SSU3 symposium: The multi-level situatedness ofcomplex, flexible, and dynamic LLSs

Transitioning between a high school student and an
English major: A retrospective study of strategic
learning
Jakub Bielak
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań (Kalisz), Poland

Situating Strategy Use 3: Stepping Into a New Era of Strategy
Research and Practice
Osaka, Japan, 13-15 October 2019

Transition b/w high school and university• The first year at university is critical (Reason et al., 2006)• What makes the transition difficult: student expectations vs.
university experience vs. university teachers’ views (Brinkworth etal., 2009)• Transition problems: less feedback (Hanna et al. 2014), heavy
workload and need to apply time-management strategies (Macaro &Wingate, 2004)• Transition problems of language majors:
 Grammar (Macaro & Wingate, 2004)
 Reading literature/ longer texts (Gallagher-Brett, 2006; GallagherBrett & Canning, 2011) Intimidation by TL-medium content courses (Gallagher-Brett &Canning, 2011)

Transitions and strategic learning• Learning strategies and self-regulation increase in successful
students over time, especially the “deep” strategies (Coertjens et al.,2013)• Transitions between educational stages are associated with changing
strategy use, which is mediated by IDs (ability, motivation) (Huang,2018)• Strategies required in new contexts may have to be taught (Huang,2018)• Transition between China and Britain (Gao, 2006), between mainland
China and Hong Kong (Gao, 2007) but also between (high) schooland university• Gao’s (2006, 2007, 2008) studies adopted a socio-cultural
perspective

Socio-cultural approach to strategic learning• The setting is crucial for understanding action within it(Gao, 2006; Donato & MacCormick, 1994; Niu et al., 2018;Wenden, 1998)• Employed especially to research learning in diverse
cultural and linguistic contexts• Language learning and strategizing are mediated bylearning communities through their Discourses = Motivation
 Objects = Assessments
 Significant individuals = Teachers and other language
experts (Donato & MacCormick, 1994; Gao, 2006, 2008)

Research aim and participants• Investigation of the transition with respect to Strategic learning of English
 Other related factors
mostly with recourse to retrospective self-reporting• 27 year-1 English majors at a Polish university (B2 level)• 4 university teachers of EFL

Instruments and procedure• Online school and university strategy survey (n = 27)
 List and describe up to 5 English learning strategies that youuse(d) the most often: (a) when you were in high school (b)now, at university
 A short narrative about strategizing in the two contexts• Semi-structured interviews with learners (n = 12) and theircurrent (university) EFL teachers (n = 4)
• Final EFL exam grades• Time: end of the second semesterResults

Strategies recommended by teachers (%)
80
7060

75.0
60.8

5040

39.2

Teacherrecommended

25.0

30
20
100

School strategy
references (%)

University strategy
references (%)

Non-teacherrecommendedStrategies
Input
Vocabulary
Talking
Pronunciation
Grammar
General: Exercises, notes
WritingMemorization
Learning together
Extra classes
Paying attention in class
Translation
Singing
Meta-cognitive
Helping others
CultureSchoolUniversity

No.

%

No.

%

55
44
23
97
52
2
13
102
1
10

35.3
28.2
14.7
5.77
4.5
3.2
1.3
1.3
0.6
1.9
0.6
0.0
1.30.60.6
031
26
13
19
117
3
3
3
12
20
1
12

24.8
20.8
10.4
15.2
8.8
5.6
2.4
2.4
2.4
0.8
1.6
1.6
0
0.8
0.8
1.6

Strategies
in the twocontexts

Differences between strategies in thetwo contexts (%)
40

35.3
35

28.0

30

24.8
25

21.0
20

14.7

15School

15.2

University

10.4

8.8

10

5.8
5

4.5

0

Input
strategies

Vocabularystrategies

Talking Pronunciation Grammar
strategies
strategies
strategies

Patterns of individual strategizing in the twocontexts• Some change in strategizing, but the degree of change varied• Change = enrichment• Participants of low pre-university language ability
 Considerable change (enrichment) in strategizing = final EFLexam success Small change in strategizing = final EFL exam failure• Participants of high/ very high pre-university language ability
 Varied strategies at school and either considerable or smallchange = final EFL exam successMotivation and individual strategizing in thetwo contexts• A general shift in emphasis
School: INSTRUMENTAL (travel) and EXTRINSIC (grades) motivation

