domingo, 26 de fevereiro de 2012

Monografia - Graduação em Letras-Inglês - UFG

UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE GOIÁS
FACULDADE DE LETRAS
DEPARTAMENTO DE LÍNGUAS E LITERATURAS ESTRANGEIRAS  
GOIÂNIA
NOVEMBRO/2007
  
IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILL THROUGH THE USE OF AFFECTIVE STRATEGIES  

Final written report submitted by Dayane Rita da Silveira to Professor Alexandre Badim as partial requirement for a degree in EFL teaching.
Letras – Licenciatura em Inglês.

For God – who took my life into His hands and turned it all around and made me find the strength I have never had.

Acknoledgements 
I am especially grateful to my mother – Gercina – who constantly encouraged me during the time I was writing this work.  I also would like to give special thanks for my father – Célio – and for my brother – Charles. 

Abstract
This paper aims to emphasize the importance of language learning strategies in foreign language learning and teaching. It summarizes the background of language learning strategies, defines the concept of it, and outlines the taxonomy of language learning strategies proposed by several researchers. It also takes into account affective aspects that can interfere in language learning process and how affective strategies can help to overcome some of these problems.
Key words: strategies and affective.  

Resumo
Este trabalho tem por objetivo enfatizar a importância das estratégias de aprendizagem no ensino e aprendizagem de língua estrangeira. Essa pesquisa fornece um histórico dos estudos sobre estratégias de aprendizagem, resumindo-as e delineando a taxonomia dos tipos de estratégias de aprendizagem proposta por diferentes pesquisadores. Este trabalho leva em conta aspectos afetivos que podem influenciar o processo de aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira e como as estratégias afetivas podem ajudar a superar alguns desses problemas.
Palavras-chave: estratégias e afetividade.  

Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. Reviewed literature
2.1 Language learning strategies 
2.2 Speaking skill   
2.3 The importance of interaction in language learning   
2.4 Oral activities in language learning classroom  
2.4.1 Types of oral activities
2.5 Developmental stages of speaking 
2.6 Reasons that make students stop speaking in language classroom   
               being ridiculed by classmates
2.6.2 Teachers’ intolerance of silence
2.6.3 The unequal opportunities teachers give to each student to speak   
2.6.4 Difficult teachers’ language input  

3. Learning strategies 
3.1 Definition
3.2 The importance of language learning strategies
3.3 Taxonomy of language learning strategies
3.3.1 Rubin’s classification  
Learning strategies  
Communication strategies 
Social strategies
3.3.2 Chamot and O’Malley’s classification
3.3.3 Stern’s classification
Management and planning strategies
Cognitive strategies  
Communicative-Experimental strategies
Interpersonal strategies  
Affective strategies  
3.3.4 Oxford’s classification 
      → Direct strategies
Memory strategies  
Cognitive strategies 
Compensation strategies  2
→ Indirect strategies  3
Metacognitive strategies  
Social strategies  

4. Affective strategies
4.1 Lowering your anxiet 
4.1.1 Using progressive relaxation, deep breathing, or meditation 
4.1.2 Using music 
4.1.3 Using laughter
4.2 Encourage yourself 
4.2.1 Making positive statements
4.2.2 Taking risks wisely
4.2.3 Rewarding yourself
4.3 Taking your emotional temperature
4.3.1 Listening to your body
4.3.2 Using checklist
4.3.3 Writing a language learning diary 
4.3.4 Discussing your feelings with someone else
4.4 Applying affective strategies to speaking skill 
4.4.1 Creating a language learning notebook
4.4.2 Setting goals and objectives
4.4.3 Gauging your skill progress
4.4.4 Relaxing
4.4.5 Calming down through meditation and music
4.4.6 Praise be!
  .4.7 Assessing your emotions
 .4.8 Stress checking
4.4.9 Keeping a diary

5. Affectivity: what is it?
5.1 Critical period
5.2 Neurological considerations 
5.3 Psychomotor considerations
5.4 Cognitive considerations
5.5 Affective considerations

6. Personality factors that affect language learning success
6.1 Self-esteem   
6.2 Inhibition
6.3 Risk-taking
6.4 Anxiety
6.5 Attitude

7. Final considerations 

References


  1.   Introduction
When we are learning English as a foreign language, some difficulties are often presented. There are many problems that have to be overcome to make learning more efficient. It is important to say that learning is different from acquisition. In this work the term learning is very important because we are going to talk about the process of gaining knowledge by studying. According to Oxford (1990, p.4):

Learning is conscious knowledge of rules, does not typically lead to conversational fluency, and is derived from formal instruction. Acquisition, on the other hand, occurs unconsciously and spontaneously, does lead to conversational fluency, and arise from naturalistic language use.

