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Out-of-class language learning strategies Nigel Pickard

This article follows up some of the research into learning strategies and focuses on the role of functional practice. It discusses a study into the outof-class learning strategies of a group of proficient German speakers of English, and attempts to identify and quantify the out-of-class learning activities employed by these learners during their study of English. The study finds that the most-cited activities are the passive ones of reading and listening, due to the accessibility of materials, and that the active skills of speaking and writing receive less attention. The study explores the individual motivations of the sample in their choice of activities through the use of questionnaires and interviews, and highlights a wide range of individual activity choices and motivations.

Introduction

Much interest has been expressed in recent years in language learning strategies. Useful typologies of strategy use have been formulated by Rubin (1975), Naiman et al. (1978), O’Malley and Chamot (1990), and Oxford (1990); all highlight the importance of the out-of-class strategies employed voluntarily by learners outside the language classroom. These language learning strategies encompass student-initiated activities, such as listening to the radio and reading newspapers. In spite of the interest in this area, there is a paucity of data on the precise nature of the language learning activities undertaken by learners outside the classroom. This study attempts to identify and quantify the most common activities employed by a small group of successful learners of English. The study focused on a group of 20 German-speaking students following a European Business Studies degree. It aimed to discover the out-ofclass strategies employed by the sample whilst they were studying English at secondary school in their own country. The article discusses briefly some of the literature on language learning strategies, with special reference to out-of-class strategies. It proceeds with an outline of the sample and data collection tools. The findings of the study are discussed, and the article concludes with implications of the results for language learning and teaching.

Background

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Researchers into the areas of language learning strategies often mention out-of-class strategies in passing, but they are rarely explored in any depth. Naiman et al. (1978) identified the ‘active task approach’ whereby ELT Journal

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learners number learning foreign reading

involve themselves actively in the language learning task in a of different ways. These include adding related language activities to their regular classroom input, such as reading in the language, listening to tapes in the car, listening to the news, novels in L2, and writing to pen-friends.

Rubin (1975) identified language learner, which out opportunities to use and going to the cinema

seven general characteristics of the good include such out-of-class strategies as seeking the language by looking for native speakers, or to other cultural events.

Bialystok (1978, 1981) highlighted the role of out-of-class strategies in language learning, and identified four types of language learning strategies: formal and functional practising, monitoring, and inferencing. Functional practice occurs when the language learner increases his opportunity to use the language for communication, such as going to movies, reading books, or talking to native speakers’ (1981:25). The main aim of the activity is to achieve exposure to meaningful language. Bialystok (1981) carried out a research project regarding the role of conscious strategies in contributing to second language proficiency. It was found that functional practice, corresponding to the use of out-ofclass activities, helped improve performance on all tasks accomplished by the subjects. Using Bialystok’s model of second language learning, Huang and Naerssen (1987) undertook a research project in China into the role of functional strategies in the successful development of oral communicative abilities. They discovered that ‘students who were more successful in oral communication reported employing functional practice strategies more frequently than the less successful ones’ (ibid.: 290). Examples of functional practice strategies mentioned in the study include activities such as speaking with other students and native speakers, listening and reading for comprehension, attending lectures, watching films and TV programmes, and thinking or talking to oneself in English. Elley and Mangubhai’s study (1983) of the effect of extensive reading on Fijian school children showed that students exposed to extensive reading had progressed in receptive skills, reading and listening, at twice the rate of the control group. Hafiz and Tudor’s study (1989) of a group of second language learners of Pakistani origins in the UK showed that the experimental group, which had spent three months reading for pleasure one hour per day, had made significant levels of improvement on all seven language tests. According to Hafiz and Tudor the results would appear to indicate that the extensive reading programme undertaken had effected a substantial improvement in [the] subjects’ linguistic proficiency, and would thus appear to lend support to the hypothesis that an input-based and acquisitionoriented mode of learning can lead to an improvement in learners’ linguistic skills in a second language, as regards reading and writing at least. (ibid.: 8) Out-of-class

