Explicit instruction and implicit use of L2 learning strategies in higher secondary EFL course books

• Published in: International journal of English studies 2015-07, Vol.15 (2), p.17
• Main Authors: Bueno-Alastuey, M. Camino, Agullo, Gloria Luque
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Affective Behavior; Check Lists; Classification; College students; Content Analysis; Direct Instruction; Education, Secondary; English as a second language; English as a second language instruction; English as a second language learning; English as a second language teaching materials; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Language acquisition; Language Proficiency; Language textbooks; Learning Processes; Learning Strategies; Listening Comprehension; Memory; Metacognition; Methods; Oral Language; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Second languages; Secondary education; Skills; Spain; Study and teaching; Success; Taxonomy; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Textbooks; Units of Study
• ISSN: 1578-7044; 1989-6131
• DOI: 10.6018/ijes/2015/2/218581

Research has shown that teaching second language (L2) learning strategies explicitly promotes an increase in strategy use and in oral proficiency. Consequently, a checklist based on the six types of strategies from Oxford’s taxonomy (1990) was created to analyze strategic instruction in the most common textbooks used in the last year of Higher Secondary Education in Spain. The study considered whether there was explicit strategy instruction and its location (within the units [Internal] or in other sections [External]) in course books, and what specific strategies were explicitly taught for the two oral skills, listening and speaking. Results showed, first, that there was explicit internal and external instruction of L2 learning strategies both for listening and speaking, but not in all the books; second, that there was significantly more implicit use than explicit instruction, and less explicit instruction in the units of the textbooks than in specific extra sections in the textbook or in support material; and finally, that internal explicit instruction of strategies remains very limited; and thus, L2 learning strategy instruction, competence and use may not be sufficiently encouraged in those textbooks.