Learning a new language necessarily involves developing some abilities that are called skills. According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005, p.1431) skill means “the ability to do something well” or “a particular ability or type of ability”. In the language learning process we have four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The skills are commonly divided into two groups: the receptive skills (listening and reading) and the productive skills (speaking and writing). However, according to Fries (1945), Stern (1970), and Celce-Murcia and McIntosh (1989) to be successful in language learning, skills must be sequenced and the receptive skills should be first. Then, this is the traditional order that the skills must be presented –listening, reading, speaking and writing.
Speaking is the productive skill in the oral communication and, like any other skills, it is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words. Since learning to speak in a foreign language is a complex skill and I am a modern language student and a foreign language teacher as well, I am worried about this skill as that a good command of oral communication proficiency is essential in foreign language learning and teaching.
In order to help students develop the skills, there are some strategies they can choose which can play an important role in learning a language. Strategies are very important to language learning “because they are tools for active, self-directed involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence” (Oxford, 1990:1).
According to Oxford (1990), learning strategies can be divided into two groups: direct strategies and indirect strategies. These two classes are subdivided into six groups: memory, cognitive and compensation (under the direct class); metacognitive, affective and social (under the indirect class). Direct strategies work with the language itself and indirect strategies work with “metacognitive strategies for coordinating the learning process, affective strategies for regulating emotions, and social strategies for learning with others” (Oxford, 1990:5).
Speaking is considered a complex skill and requires more than just a correct way of pronouncing words. As a language learner, I still have some problems when I have to speak and it has reflected in me as a teacher as well. Sometimes I can organize the structure in my mind, I know the words I have to use, and I really have enough knowledge to enter in an oral communication but most of the time it has been very hard to me. It was easy to see that my problem is not really related to the knowledge of the language itself.
According to Brown (1993:61), “human beings are emotional creatures” and for this reason “we are influenced by our emotions”. When we are learning a foreign language, as in any other situation, we are also influenced by emotions. Likewise, Oxford (1990) suggests that language leaning is an emotional and interpersonal process as well as a cognitive and metacognitive affair. She states that many researchers have not paid enough attention to this, and, for this reason, I decide to focus this work in her theory. Then, in this research I decided to work on speaking skills trying to investigate how the problems related to the emotional side can affect the process of learning a language and I also will present some strategies which can help face some of these problems.     
I intend to show that speaking goes beyond just pronouncing words and try to present some suggestions to help students developing the speaking skill through the use of learning strategies. I also intend to find a way to create a good atmosphere in learning a language through the use of “affective strategies”.
My intention is to investigate how affective aspect can affect language learning. I will describe and try to understand some of these feelings related to the language learning process and search for some strategies that will be useful to solve some problems related to the emotional side of the language learning process.
In this work, first of all, I will take a look at the four language skills, showing how they are divided and special attention will be paid to speaking skills showing what the aspects are involved in this ability. Related to this topic, there will be a brief description of the importance of interaction in language learning and some oral activities which can take place in the language learning classroom. Then, some of the most common reasons that make students not want to participate in language learning classroom using the target language will be presented.
After that, some definitions of language learning strategies will be reported and why they are important for the language learning process. Following this, there is a brief description of language learning strategies’ taxonomy. Some of the most important researchers in the history of leaning strategies: Rubin (1987), Chamot and O’Malley (1990), Oxford (1990) and Stern (1992) will be presented.
As the intention of this work is to focus on affective strategies, there will be a quick look on Oxford’s (1990) direct strategies and a more detailed look on indirect strategies focusing on a special set: affective strategies. Following this, there is a deeper look at affective strategies and a study on how they can cooperate to the success of language learners.
Then, some personality factors related to language learning – anxiety, attitude, self-esteem amongst others – will be discussed, and how they can affect this process. The last part will be a personal view, which shows how this work contributed to me as a foreign language learner and teacher.

  1. Reviewed literature
2.1                        Language learning skills

Learning a new language necessarily involves developing some modalities that are called skills. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005: 1431), skill means “the ability to do something well” or “a particular type of ability”. The language learning process involves four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. These skills are commonly related to each other by two parameters: the mode of communication (oral or written), and the direction of communication (receiving or producing the message). We may represent the relationship among them in the following chart:



Oral
Written
Receptive
Listening
Reading
Productive
Speaking
Writing

 The skills are divided into receptive (listening and reading) and productive (speaking and writing). It is similar to a small child development. First the child listens, and then he speaks, which means that understanding always precedes production. According to Fries (1945), Stern and Celce-Murcia (1970), and McIntosh (1989), to be successful in language learning, skills must be sequenced, and the receptive skills should be first. Stern (1970, apud Brown 1994:49) states that “a small child listen and speaks and no one would dream of making him read or write. Reading and writing are advanced stages in language development. Then, the natural order for first and second language learning is listening, speaking, reading and writing”.