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The study

The subjects participating in this study consisted of 20 German-speaking first-year undergraduate students on the European Business Studies Degree at Humberside University, jointly run by five European institutions of higher education. All of the students had studied English as a first foreign language from the age of 11 to 18, and had studied at least one other foreign language, either French or Latin. Most subjects had spent at least some time in an English-speaking country whilst still at school. Four of the students had sat the TOEFL examination, obtaining scores of 540, 635, 637, and 642. Two instruments were employed to collect data for this study; a questionnaire on out-of-class learning strategies followed by an in-depth interview into out-of-class activities. It was stressed to the sample that they should discuss learning activities used whilst at school in their native country, and not those employed whilst studying in an anglophone country. Of the twenty subjects who returned their completed questionnaires, half were selected for interview. The criteria for selection were sex, half of the interviewees being male and the other half female; results in the entry test, giving a spread across the proficiency range; time spent abroad in English-speaking countries; interesting cases of activities, as noted from questionnaire responses.

Results

The majority of the reading and listening; limited to comments foreigners lost in the focus on reading and

data collected related to the receptive skills of data on speaking and writing was negligible, being on writing to pen-friends and attempts to help town. For this reason the discussion of results will listening.

Data relating to reading, listening, speaking, and writing activities was expressed in the questionnaire in terms of frequency of activities, viz. ‘every day’, ‘several days a week’, ‘once a week’, ‘once or twice a month’, ‘rarely’, or ‘never’. In order to facilitate data processing, the response ‘every day’ received the value 5, with the other responses receiving 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0 respectively in descending order of frequency of use. In order to ascertain frequency of activity across the sample, the median frequency was taken in each case. This method of quantitative analysis allowed frequency of activity to be calculated and expressed in figures, thus giving simplified insight into students’ use of out-of-class strategies. Data relating to reading activities undertaken by subjects outside the language classroom whilst still attending secondary school can be seen in Appendix 1. Newspapers

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Reading novels, newspapers, and magazines attracted the largest numbers of reported uses, with median scores of 2, 2.5, and 2 respectively. Newsweek magazine was the most cited source of current affairs reading material, and 20 per cent of the sample said that they had been subscribers to the magazine while still at school, mainly on the recommendation of their English teachers. Exploitation of the material Nigel Pickard

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varied from reading the magazine from cover to cover to choosing three or four interesting articles per week and reading those in more depth. A small number of subjects reported borrowing current affairs magazines from friends. Other current affairs materials mentioned include The Financial Times, The Guardian, USA Today, and International Herald Tribune.

Almost without exception. subjects reported reading newspapers and magazines for leisure purposes rather than concentrating on the linguistic form of the texts. Dictionary use was limited to unknown words which were crucial to the meaning of the text, and subjects appeared to be prepared to guess for meaning from context. Various comments in the interviews shed light on their use of the dictionary. If it’s a word I can guess the meaning of, I don’t look it up but if there’s a sentence I don’t understand I look it up. (M.O.) I tried to just read it and understand but if I was really interested in an article I fetched a dictionary and looked the words up. (A.L.) You don’t need every expression as long as you get the main points . . . you have a feel for what it could mean. You could be wrong but you still have a feeling and you can’t translate it. So I didn’t prepare myself to go there (the library) and start reading with a dictionary. (P.T.) When I was in the library I just sat there and went through them (newspapers and magazines) and if I had some vocabulary which repeated very often I wrote it down and looked it up at home. I used to use a dictionary for the most important words, the ones I couldn’t figure out from the context. (A.Ko.) Most subjects reported relatively good outside literature at school. In had made efforts to initiative:

that availability of current affairs materials was school, but that there was little provision of such the interviews it became apparent that subjects obtain current affairs materials on their own

It was quite difficult in our school (to gain exposure to reading materials) as there was nothing like newspapers or magazines, so sometimes we found something at the public library . . . there were English magazines . . . I had to rely on book shops or newspapers that some friends from England or the USA brought with them.(A.K.) When I was a bank apprentice I always had to catch a train and I always went past the newsagent’s at the railway station and had a look at the front pages but never bought them (English newspapers), (S.H.) Subjects reported becoming interested in reading newspapers and magazines in their later years at secondary school, in general from about the age of sixteen, or after their sixth year of English teaching. Those subjects who reported no interest in reading newspapers while still at Out-of-class

