Dear students,
I find this article very interesting and may be helpful to you.
Studying strategies, also called learner strategies, are ways of learning. Good learners use these strategies to make their learning more efficient.
There are two main types of learning strategies, the first are strategies for planning how to learn, and secondly strategies for learning.
Strategies for Planning How to Learn
Advance Organisation
Doing a preview of what you are going to learn. For example, if you want to improve your pronunciation, you can read the introduction to different pronunciation books, and find out that you need to study the sounds of consonants, vowels, intonation, stress and linking.
Directing Attention
This means paying attention to studying something, and not doing other things like surfing the Internet.
Selective Attention
This means studying things that you can remember more easily, for example because they are useful for your university course or for your job. If you need to do a presentation for your course you can study presentations, if you need to write a report at work, you can learn how to write a report.
Self-management
This is understanding the conditions that help you learn, and organising them. For example, if you like music, learning in a place with music. You will also need materials like books and maybe a computer.
Advance Preparation
Planning and learning English that you will need for something, for example learning the correct pronunciation of important words in a presentation.
Self-monitoring
Correcting yourself if you make a mistake when you are using English. This is good for accuracy, but not for fluency.
Delayed Production
When you first start to learn a new language you may decide not to try speaking until you have learned some vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. You may just want to try listening first, before speaking.
Self-evaluation (Self-assessment or testing)
Deciding if you have finished learning a topic because your English is good enough to do the things you need.
Self-reinforcement
This means giving yourself a present when you have successfully learned something. For example, chocolate or 10 minutes playing computer games.
Working Alone or with Other People
With other people you can compare ideas, criticise ideas, get more ideas, and therefore think about things in more detail than you can alone.
Learning Strategies
Thinking Strategies
- Grouping: Putting things in groups and in order helps you to build a framework for learning. Grouping also reflects the way your brain organises information. For example, you can group vocabulary words together according to categories like furniture, animals, office equipment, etc. Using mind-maps is one type of grouping.
Imagery: This means making pictures in your mind to help you remember things. For example a 'hamburger paragraph'.
Taken from: http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/CILL/strategy.htm