2.2                        Speaking skill

Speaking is one of the productive skills and like any other skill is more complicated than it seems because it involves more than just pronouncing words. Speaking is very important because it seems to be the most handy and immediate form of communication. Moreover, oral communication provides the base for growth in reading and writing. Through the oral language skill we can express our feelings, thoughts, and ideas. Because of the fact that speaking is a productive skill there is a receptive skill involved in this process – listening. Let’s work a little on it.
The classroom should be a place where the use of spoken language is sensitively supported and where active listening is developed and valued. Talk enables students to make connections between what they know and what they are learning, and listening helps them to acquire knowledge and explore ideas. You can learn a lot through listening and in school it should be a prime source of information.
Listening is a complex process in which listeners interact with a speaker in order to construct meaning, within a context. Understanding oral language is essential to the learning process and to extend listener abilities it is necessary the use of some strategies, as well as in any other skill. In order to make listening skill more effective, listening activities are commonly structured in the following way: pre-listening (students should be prepared for what they are about to hear because it helps to produce interest and motivate them), listening (during listening students verify and revise their predictions), and post-listening (following up activities that clarify and extend students listening comprehension and give students opportunity to connect what they have heard to their own ideas and experiences).
While you are learning a foreign language, listening is very important because it helps students to acquire knowledge and explore ideas. According to Cook (1996), the listening process is part of the speaker’s use of language and it is necessary to take into consideration three elements that are part of this process: access to vocabulary, parsing, and memory processes. First, in order to comprehend a sentence you have to work out what the words mean (access to vocabulary); then, the mind works out the grammatical structure and meaning of a sentence it hears (parsing); and then, the comprehension depends on the storing and processing of information buy the mind (memory processes). In order to reach a productive skill in the language learning process – in this case speaking – it is necessary to go through all these elements above, which are part of the receptive skill – listening. By the time that a listener’s mind passes through all these steps – access to vocabulary, parsing, and memory processes – the learner becomes able to go to the speaking skill.
When someone becomes a language learner, he is attempting to communicate through a language that is not his own. It is considerable to say that the process of learning a new language is different from the one of children learning a first language where mental and social development go step by step as a natural process. We can say that talking in language classroom involves two important functions: the social (students’ oral language skills develop in conjunction with their expanding social awareness) and the intellectual (extension of the knowledge of the language). As a social function, talk helps students adjust to ideas and reformulate these ideas to facilitate students understanding. Students share information and ideas with listeners through speaking. Talk is also used to form relationships through language. As an intellectual function, talk shapes students’ perceptions of the world and represents these perceptions as knowledge and it increases students’ critical thinking abilities and retention. We can see that both social and intellectual functions take place in classroom. Sometimes this talking occur without teachers’ interference, spontaneously, but in general it requires planning. It is important to say that confidence (when there is a relationship of mutual trust) and enthusiasm (when students have frequent opportunities to talk) are critical factors in oral language development, and because of the fact that much oral language is immediate, it involves taking risks.

2.3                        The importance of interaction in language learning classroom

According to Brown (1994), interaction is the exchange of thoughts, feelings and ideas between two or more people, which result in a mutual understanding. Mackey and Pica (1998, apud Gontijo, 2004) imply that interaction provides the environment where the learning takes place. Rivers (1987, apud Gontijo, 2004) proposes that the most important aspect of interactions is the exchange of information. Through the interaction students may develop the language in which they are exposed to (input), and the language they are supposed to produce (output).
However, Scarcella and Oxford (1992) go beyond saying that only to provide a comprehensible input (language that the learners read and listen) and encourage the students to produce the language (oral and written production) are not the only factors that make the learning process easy. Despite of these two factors – comprehensible input and encouragement to produce the language – it is also extremely important the attendance teacher provides in the interactive environment. Let’s see some types of oral activities that can be developed in the language leaning classroom.
  
2.4                        Oral activities in language learning classroom

Scarcella and Oxford (1992) highlight that it is difficult to segregate the four language learning skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – and yet keep a satisfactory level of communication in language learning classroom. However, language learning teachers must provide opportunities to make the oral production happen in the language learning classroom, in order to make learners practice the target language.

2.4.1        Types of oral activities

Doff (1988, apud Gontijo, 2004) divides oral activities in two types: controlled communicative activities and free communicative activities. The first one does not give opportunities for learners to add information; it provides limited options (e.g. information gap, pair activities, and exchange personal information). On the other hand, the second one stimulates the learner to contribute and add information freely (e.g. role plays, and pair and group work).
Prabhu (1987, apud Gontijo, 2004) divides the communicative activities in three parts, in which the term gap is common in all of them: information-gap, reasoning-gap, and opinion-gap. Information-gap is commonly pair work, in which learners exchange information: one learner has one part of some information and the other one has another part of the information. Reasoning-gap is a kind of activity in which learners intend to discover new information from the ones that they have already achieved through deduction, inference, perception, and reasoning. In opinion-gap activities students presents their position, feelings attitudes. It is a very rich exercise since there are a variety of different opinions.  
Ellis and Nobuyoshi (1993, apud Gontijo, 2004) stress that communicative activities help learners in their fluency and correction since it allows them to activate their linguistic knowledge and use it spontaneously into conversation and also help them to control their own linguistic knowledge. The authors classified the communication activities into two distinct types: focused communication tasks and unfocussed communication tasks. The focused communication tasks have as their aim to focus on some linguistic topic. On the other hand, the unfocused communication tasks have no effort in emphasize specific topics of the language.    