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school became interested in reading English language newspapers after finishing school, and especially after completing a study year in the USA, where they became more interested in the everyday life and culture of the country: After (leaving secondary school) I went to the USA. Once you’ve lived there for a year you get really interested in what’s going on. (K.H.) Novels

Reading novels also featured relatively prominently in subjects’ responses regarding extensive reading activities. The types of novels chosen for reading can be classified into two categories; novels for leisure reading and novels recommended by teachers. Novels for leisure reading included works by the thriller writer Stephen King, and by Roald Dahl, Jeffrey Archer, James Clavell, and John Le Carré, who was mentioned by four subjects as a favourite English language author. Science fiction literature was the preferred choice of one subject who stated that the genre ‘is only available in English’ (T.H.). The same subject also expressed a liking for fantasy games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, whose rules are apparently explained in English rule books, which he had to read in order to discover the rules of certain games. The second category of literature read by subjects had generally been introduced at school, although subjects had shown little interest in it at the time. They stated, however, that they rediscovered these works later, and had grown to enjoy the literature in a more relaxed reading style: We read Passage to India at school and that was the last thing I read in school and to be honest I didn’t read it properly. When I was forced to read things in school, I didn’t like that, so afterwards I started reading on my own. I read a few of the books we had to read in school and I got interested in certain books... In the beginning I read the books to grasp the contents of them and afterwards you improve with every book you read. (M.O.) We did Arthur Miller at school. I went on to do some further reading. I came across John Steinbeck when I read Grapes of Wrath. (A.K.) Most subjects expressed a rationale for reading in a foreign language in the interviews: I think reading novels improves your passive vocabulary . . . even here (at Humberside University) I make a list of vocabulary which is useful. Just in writing it, I will have it in my passive vocabulary. (C.B.) Another subject, whose English had lapsed after finishing school, took up reading in order to prepare entry for the European Business Programme. For other subjects reading was a leisure activity and I didn’t want to spoil it all the time by looking things up (in the dictionary). (A.L.) One subject

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substitute for spending time in the country of the target language. Asked about the greatest influence on his present level of English, the subject replied I think it’s my reading because I was fairly lazy at school . . . I could have done better if I had gone abroad but as I didn’t the only thing that was left was reading. (M.O.) To sum up subjects’ comments on their extensive out-of-class reading, it is clear that the majority of them made a special effort to acquire extensive reading materials by borrowing and sharing with colleagues, subscribing to publications, visiting libraries, and buying personal copies of materials. Frequency of activities increased as the subject matured. Only one subject mentioned exposure to simplified readers whilst at school. No subjects reported extensive reading in their first three to four years of English. It is clear that one would not expect young learners of thirteen and fourteen years old to be reading foreign language newspapers or literature. Indeed. at that age, many young learners would find the concepts and knowledge of the world required to read a newspaper in their own language beyond them. However, it is unfortunate that very few of the schools attended by subjects made provision for foreign language materials in the area of current affairs. Subjects chose reading materials for the most part on the basis of enjoyment, and they did not appreciate being obliged to read by outside authorities. Use of the dictionary was sparing, with the main focus on meaning. Let us now turn our attention to the data collected from subjects on their listening activities. Listening

Radio

Within the section in the questionnaire dedicated to listening activities, subjects were asked to denote frequency of use relating to listening to the radio, watching TV in English, going to see films and theatrical productions in the English language, attending talks and lectures, and listening to tapes in English (see Appendix 2). Listening to the radio represented the most frequently used activity, with a median score of 4, i.e. an indication that on average most learners listened to English-speaking radio stations several times a week. Only one subject never listened to the radio, but said in his interview that English radio could not be received in the part of Austria where he grew up. The second most popular listening activity, with a median score of 1.5, was watching English TV. Attending lectures and listening to language tapes were considered insignificant. Going to the cinema to see English and American films in the original version, and attending the theatre to see English plays, both received median scores of 1, i.e. ‘rarely’. The principal radio stations listened to were the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) and the American Forces Network (AFN), although the BBC and Dutch radio were also mentioned. The first two stations are both broadcast principally for the benefit of the Out-of-class

