Application Of Strategy-based Instruction In Learning Strategy Training--A Case Study On Adults' Reading Strategy Training

In the field of second language learning and teaching, focus of research in learning strategies has shifted from the early identification and description to the validation and training of learning strategies. In view of the controversy over the necessity and feasibility of strategies training among some English teachers in China and the fact strategies training are far from popular in our English teaching, especially for adult English training. The paper sets out to necessitate and validate learning strategies training on both theoretical and empirical grounds. According to Anderson's model of stagewise skill acquisition, learning strategy as a complex cognitive skill usually does not form automotically but is proceduraltzed from declarative knowledge via three steps: cognitive stage, associative stage and autonomous stage. In the this process of proceduralization, the teacher's intervention or guidance, including describing and explaining the target strategies, modeling the use of them in specific language learning tasks, providing the learners with ample opportunity to practice the learned strategies, and offering timely feedback for their strategy use, is indispensable for the learners to master the strategies and transfer them to new learning tasks and situations, as Anderson's skill acquisition model highlights the importance of training in skill acquisition, it may well serve to lend confirmation to the necessity of strategy training in English teaching. Based on Anderson's model, the author presents suggestions for the implementation of strategies training in formal educational settings, which include five steps.. These five steps are especially stressed and elaborated; hoping to provide some help for those who would be strategies trainers. Then a case study of reading strategy training is done in two groups of adult English trainees, aiming to serve a dual purpose of validating the effectiveness of strategies training within the suggested training framework and demonstrating the transferability of some reading strategies to listening comprehension. Quantitative analysis is employed in the study. The results show that strategy training is effective and the strategies gained in the training can be transferable to other aspect studies.