2.5                        Developmental stages of speaking

As students become more proficient they should be able to develop some abilities such as social interaction (interact socially - use appropriate language and ideas; ask questions and clarify understandings; produce emotional responses; and be sensitive to other’s point of view), develop self-awareness (examine and explore personal points of view; determine what it is they need to know; and find effective ways of supporting their own opinions), and inform (use key language patterns; appropriate intonation; reflect if the language is appropriate to the listeners; and determine the type of presentations necessary in order for the listener to benefit and learn).
It is relevant to say that fluency and effectiveness in speaking takes time because it develops gradually. The following chart describes the developmental stages of speaking, from dependence to independence:

Developmental Stages of Speaking: From Dependence to Independence
Stage 1
Novice Speaker
(unskilled, needs encouragement)
  • use of limited vocabulary
  • encounters difficulties with pronunciation
  • lacks self-esteem and shyness
  • exhibits little interest in group interactions
  • attempts to learn by listening to the conversations of others
  • engages in brief conversations
Stage 2
Transitional Speaker
(self-involved, becoming more confident)
  • initiates conversation within a circle of trusted friends
  • volunteers responses when certain that the contribution is acceptable
  • participates in reading or speaking activities as part of a group
  • asks questions when requiring information
  • uses vocabulary adequate for informal communication
  • avoids controversy and argument
Stage 3
Willing Speaker
(peer-involved, achieving self-assurance)
  • introduces topics and ideas for conversation and discussion
  • enters into discussion about topics or ideas of personal interest
  • participates comfortably in conversation and in other oral interactions
  • extends vocabulary as required
  • demonstrates a growing sense of audience when speaking
Stage 4
Independent Speaker
(autonomous speaker, assuming leadership roles)
  • initiates conversation and discussion
  • encourages others to contribute their ideas
  • possesses an extensive vocabulary and uses it appropriately
  • requests more information, when needed, for clarification and interpretation
  • differs tactfully with ideas or attitudes deemed personally unacceptable
Source: Speaking and Listening: Instructional Philosophy and Teaching Suggestions. Available in: http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/mla/speak.html


2.6                        Reasons that make students stop speaking in language classroom

There are many reasons that cause silence in class and a very important discussion is how to make students talk in the target language in the classroom. According to Beebe (1983, apud Bailey and Nunan, 1996) “getting students to respond in the classroom is a problem that most ESL teachers face”. Sometimes the teachers repeat a question many times but no student volunteer to answer teachers’ questions.
Swain (1985, apud Bailey and Nunan, 1996) states that “when students produce the language that they are studying, they are testing out the hypothesis which they have formed about the language”. It is a very important affair and has to be discussed because when students participate in class they are “actively involved in the negotiation of comprehensible input and the formulation of comprehensible output, which are essential to language acquisition”. Moreover, contributions from students help to create the content of the lesson.
In the following part, some of the most common reasons that make students not want to talk in class will be presented:

2.6.1        The students low English proficiency or fear of making mistakes and being ridiculed by classmates

When students’ language proficiency is not good enough to express their ideas clearly in the target language during group discussion or when there is a lack of knowledge, students may feel a lack of confidence and fear of making mistakes, which can make them not want to speak in class because they are afraid of giving a wrong answer, or even more, being laughed at. It is important to say that lack of confidence is a strong reason that makes students not wanting to say anything.  Moreover, there are students that are too shy to participate even though they have enough knowledge for it. And when they take the risk to say something, it is in a very soft way, almost inaudible to the teacher, and even more to the whole class.
In these cases, we tend to say that it is students fault, but Tsui (1996, apud Bailey and Nunan, 1996) states that “students’ fear of making mistakes and been negatively evaluated can be teacher-induced”. He suggests that teachers with unrealistic expectations tend to inhibit students participation because they feel they can not measure up the teacher’s expectations. Teachers have to be worried about it and try to be realistic, gentle and encourage students to speak as much as possible. It is also important to be clear in the teachers mind that language proficiency is not the only factor that contributes to the students not wanting to participate in class.

2.6.2        Teachers’ intolerance of silence

It is easy to see many teachers that seem to dislike or feel afraid of silence in class. They are afraid that students chat during lessons or they believe that time is too precious. When silence happens these teachers feel impatient and tend to take some “bad” attitudes: give the chance to other students, or repeat or modify the question. I called these “bad” attitudes because the teacher does not give time for the students to respond and for students who are still learning the target language it is often impossible to produce an immediate response to the teacher’s question. Teachers put a great pressure on students to come up with an answer that they are not able to because of the pressure, which tends to frighten them, stop them thinking and suppress their wish to answer. Sometimes, students need time to process the question and formulate an answer.
Some teachers also believe that when silence occurs in class, it means that they are not making the lesson productive enough for students to learn, and worst, they believe that if they do not speak a lot they are failing as a teacher. It is important to analyze teachers’ and students’ amount of talking because an effective teaching does not mean that the teacher should be able to solicit immediate responses from the students, nor that teacher should be talking all the time: when there is more teacher talk, there will be less student participation, resulting in long silence in the classroom that will induce teacher to talk even more.         