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British and American troops stationed in Germany. The quality of reception for these two stations is equivalent to that of local radio stations. One of the main attractions of BFBS, which was mentioned the highest number of times by respondents, was the music output. One subject said that he started listening to BFBS before we had English at school . . . maybe at the age of ten . . . although I didn’t understand what the disk jockeys said, afterwards I improved . . . with English at school. (T.H.) On the whole, it seems that subjects listened to the radio extensively, concentrating only on output interesting to them: I just listened to it besides whatever I was doing, reading or just relaxation for the whole day . . . if there’s anything interesting you listen more intensively. (P.T.) Where subjects listened to the output more intensively, it appeared to be for listening to the news: On the hour you probably switch to the German channel but then you get the half hour news (on BFBS). Sometimes you look at how they present it to make comparisons. (C.B.) Another subject made a similar point about the news: When they were talking about something really interesting I was listening but I wasn’t really paying attention to everything. I tried to listen to the news. It’s just to get used to the language. (B.R.) There is little data in the literature regarding the development of language acquisition from extensive listening to the radio, but the input learners receive appears to correspond with Krashen’s input hypothesis. If we reflect on the work carried out on the role of extensive reading on language acquisition we can intuitively say that learners’ exposure to the language through the medium of radio, and in an enjoyable and pleasurable way, may aid language acquisition. All households in Germany contain a radio of some description, and English-speaking stations are available at the flick of a switch. This is significant, in that exposure to the language is free of charge and accessible within the home, in contrast to the availability of reading materials, which generally have to be accessed outside the home and may imply a certain financial outlay. It is unfortunate that not all learners in foreign language situations have such easy access to spoken language. Furthermore, radio stations such as BFBS have supplementary appeal, as they aim at a younger audience, and combine the language with the attraction of popular and contemporary music. Television

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The results obtained for exposure to TV programmes in English varied widely. Two thirds of the sample reported watching English-language television, whilst one third reported never watching it. Where subjects Nigel Pickard

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stated that they did watch television in English, it appears that their viewing was fairly frequent. In some cases, subjects reported having access to satellite TV stations at home which enabled them to watch programmes in English on the Super Channel and Eurosport networks. Dutch channels also carry programmes in English, such as films in their original version, and subjects reported tuning into these occasionally. From student responses it appears that very little foreign output is broadcast on German TV. thus giving little opportunity to subjects to watch English-speaking programmes, unless their homes were equipped with satellite facilities. A small number of subjects who did not have satellite TV reported watching programmes whilst at friends’ homes. Cinema and theatre

Visits to the cinema and theatre were quite rare. From the interviews, however, it became apparent that this reflected the lack of opportunities for subjects to attend English-language performances of films or plays: We have an English theatre where I went a couple of times and we have a Shakespeare company. . we always looked for English movies when they were showing. (K.H.) As one could expect. subjects started going to the cinema and theatre to watch English versions in the later stages of their schooldays, i.e. at the ages of seventeen to eighteen.

Implications

The data analysis reveals a wide range of out-of-class strategies employed by subjects, and leads to one major conclusion: that every learner has his or her own learning style and a personal rationale for that style. However, we can state the following general trends about out-ofclass learning strategies use: 1 Subjects made most use of the activities which they had chosen for their own needs. Activities imposed by teachers seemed to be given less consideration. 2 The intrinsic interest value to the learner of the particular materials chosen for use was the prime motivating reason for exploitation of materials. 3 Most use was made of the receptive activities of listening and reading. This was principally due to the fact that availability of speaking opportunities in the foreign language setting was limited. 4 Many of the subjects in the study had recognized weaknesses in their linguistic proficiency, and had taken measures to remedy them by spending periods of residence abroad and compensatory activities. We have noted that the most frequent activities reported by this sample of German-speaking students are listening to the radio and reading newspapers, magazines, and novels, Opportunities for oral practice were limited, as were going to the cinema and the theatre, yet subjects reported making use of their opportunities to undertake these activities when they arose. Out-of-class