University: INTRINSIC (pleasure) and INTEGRATIVE (working abroad,interest in culture) (EXTRINSIC motives are still strong) with sometraces of the IDEAL L2 SELF
• Both at school and university intrinsic and integrative motives
associated with richer strategy repertoires• Magda (M): Motivational shift (awakening)
EXTRINSICINTRINSIC and INTEGRATIVE

Motivation and individual strategizing in thetwo contexts (2)• Magda: Sharp change in strategizing accompanying the motivationalshift
M: I learned mainly in class, and every now and then we took vocabulary quizzes
so I would study at home and then forget it [laughter].
I: Cram, pass and forget, right?
M: Exactly. (Interview, 6)
M: I just started to search for ways [to learn] which work for me . . . because
previously I understood grammatical rules but I could not use them inconversation . . . so I had to change my perspective to stop thinking in Polishand switch to the other language, so I started to get listening practice . . .
books, full sentences I then had and not isolated words which I could not later
use and insert into sentences, but I started to learn whole sentences, to thinkin this language even in everyday situations like I’m driving a car and: “If I
were to come back home and describe what I have seen on my way, howwould I say that?” Like I put together [descriptions/ sentences] in my mind
and this way I used to realize which words I still didn’t know, which words I
had to look up when I would come home . . . (Interv., 6)

Motivation and individual strategizing in the twocontexts (3)• Tomasz (T): Motivational plateau
EXTRINSICEXTRINSIC and INSTRUMENTAL, and, discovering, INTRINSIC

I: Why did you learn English at school, in the vocational high school?

T: Because it was required to move on to the next semester, andmainly to get credit and move on because I mainly focused onother science subjects and English was just required to pass.
(Interview, 11)
I: Why did you choose the English major and why are you learning

English?
T: I thought to myself: Since I have vocational education, I will
couple it with language, this will be some kind of a bonus, all themore so because my father imports cars from the States and so healso needed a person who could help him to communicate
language-wise with dealers. (Interv., 11)Motivation and individual strategizing in the two contexts (4)• Tomasz: Little change in strategizing accompanying the motivational plateau
At school mostly “free” input strategies andLearning the rules of grammar by multiple repetition of the same sentencesand examples until satisfactory results. Mainly at home.
. . . like in maths . . . sentences were taken down, I considered it as a pattern
and then found some relationships, . . . in this kind of an analytical way.
(Interview, 11)
He uses this strategy even more often at university because, he says,I know this way of learning the rules of grammar the best and it is certain. I
don’t know any other way of learning grammar rules. (11)
Oh my, a lot has changed because of university study . . . First of all I think one
should not translate in one’s mind for example from Polish into English andthen speak, I think the key is thinking in the language you want to speak . . . In
the way of learning grammar nothing has changed, still these patterns.
(Interview, 11). . . I understand everything but the order of sentences [syntax] . . . is theproblem, only this, the rest [listening, reading] is OK. . . . (Interview, 11)Socio-cultural perspective on strategic learning
Tasks, activities, tests, and inherent strategies;
and the InternetObjects

Discourses

AgentsTeachers, peers and relatives

Views about English

Discussion• Transition between a high school student (a communicator) and anEnglish major (a budding English master) is associated with changes
in strategizing (Huang, 2018)• Strategizing at university is more varied than at school• The growing importance of grammar and pronunciation (accuracy)
strategies (Gallagher-Brett & Canning, 2011; Macaro & Wingate,200)• At university, strategies tend to be “deeper” (Coertjens et al., 2013)• Meta-strategies, associated with intrinsic motives, were rarely
reported (e.g., Huang, 2018; Vandergrift, 2005)• Strategizing is mediated by IDs and multiple levels of the context(Huang, 2018)• The teacher as an important mediator of strategizing, even more soat university, where peers also play a role
• Still a lot of room for high quality SI at university• The transition takes time, probably more in the case of lower ability
students, and with time they are becoming better strategizers

Implications, conclusions, limitations,directions• The need to improve SI at university• The need to clearly communicate to students the teachinggoal and juxtapose it with the learning goal
• Other ways of facilitating the transition?
• The usefulness of the socio-cultural approach• Continuation of the study to turn it into a longitudinal one• Micro-perspective research needed to complement themacro perspective