japan
Little experiences in English-speaking countries
Qualitative approach of coding and grouping
Comfortable with advanced digital technology use

Major Findings of the 2019 Study
Basic strategies have not changed much, but the tools for scaffolding
their use have changed greatly, thereby introducing some new typesof strategies and modifications in the use of existing strategies.

Major Findings of the 2019 Study
Metacognitive Strategy Use•
Maximizing opportunities to use English•
Pushing oneself into using English• toEmphasizing
practice
exposure
to podcast
Englishprograms, andTend
turn to on-lineregularresources
such asand
YouTube,TED,
Skype on-line conversation services, instead of radio programs, TV programs, andCognitive
Strategy
Usemagazines.
Nonetheless,lookingfor opportunities has not changed so much.

Major Findings of the 2019 Study
Metacognitive Strategy Use•••

Maximizing opportunities to use English
Pushing oneself into using English
Emphasizing regular practice and exposure to English••Cognitive Strategy Use
Memorizing, repeating, borrowing, imitating,Guessing, reading-aloud, and contextualizing

Major FindingsMajor Findings

In addition to face-to-face communication opportunities, those on Skype or video-conference
are frequently reported.

Major Findings

The use of YouTube and TED video clips is widespread.

Major Findings
The use of digital corpora and on-line or electronic dictionaries is prominent.
A new trend is on-line collaborative writing activities, in which knowledge sharing, peer
review, and monitoring the writing process are easy to do.
Using is a key word.

Major Findings

On-line opportunities have increased drastically, and the use of digital annotation tools is prevalent.

The only difference is the use of digital recording when they reflect on their own readingaloud activities.

Major FindingsMajor Findings

Unique metacognitive strategy use such as spaced learning, regular review, visualizing theoutcomes, sending a reminder of daily practice time, clipping and saving for later learning

The use of vocabulary learning software is salient.

Major FindingsMajor Findings

Comparison of the Two Studies

Concluding Remarks••••••

These results are tentative at best.
Strategies in this environment have not changed drasticallyover the past twenty years.
Seeking opportunities, having regular practice, promotingautomatization, making full use of good samples are stillprevalent.
On the contrary, the tools for scaffolding the strategy use havechanged greatly, bringing some variations to their strategy use.
The digital tools have certainly produced some new strategies
or modified the use of existing strategies.
Strategies for regulating emotions are often mentioned by thepresent-day successful EFL learners. à worth furtherinvestigation.

Concluding Remarks
Thank you very much forstaying awake!
The rest is silence.
takeuchi@kansai-u.ac.jp

A Review of Strategy Research
Takeuchi, O. (2019). Language
learning strategies: Insights fromthe past and directions for thefuture. In X. A. Gao (Ed.), Second
handbook of English language
teaching. NY: Springer. On-line
first version is available at doi:
10.1007/978-3-319-58542-0_37-1