2.6.3        The unequal opportunities teachers give to each student to speak

Teachers that can not stand silence in class tend to ask brighter students from whom they are sure of getting an answer and do not ask for some other students in order to avoid not getting responses. It is dangerous because sometimes the teacher does not even give a chance to other students and they tend to do not want to respond because they are often ignored by the teacher.  Teachers who turn to another student for a response or who answer the question themselves if they do not get an immediate response may be damaging the student’s self-esteem. Reasons for this attitude may be the necessity teachers have of feeling good about their teaching (teachers’ need to feel successful); avoid silence or waste time because asking questions to brighter students means get a correct answer or, at least, an answer.
Teachers have to worry about it because when this unequal opportunities happen in a classroom, the weak and shy students feel ignored and the more they feel neglected, the less they contribute to the class, and this lack of participation is not only students fault, but sometimes caused by the teachers.

2.6.4        Difficult teachers’ language input

 There are many cases in which teachers’ questions or instructions can be vague or difficult to understand, which means that, what is asked is not clear enough to students’ comprehension – incomprehensible input. Sometimes students want to participate, but they can not because sometimes teachers’ questions are confusing, unclear, or not simple or specific enough for our comprehension.
It is a serious problem in language learning classroom because this incomprehension results in silence by the students, and when the students are silent the teacher has no way of knowing what the problem is.
Here we analyzed some of the most common reasons that cause students’ lack of speaking in language learning classroom. However, there are some strategies that help to overcoming some of the difficulties related to speaking in class and this is going to be shown in the following part.


  1. Learning strategies
3.1 Definition

The term language learning strategies has been defined by many researchers. According to Faerch Claus and Casper (1983, apud Hismanoglu, 2000), language learning strategies “are attempts to develop linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in the target language”. In this conception, the learner uses the strategies in order to learn the target language.
Weinstein and Mayer (1986, apud Chamot and O’Malley, 1990) state that language learning strategies can “affect the learner’s motivational or affective state, or the way in which the learner selects, acquires, organizes or integrates new knowledge”. Wenden and Rubin (1987, apud Hismanoglu, 2000:1) define learning strategies as “…any sets of operations, steps, plans, routines used by the learners during learning so as to better help them understand, learn, or remember new information.”
Chamot and O’Malley (1990:1) define learning strategies as “special ways of processing information that enhance comprehension, learning, or retention of the information”. Oxford (1990:7) says that to understand learning strategies is necessary to go back to ancient Greek term strategy, which means “the art of war”. In this context, strategy would be the good management of troops, ships etc. through the use of planning. So, Oxford (1990:8) defines learning strategies as “operations employed by the learner to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information”. She extends this definitions saying that learning strategies “are specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and transferable to new situations.”
Richards and Platt (1992, apud Hismanoglu, 2000:1) state that learning strategies are “intentional behavior and thoughts used by learners during learning so as to better help them understand, learn, or remember new information”. According to Stern (1992, apud Hismanoglu, 2000:1), “the concept of learning strategy is dependent on the assumption that learners consciously engage in activities to achieve certain goals and learning strategies can be regarded as broadly conceived intentional directions and learning techniques.”
According to Cohen (1998, apud Gomes, 2003), learning strategies are learning process selected consciously by the learner in order to improve the learning. Leaver (1998, apud Gomes, 2003) stresses that learning strategies are specific techniques chosen in order to help the learner acquire a new information.
All language learning strategies are used either consciously or unconsciously by the learners when processing new information and performing tasks in the language classroom. Using language learning strategies is inescapable, since, according to Hismanoglu (2000:2), language classroom “is like a problem-solving environment in which learners are likely to face new input and difficult tasks given by their instructors, learners’ attempts to find the quickest or easiest way to do what is required”.

3.2 The importance of language learning strategies

The amount of information to be processed by language learners is high and learners can use different language learning strategies in performing the tasks and processing the new input they face. Language learning strategies help to solve problems encountered during the process of language learning. In other words, Hismanoglu (2000:5) says that language learning strategies, while unconsciously used in some cases, “give language teachers valuable clues about how their students assess the situation, plan, select appropriate skills so as to understand, learn, or remember new input presented in the language classroom”.   
According to Chamot and O’Malley (1994, apud Gomes, 2003), learning strategies are important for four reasons: 1) are dynamic processes; 2) relate the new information with the previous knowledge, which help to increase the learning; 3) can be learned and become abilities; 4) and, can be used in a range of similar activities.
Likewise, Oxford (1990:1) states that language learning strategies are “especially important for language learning because they are tools for active, self-directed involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence”. Moreover, she suggests that language learning strategies “encourage greater overall self-direction for learners. Self-direction is particularly important for language learners, because they will not always have the teacher around to guide them as they use the language outside the classroom”.
Hismanoglu (2000:6) stresses that “besides developing the communicative competence of the students, teachers who train their students to use language learning strategies can help them become better language learners”. According to Fedderholdt (1997, apud Hismanoglu, 2000), the language learner capable of using a wide variety of language learning strategies appropriately can improve his language skill in a better way.
Oxford (1990:9) provides us some characteristics of language learning strategies showing why it is too important:

