There is no pleasure in teaching quite as great as finding the key to unlocking a student's learning. Learning strategies are techniques and thoughts students use to comprehend, produce, remember, and manage information. Appropriate use of strategies enables students to learn effectively and efficiently. Think aloud interviews were used to discover the language learning strategies exhibited and talked about by more and less effective learners as they worked through speaking and reading tasks. The following profile was created from think aloud interviews with effective high school Spanish learners.
Effective learners use strategies appropriately and flexibly.
These students have a wide repertoire of strategies from which they consciously choose depending on the demands of the language task. They monitor their strategy use and are aware of whether a strategy is working or not. If a strategy is not helping, they are able to call upon another, perhaps more appropriate strategy. Effective learners plan before beginning a task. In speaking, they think of useful words and phrases in advance and choose topics that are familiar.