Sample List of Strategies

Language Learning Strategies

Cognitive

  • Listen attentively
  • Perform actions to match the words of a song, story or rhyme
  • Learn short rhymes or songs, incorporating new vocabulary or sentence patterns
  • Imitate sounds and intonation patterns
  • Memorize new words by repeating them silently or aloud
  • Seek the precise term to express meaning
  • Repeat words or phrases in the course of performing a language task
  • Make personal dictionaries
  • Experiment with various elements of the language
  • Use mental images to remember new information
  • Groups together sets of things—vocabulary, structures—with similar characteristics
  • Identify similarities and differences between aspects of Michif and the English language
  • Look for patterns and relationships
  • Use previously acquired knowledge to facilitate a learning task
  • Associate new words or expressions with familiar ones, either in Michif or English
  • find information, using reference materials such as dictionaries, textbooks, and grammars
  • Use available technological aids to support language learning; (e.g., recorders, computers, CD –ROMs)
  • Use word maps, mind maps, diagrams, charts or other graphic organizers to make information easier to understand and remember
  • Place new words or expressions in a context to make them easier to remember
  • Use induction to generate rules governing language use
  • Seek opportunities in and outside of class to practice and observe
  • Perceive and note down unknown words and expressions, noting also their context and function
  • Utilize Elders and Michif speakers as resources to support the program delivery

Meta-cognitive

  • Check copied writing for accuracy
  • Make choices about how you learn
  • Rehearse or role-play language
  • Decide in advance to attend to the learning task
  • Reflect on learning tasks with the guidance of the teacher
  • Make a plan in advance about how to approach a language learning task
  • Reflect on listening, speaking, viewing, representing, reading and writing process
  • Decide in advance to attend to specific aspects of input
  • Listen or read for key words
  • Evaluate own performance or comprehension at the end of a task
  • Keep a learning checklist;
  • Experience various methods of language acquisition and identify one or more they consider particularly useful personally;
  • Be aware of the potential of learning through direct exposure to the language;
  • Know how strategies may enable them to cope with texts containing unknown elements;
  • Identify problems that might hinder successful completion of a task and seek solutions;
  • Monitor their own speech and writing to check for persistent errors; and
  • Be aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, identify their own needs and goals, and organize their strategies and procedures accordingly.

Social/Affective

  • Initiate or maintain interaction with others
  • Participate in shared reading experiences
  • Seek the assistance of a friend to interpret a text
  • Understand that making mistakes is a natural part of language learning
  • Reread familiar self-chosen texts to enhance understanding and enjoyment
  • Work cooperatively with peers in small group
  • Experiment with various forms of expression, not their acceptance or non-acceptance by more experienced speakers
  • Participate actively in conferencing and brainstorming as a pre and post writing exercise
  • Use self-talk to make themselves feel competent to do the task
  • Be willing to take risks, try unfamiliar tasks and approaches
  • Repeat back new worlds and expressions which occur in conversations in which they participate, make use of them soon as appropriate
  • Reduce anxiety by using mental techniques, such as positive self-talk or humour
  • Work with others to solve problems, get feedback on tasks
  • Provide personal motivation by arranging rewards for themselves when successful

Language Use Strategies

Interactive

  • Use words from own first language to get meaning across, e.g., use a literal translation of a phrase in the first language, use a first language word but pronounce it as in the second language
  • Acknowledge being spoken to
  • Interpret and use a variety of nonverbal clues to communicate, e.g., mime, pointing, gestures, drawing pictures
  • Indicate lack of understanding verbally or nonverbally, e.g., kîkwêy ôma? (What is this?), kîkwêy anima? (What is that?), blank look or shoulder shrug
  • Ask for clarification or repetition when you do not understand, e.g., âstam pîwîcihin? (Can you come help me?)
  • Use other speakers’ words in subsequent conversations
  • Assess feedback from a conversation partner to recognize when a message has not been understood, e.g., raised eye brows, blank look, shoulder shrug
  • Start again, using a different tactic, when communication breaks down
  • Invite others into the discussion
  • Ask for confirmation that a form used is correct
  • Use a range of fillers and hesitation devices to sustain conversations
  • Use of unnecessary words to compensate for lack of vocabulary
  • Repeat part of what someone has said to confirm mutual understanding
  • Summarize the point reached in a discussion to help focus the talk
  • Ask follow-up questions to check for understanding, e.g., tânsi? (How?) tânspî? (When?) tânihki? (Why?) tânimêyikohk? (How much?) kîkwêy î itôtamin? (What are you doing?)
  • Use suitable phrases to intervene in a discussion
  • Self-correct if errors lead to misunderstandings