Table 1.1 Features of Language Learning Strategies
Language Learning Strategies
1. Contribute to the main goal, communicative competence.
2. Allow learners to become more self-directed.
3. Expand the role of teachers.
4. Are problem-oriented.
5. Are specific actions taken by the learner.
6. Involve many aspects of the learner, not just the cognitive.
7. Support learning both directly and indirectly.
8. Are not always observable.
9. Are often conscious.
10. Can be taught.
11. Are flexible.
12. Are influenced by a variety of factors.


Language learning strategies, in Oxford’s (1990) conception, stimulate the development of communicative competence. 
 It is important to say that using the same good language strategies does not guarantee that bad language learners will also become successful in language learning strategies since other factors also play role in success.

3.3 Taxonomy of language learning strategies

Language learning strategies have been classified by many scholars such as Rubin (1987), Chamot and O”Malley (1990), Oxford (1990), Stern (1992) amongst others. The categorizations made by these researchers are more or less the same, without any radical changes. Let’s take a look on it.

3.3.1        Rubin’s classification

Rubin (1987, apud Hismanoglu, 2000), who pioneered most of the work in the field of strategies, makes distinction between strategies that contribute directly and indirectly to language learning. According to him, there are three types of strategies used by learners that contribute directly or indirectly to language learning. They are:
• Learning strategies
• Communication strategies
• Social strategies.

Learning strategies

Learning strategies are divided into cognitive learning strategies and metacognitive learning strategies.
Cognitive learning strategies refer to the steps or operations used in learning that require direct analysis, transformation, or synthesis of learning materials. Rubin (1987) identified six main cognitive learning strategies contributing directly to language learning:
• Clarification/Verification
• Guessing/Inductive inference
• Deductive Reasoning
• Practice
• Memorization
• Monitoring
Metacognitive learning strategies are used to oversee, regulate or self-direct language learning. It involves various processes such as:
• Planning
• Prioritizing
• Setting goals
• Self-management

Communication strategies

Communication strategies are less directly related to language learning. The focus of these strategies is on the process of participating in a conversation or clarifying what the speaker intended. Hismanoglu (2000:3) defines Rubin’s (1987) communication strategies as “strategies used by speakers when faced with some difficulty due to the fact that their communication ends outrun their communication means or when confronted with misunderstanding by a co-speaker”.

Social strategies

Social strategies are those activities learners have opportunities to be exposed to the target language and practice their knowledge. These strategies contribute indirectly to learning since they do not lead directly to the obtaining, storing, and retrieving the language. 

3.3.2        Chamot and O’Malley’s classification

According to Chamot and O’Malley (1990), learning strategies are differentiated into three categories depending on the level or type of processing involved. They classified learning strategies into:
• Metacognitive strategies
• Cognitive strategies
• Social/affective strategies
Metacognitive strategies require planning for learning, thinking about the learning process and it is taking place, monitoring of one’s production or comprehension, and evaluating learning after an activity is completed. Cognitive strategies are more limited to specific learning tasks and they involve more direct manipulation of the learning material itself. Socio-affective strategies are related with social-mediating activity and transacting with others. Chamot and O’Malley’s (1990:46) classification take into consideration mental process and they summarize these strategies in the following table:


Generic strategy classification
Representative strategies
Definitions




Metacognitive strategies
Selective attention
Focusing on special aspects of learning tasks, as in planning to listen for key words or phrases.
Planning
Planning for the organization of either writing or spoken discourse.
Monitoring
Reviewing attention to a task, comprehension of information that should be remembered, or production while it is occurring.
Evaluation
Checking comprehension after completion of a receptive language activity, or evaluating language production after it has taken place.









Cognitive strategies
Rehearsal
Repeating the names of items or objects to be remembered.
Organization
Grouping and classifying words, terminology, or concepts according to their semantic or syntactic attributes.
Inferencing
Using information in the text to guess meaning of new linguistic items, predict outcomes, or completing missing parts.
Summarizing
Intermittently synthesizing what one has heard to ensure the information has been retained.
Deducing
Applying rules to the understanding of language.
Imagery
Using visual images (either generated or actual) to understand and remember new verbal information.
Transfer
Using know linguistic information to facilitate a new learning task.
Elaboration
Linking ideas contained in new information, or integrating new ideas with known information.