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In order to succeed in their language learning, the above learners adopted what Bialystok (1981) terms an active task approach, by supplementing their classroom learning with a range of linguistic activities outside the classroom. They attempted to gain additional exposure to the language they were learning in whichever mode possible, and to create practice opportunities. If teachers are to become facilitators of out-of-class strategies (and this is not to say that many teachers do not already encourage learners to seek out-of-class practice opportunities), then some input is required in teacher training courses. With the shift of focus of such courses towards the learner, some attention is already being paid to these matters.

Note 1 This article is based upon data collected for a MEd TESOL dissertation at Leeds University. References

Bialystok, E. 1978. ‘A theoretical model of second language learning’. Language Learning 28/1: 69-83. Bialystok, E. 1981. ‘The role of conscious strategies in second language proficiency’. Modern Language

Journal

65/2: 24-35.

Elley, W.B. and F. Mangubbai. 1983. ‘The impact of reading on second language learning’. Reading Research

Quarterly

19/1: 53-67.

Hafiz, M. and I. Tudor. 1989. ‘Extensive reading and the development of language skills’. ELT Journal 43/1: 4-13. Huang, Xiao-Hua and M. Van Naerssen. 1987. ‘Learning strategies for oral communication’. Applied

Linguistics

8/3: 287-307.

Naiman, M., M. Froehlich, H. H. Stern, and A. Todesco. 1978. The Good Language Learner.

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Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Nuttall, C. 1982. Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. London: Heinemann. O’Malley, J.M. and A. U. Chamot. 1990. Learning Strategies

in

Second

Language

Acquisition.

Cambridge: Cambridge Univeristy Press. Oxford, R. 1990. Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know. New York: Newbury House. Rubin, J. 1975. ‘What the “Good Language Learner” can teach us’. TESOL Quarterly 9/1: 41-51. The author

Nigel Pickard has been Head of EFL at Humberside Business School, Humberside University, since 1990. He has an RSA Dip. TEFLA, and an MEd. in TESOL from Leeds University. He is currently studying for an MBA. He has worked in France, the UK, and Egypt.

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Appendix Out-of-class

Appendix Out-of-class

1

reading activities

2

listening activities

Names

Newspapers

Novels

Magazines

Letters

3

0 2 0 3 3 0 3 3 1 3 2 2 1 0 3 1 3 3 4 0

3 1 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 3 2 i 1

i 0 0 0

2

1.5

0

Poetry 1

C.B.

3

J.B. A.F. E.G. K.He. J.H. T.H. S.H. K.Hu. U.K. A.Ka. V.K. A.Ko. AL. M.O. B.R. H.R. C.S. P.T. G.W.

1 3 4 4 1 3 3 2 2 4 1 3 0 1 0 2 4 3

2 4 4 1 4 2 4 1 2 1 2 1 4 2 0 1 4 1

Median

2.5

2

Names

Radio

TV

Theatre

Talks

Lectures

Tapes

Cinema

3 1 0 1

0 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0

0 0 1 ::

2 1 0 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 1 1

0

C,B,

4

0

1

J.B. A.F. E.G. K.He. J.H. T.H. S.H. K.Hu. U.K. A.Ka. V.K. A.Ko. A.L. M.O.

4 4 4 2 2 2 5 1 3 4 3 4 2 0

3 3 %

1 1 2

0 i 1 2 :

:, 2 1 2 1 0

1 1 0

: 1 1

H.R. B.R. C.S.

4 5

32 1

zk

45

Median

4

Out-of-class

:, 1 3 5

0 0 0 0 0 0

2 4 0 i 1 0 1

0 0 1 1 0 0 2 2 0 0

i 0 2 ;

i 0 1 0 0

1 0

01 1

01 0

0

i 1

23

1

01

01

i0

01

1.5

1

1

0

0

1

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