2. Comparative essay
In this comparative essay will be analized some views about the language
learning strategies for speaking skills. This essay will be based on two books, the first
one is called ´Language Learning Strategies, What Every Teacher Should Know, for
Rebecca L. Oxford and ¨Materials Development in Language Teaching¨for Brian
Tomlinson.
Both texts mentioned before talk or make references about the language
strategies and the four language skills, but Rebeca L Oxfor gives more emphasis to the
processes and description of the work and the different features of the strategies while
Brian Tomlinson gives more emphasis to the construction of material to develop the
language skills and the achievement on the apprenticeship of the students.
Firstly, Rebeca L. Oxford gives an idea of the importance of the learning
strategies. She says that “Strategies are specially important for language learning
because they are tools for active, self-directed involvement, which is essential for
developing communicative competence, and also says that appropiate language learning
strategies result in improved proficiency and greater self-confidence”.
Another thing that Oxford says is that communicative competence is the main goal for
strategies. ¨ “All appropiate language learning strategies are oriented toward the broad
goal of communicative competence¨.
As it was said at the begining, the main sikill in this essay is the speaking.
Oxford in her books mentions two types of strategies, the Direct and Indirect strategies.
In first place, talking about the Direct Strategies, it has three main clasifications.
Firstly, for the Direct Strategies there are the Memory Strategies, one of the most
3. important of the three for the development of speaking skills, which fall into four sets;
¨Creating Mental Linkages, Applying Images and Sounds, Reviewing well, and
Employing Actions. As Oxford says, ´memory strategies reflect very simple principles,
such as arranging things in order, making associations, and reviewing, and these
principles all involve meaning, what is essential for speaking.
Then. In second place there are the Cognitive Strategies, which are really inportant for
speaking too. They also fall into four sets; Präcticing, ¨Receiving and Sending
Messages, Analyzing and Reasoning, and Creating Structure for Input and Output.¨
Oxford emphasize that ¨strategies for practicing are among the most important
cognitive strategies. Language learners do not always realize how essential practice is.´
Finally, in third place there are the Compensation Strategies, which are divided in two
sets; Guessing intelligently and Overcoming limitations in speaking and writing. About
it, Oxford says that ¨Compensation Strategies ebable learners to use the new language
for either comprehension or production despite limitations in knowledge. Compensation
Strategies are intended to make up for an inadequate repertoire of grammar and,
especially, of vocabulary.
On the other hand, talking about the Indirect Strategies, we can find thre main
divisions. Firstly there are the Metacognitive Strategies and its three sets: Centering
your learning, Arranging and planning your learning, and Evaluating your learning.
Then there are the Affective Strategies with its three divisions; Lowering your anxiety,
Encouraging yourselfe, and Taking your emotional temperature.
In the third place there are the Social Strategies, wich are very important for
the speaking as the strategies mentioned prviously, and which is also divided in three
parts; Asking questions, Cooperating with others, and Empathizing with others.
4. After have talked about Oxford´s point of view, is time to talk about
Tomlinson´s. He emphasizes grammar as one of the main subject while talkig about
spoken language. He says that ¨desciptions of the English language and of English
grammar, in particular, have been largely based on written sources and on written
examples. This is inevitable since examples of written English are easier to obtain and it
is only recently that audio technology has facilitated recordings of the spoken
language.”
Tomlinson presents the tails as a good way to practise the spoken language.
He says that “Tail´s structures are selected here because they are a prominent feature of
the Nottingham spoken corpus and because they are not adequately treated in
conventional descriptive grammars of English, including some of the most
comprehensive grammars of the EnglishLanguage. Tails are almost exclusive to the
spoken language and where they do occur in written English they are selected in orderto
give thatwritten text a markedly spoken character. Such forms present therefore a
particular challenge to the materials designer wishing to provide teachers and learners
with an opportunity to encounter a key feature of spoken language in use.”
As it was mentioned previously, Tomlinson gives more emphasis to grammar
at the time of learning and developing the speaking habilities, and because of that he
states that “ if we accept that tails are a normal rather than a deviant feature of spoken
grammar (our corpus data confirms that tails are distributed across a range of different
contexts) and if we accept that learners ought to be introduced to tails as an expresive
resource and be guided in their choices of whether, how and in what ways you use tails,
then teachingmaterials will need to address such conditions.
5. Another thing that Tomlinson mentions is the language awareness and
consciousness, two things that are closely related with what Oxford says. Tomlinson
staes that “ recent research in the field of second language aquisition and development
has pointed to some advantages in procedures which raise learner´s consciousness of
particular grammatical forms.” This is what Oxford expresses with the idea of the
Direct strategies in which are the Cognitives strategies. “Such research takes place
against a background of communicative language teaching methodology which in a
concern for greater fluency has focused on the learner´s use of language.
It is important to take into account what Oxford and Tomlinson say about
teaching the spoken language. Oxford presents the different strategies that us, as
teachers should be aware of to have succes in the teaching and learning process, while
Tomlinson gives us the ideas of how grammar is something important even while
talking about the habilities of speaking. Two authors that are good guides for teachers at
the time of preparing and developing classes.
References
6. Oxford, R. L. (1990). Language learning strategies. Alabama: Heinle and Heinle.
Tomlinson, B. (Ed.). (2011). Materials development in language teaching. Cambridge University
Press.
