Do Language Learning Strategies Need to Be Self‐Directed? Disentangling Strategies From Self‐Regulated Learning

By Nathan Thomas, H. Rose. TESOL Quarterly (Print), 2018

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While language learning strategies generally appeal to teachers’ intuition about how best to teach languages, the existence of them is difficult to define “at the rigorous scientific level” (Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015, p. 144). The lack of a “tight definition” (Dörnyei, 2005, p. 188) has generated criticism of the concept, both from field outsiders (e.g. Bialystok, 1983; Ellis, 1994) and field insiders (e.g. Macaro, 2006). This paper will posit that movements to implicitly or explicitly link strategies with constructs related to self-directness (e.g. self-regulation, autonomy and agency), continue to muddy definitions. The paper further posits a need to disentangle the concept of self-directed learning from definitions of language learning strategies in order to theorize their relationship more accurately. We will begin by reviewing the concept of language learning strategies and highlighting the main grounds for definitional criticisms. We will then discuss how the inclusion of self-regulation and other related concepts of self-directness have crept into the discourse of strategy research.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Language and Linguistics, Literature and Literary Theory

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