Social/affective strategies
Cooperation
Working with peers to solve a problem, pool information, check notes, or get feedback on a learning activity.
Questioning for clarification
Eliciting from a teacher or peer additional explanation, rephrasing, or examples.
Self-task
Using mental redirection of thinking to assure oneself that learning activity will be successful to reduce anxiety about a task.
  
3.3.3        Stern’s classification

According to Stern (1992, apud Hismanoglu, 2000), there are five main language leaning strategies. They are:
• Management and Planning Strategies
• Cognitive Strategies
• Communicative – Experimental Strategies
• Interpersonal Strategies
• Affective Strategies

Management and planning strategies

These strategies are related with the learners’ intention to direct their own learning. In these strategies learner must: decide what commitment to make language learning; set him reasonable goals; decide on an appropriate methodology; select appropriate resources, and monitor progress; and evaluate his achievement in the light of previously determined goals and expectations.

Cognitive strategies

Stern’s (1992) cognitive strategies are the same as Rubin’s (1987, apud Hismanoglu, 2000).

Communicative – Experimental Strategies

The communicative or experimental strategies are techniques used by learners to keep a conversation. The purpose of using these techniques is to avoid interrupting the communication. These strategies are:
• Circumlocution
• Gesturing
• Paraphrase
• Asking for repetition and explanation
Interpersonal strategies

These strategies help learners monitor their own development and evaluate their own performance. Some of these strategies would be:
• Contact with native speakers
• Cooperate with native speakers
It is very important for learners to become acquainted with the target culture.

Affective strategies

Since learning a language involves not just the language itself, it is important to consider the affective side of the learning process. Language learning can be frustrating in some cases and good language learners should be conscious of these emotional problems. Affective strategies help learners to create associations of positive affect towards the foreign language and its speakers as well as towards the learning activities involved. These types of strategies can help students to face up to emotional difficulties and help them to overcome some of these difficulties.

3.3.4        Oxford’s classification

According to Oxford (1990:1), language learning strategies “are steps taken by students to enhance their own learning” and they are important because they are “tools for active, self-directed involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence”. Since language learning strategies are “tools”, they are used because there is a “problem to solve, a task to accomplish, an objective to meet, or a goal to attain.”    
   In Oxford’s taxonomy (1990) strategies are divided into two major classes: direct and indirect. These two classes are subdivided into a total of six groups: memory (those used for storage of information), cognitive (mental strategies learners use to make sense of their learning), and compensation (help learners to overcome knowledge gaps to continue the communication) under the direct class; metacognitive (help learners to regulate their learning), affective (concerned with the learners’ emotional requirements), and social (lead to increase interaction with the target language) under the indirect class. The following diagram shows an overview of the Oxford’s (1990:16) Strategy System:


 















The author says that direct strategies and indirect strategies support each other, and the six strategy groups (three direct and three indirect) interact with and help each other. To understand what it means, Oxford (1990:14) considered an analogy from the theater. She suggests that the first class, direct strategies (for dealing with the new language), is like the Performer in a stage play “working with the language itself in a variety of specific tasks and situations. The Performer works closely with the Director for the best possible outcome”. The second class, indirect strategies (for general management of learning), is like the Director of the play, which serves to lot of functions, like organizing, guiding, checking, correcting, coaching, encouraging and cheering the Performer “as well as ensuring that the Performer works cooperatively with other actors in the play. The Director is an internal guide and support to the Performer” and the functions of both the Director and the Performer “become part of the learner, as he or she accepts increased responsibility for learning.”
The following figure represents the relationship between direct and indirect strategies and among the six strategy groups:




Memory
Strategies
(Direct)
 

Cognitive
Strategies
(Direct)
 

Social
Strategies
(Indirect)
 

Compensation
Strategies
(Direct)
 

Affective
Strategies
(Indirect)
 

Metacognitive
Strategies
(Indirect)
 
























→ Direct strategies
  
Oxford’s (1990) direct strategies are those that directly involve the target language. All direct strategies (memory, cognitive, and compensations) require mental processing of the language.
Direct strategies work with the language itself. The direct class is composed of memory strategies for remembering and retrieving new information; cognitive strategies for understanding and producing the language; and compensation strategies for using the language despite knowledge gaps.
  
Memory strategies

Memory strategies, sometimes called mnemonics, involve simple principles, such as arranging things in order, making associations, and reviewing; and help learners store and retrieve new information. These type of strategies fall into four sets: creating mental linkages, applying images and sounds, reviewing well, and employing actions.
• Creating Mental Linkages
-          Grouping: classifying and reclassifying language material into meaningful units.
-          Associating/Elaborating: relating new information to concepts already in memory, or relating one piece of information to another to create associations in memory.
-          Placing new words into a context: placing a word or phrase in a meaningful sentence conversations, or story in order to remember it.

• Applying images and sounds
-          Using imagery: relating new language information to concepts in memory by means of meaningful visual imagery.
-          Semantic mapping: making an arrangement of words into a picture.
-          Using keywords: remembering a new word by using auditory – identify a familiar word in one’s own language that sounds like the new word – and visual links – generate an image of some relationship between the new word and a familiar one.
-          Representing sounds in memory: remembering new language information according to its sound.

