Good Language Learner
Good Language Learner
Early research on language learning strategies took the form of ‘good language learner studies’. One of the best-known and frequently cited of these studies is Naiman (1978, 1996). This was a double-barrelled study of highly successful adult L2 learners and adolescent classroom learners of L2 French, using intensive face-to-face interviews with the former and classroom observation with the learner. Naiman found that successful language learners use a mixture of analytic strategies for attending to form and experiential strategies for realising language as a means of communication.
There are five major aspects of successful language learning, as evidenced by the various studies (Ellis, 2008, p. 707)((Ellis, R. (2008). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.)):
- A concern for language form
- A concern for communication (functional practise)
- An active task approach
- An awareness of the learning process, and
- A capacity to use strategies flexibly in accordance with task requirements.