Interpretive

  • Use gestures, intonation and visual supports to aid comprehension
  • Make connections between texts on the one hand, and prior knowledge and personal experience on the other
  • Use illustrations to aid reading comprehension
  • Determine the purpose of listening
  • Listen or look for key words
  • Listen selectively based on purpose
  • Make predictions about what you expect to hear or read based on prior knowledge and own experience
  • Use knowledge of the sound – symbol system to aid reading comprehension
  • Infer probable meanings of unknown words or expressions from contextual clues
  • Prepare questions or a guide to note down information found in the text
  • Use key content words or discourse features to follow an extended text
  • Reread several times to understand complex ideas
  • Summarize information gathered
  • Assess own information needs before listening, viewing or reading
  • Use skimming and scanning to locate key information in texts

Productive

  • Mimic what the teacher says
  • Use nonverbal means to communicate
  • Copy what others say or write
  • Use words that are visible in the immediate environment
  • Use resources to increase vocabulary
  • Use familiar repetitive patterns from stories, songs or rhymes
  • Use illustrations to provide detail when producing own texts
  • Use various techniques to explore ideas at the planning stage, such as brainstorming or keeping notebooks or logs of ideas
  • Use knowledge of sentence patterns to form new sentences
  • Be aware of and use steps of the writing process: prewriting (gathering ideas, planning the text, researching, organizing the text), writing revision (rereading, moving pieces of text, rewriting pieces of text), correction (grammar, spelling, punctuation), publication (reprinting, adding illustrations, binding)
  • Use a variety of resources to correct texts, e.g., personal and commercial dictionaries, checklists, grammars
  • Take notes when reading or listening to assist in producing own text
  • Revise and correct final version of text
  • Use circumlocution and definition to compensate for gaps in vocabulary
  • Apply grammar rules to improve accuracy at the correction stage
  • Compensate for avoiding difficult structures by rephrasing

General Learning Strategies

Cognitive

  • Classify objects and ideas according to their attributes, e.g., objects by colour, meat or plant eating animal
  • Use models
  • Connect what is already known with what is being learned
  • Experiment with and concentrate on one thing at a time
  • Focus on and complete learning tasks
  • Write down key words and concepts in abbreviated form – verbal, graphic or numerical – to assist in the performance of learning tasks
  • Use mental images to remember new information
  • Distinguish between fact and opinion when using a variety of sources of information
  • Formulate key questions to guide inquiry
  • Make inferences, and identify and justify the evidence on which these inferences are based
  • Use word maps, mind maps, diagrams, charts or other graphic representations to make information easier to understand and remember
  • Seek information through a network of sources including libraries, the World Wide Web, individuals and agencies
  • Use previously acquired knowledge or skills to assist with new learning tasks

Meta-cognitive

  • Reflect on learning tasks with the guidance of the teacher
  • Choose from among learning options
  • Discover how own efforts can affect learning
  • Reflect upon own thinking processes and how you learn
  • Decide in advance to attend to learning tasks
  • Divide an overall learning task into a number of subtasks
  • Make a plan in advance about how to approach a task
  • Identify own needs and interests
  • Manage own physical working environment
  • Keep learning journals, such as diaries or logs
  • Develop criteria for evaluating own work
  • Work with others to monitor own learning
  • Take responsibility for planning, monitoring and evaluating learning experiences

Social/Affective

  • Watch others’ actions and copy them
  • Seek help from others
  • Follow own natural curiosity and intrinsic motivation to learn
  • Participate in cooperative group learning tasks
  • Choose learning activities that enhance understanding and enjoyment
  • Be encouraged to try, even though mistakes might be made
  • Take part in group decision-making processes
  • Use support strategies to help peers persevere at learning tasks, e.g., offer encouragement, praise, and ideas
  • Take part in group problem-solving processes
  • Use self-talk to feel competent to do tasks
  • Be willing to take risks and try unfamiliar tasks and approaches
  • Monitor own level of anxiety about learning tasks and take measures to lower it if necessary, e.g., deep breathing laughter
  • Use social interaction skills to enhance group learning activities