Group 1 (IV A)

Lailatul M, M. Khoirul Wafa, M. Cikhal M

STYLES AND STRATEGIES

            Theories of learnig, Gagne’s “types” of learning, tansfer processes, and aptitude and intelligence models are all attempts to describe universal humantraits in learning.

PROCESS, STYLE, AND STRATEGY

            Process is the most general of the three concepts, and was essentially the focus of the previous chapter.all human beings engage incertain universal processes. Just as we all need air, water, and food for our survival, so do all humansof normal intelligence engage in certain levelsor types of learnig. Human beings universally make stimulus-response connections and are driven by reinforcement. We all engage in association, meaningful and rote storage, transfer, geralization, and interference.Styleis a termthat refers to consistent and rather enduring tendencies or preferences within an individual. Styles are those general characteristics of intellectual functioning (and personality type, as well) that pertain to you as an individual, and that differentiate you from someone else.Strategies are specific methods of approaching a problem or task, modes of operation for achieving a particular end, planned designs for controlling and manipulating certain information.

As we turn to a study of styles and strategies in second language learning, we can benefit by understanding these “layers of an onion”, or points on a continuum, ranging from universal properties of learning to specificintraindividual variations in learning.

LEARNING STYLES

            The way we learn things in general and the way we attack a problem seem to hinge on a rather amorphous link between personality and cognition; this link is referred to as cognitive style. When cognitive styles are specifically related to an educational context. Where affective and psysosiological factors are intermingled, they are usually more generally referred to as learning styles.Learning styles mediate between emotion and cognition, as you will soon discover. For example, a reflective style invariably grows out of a reflective personalty or a reflective mood. An impulsive style, on the other hand, usually arises outof an impulsive emotional state. If i were to try to enumerate all the learning styles that educators and psychologists have identified, a very long list of just about every imaginable sensory, communicative, cultural, affective, cognitive, and intellectual factor would emerge. Ehrman and Leaver (2003) researched the relevance of nine such styles to second language acquisition:

Ø  Field independence-dependence

Ø  Random (non-linier) vs. Sequential (linier)

Ø  Global vs. Particular

Ø  Inductive vs.  Deductive

Ø  Synthetic vs. Analytic

Ø  Analogue vs. Digital

Ø  Concrete vs. Abstract

Ø  Leveling vs. Sharpening

Ø  Impulsive vs. Reflective

FIELD INDEPENDENCE

             A field independence (FI) style enables you to distinguish parts from a whole, to cncentrate on something (like reading a book in a noisy train station), or to analyze separate variables without the contamination of neighboring variables. On the other hand, too much FI may result in cognitive “tunnel vision”: you see only the parts and not their relationship to the whole. “You can’t see the forest for the trees,” as the saying goes. Seen in this light, development of a field dependent (FD) style has positive effects. You perceive the whole picture, the larger view, the general configuration of a problem or idea or event. It is clear that bothe FI and FD are necessary for most of the cognitive and affective problems we face.