• Reviewing well
-          Structured reviewing: reviewing in carefully spaced intervals, at first close together and then more widely spaced apart. Target language information must be reviewed in order to be remembered.

• Employing action
-          Using physical response or sensation: physically acting out a new expression, or meaningfully relating a new expression to a physical feeling or sensation.
-          Using mechanical techniques: using creative techniques, especially involving moving or changing something which is concrete in order to remember new target language information.

Cognitive strategies

Cognitive strategies are the most popular ones among language learners since they are (as any other type of strategy) essential in learning a new language. There are four sets of cognitive strategies:
• Practicing
-          Repeating: saying or doing something over and over in order to fix in mind.
-          Formally practicing with sounds and writing systems: practicing sounds in a variety of ways, or practicing the new writing system of the target language.
-          Recognizing and using formulas and patterns: being aware of and/or using routine formulas.
-          Recombining: combining known elements in new ways to produce a longer sequence, as in linking one phrase with another in a whole sentence.
-          Practicing naturalistically: practicing the new language in natural, realistic setting.

• Receiving and sending messages
-          Getting the idea quickly: using skimming to determine the main ideas or scanning to find specific details of interest.
-          Using resources for receiving and sending messages: using print or nonprint resources to understand incoming messages or produce outgoing messages.

• Analyzing and reasoning: understanding the meaning of a new expression or creating a new expression.
-          Reasoning deductively: using general rules and applying them to new target language situations.
-          Analyzing expressions: determining the meaning of a new expression by breaking it down into parts.
-          Analyzing contrastively: comparing elements of the new language with elements of one’s own language to determine similarities and differences.
-          Translating: converting a target language expression into the native language or vice-versa, using one language as the basis for understanding or producing another.
-          Transferring: directly applying knowledge of words, concepts, or structures from one language to another in order to understand or produce an expression in the new language.

• Creating structure for input and output
-          Taking notes: writing down the main idea or specific points.
-          Summarizing: making a summary or abstract of a longer passage.
-          Highlighting: using a variety of emphasis techniques to focus on important information.  

Compensation strategies

There are ten compensation strategies divided into two sets, which involves the four language skills: guessing intelligently to receptive skills, and overcoming limitations to productive skills.
• Guessing intelligently: listening and reading.
-          Using linguistic clues: seeking and using language–based clues in order to guess the meaning of what is heard or read in the target language.
-          Using other clues: seeking and using clues that are not language-based clues in order to guess the meaning of what is heard or read in the target language.
 • Overcoming limitations: speaking and writing
-          Switching to the mother tongue: using the mother tongue for an expression without translating it.
-          Getting help: asking someone for help by hesitating or explicitly asking for the person to provide the missing expression in the target language.
-          Using mime or gesture: using physical motion to indicate the meaning.
-          Avoiding communication partially or totally: avoiding communication when difficulties are anticipated.
-          Selecting the topic: choosing the topic of conversation in order to make sure the topic is one in which the learner has sufficient vocabulary and grammar to converse.
-          Adjusting or approximating the message: altering the message by omitting some items of information, making ideas simpler or less precise.
-          Coining words: making up new words to the desired idea.
-          Using a circumlocution or synonym: getting the meaning across by describing the concept or using a word that means the same thing. 

→ Indirect strategies  

The indirect strategies – for general management of learning – is composed of metacognitive strategies for coordinating the learning process; affective strategies for regulating emotions; and social strategies for learning with others.

Metacognitive strategies

According to Oxford (1990:135), metacognitive strategies help learners to regulate their own cognition – “coordinate the leaner process by using functions such as centering, arranging, planning, and evaluating” – which means to focus, plan and evaluate their progress as they move toward communicative competence. It is possible to see that metacognitive strategies are essential for successful language learning.
The term “metacognitive”, according to Oxford (1990:136), means “beyond, beside, or with the cognitive”, which means that these “are actions that go beyond purely cognitive devices, and which provide a way for learners to coordinate their own learning process”.
Metacognitive strategies are divided into three strategies sets: centering your learning, arranging and planning your learning, and evaluating your learning. These three groups are composed by ten strategies:
• Centering your learning: this type of strategy intends to help the learner to centralize their attention and energies on certain language tasks, activities, skills, or materials. This group is composed by three strategies:
-          Overviewing and lining with already known material: this strategy implies in associate the new material or language with what is already known.
-           Paying attention: it involves paying attention to specific aspects of the language or to situational details.
-          Delaying speech production to focus on listening: deciding in advance to delay speech production in the new language either totally or partially, until listening comprehension skills are better developed.

• Arranging and planning your learning: This group of strategies – composed by six strategies – helps learners to organize and plan their own learning.
-          Finding out about language learning: making effort to find out how language learning works and what is involved.
-          Organizing: understanding and using conditions related to optimal learning of the new language; scheduling well, and keeping a language learning notebook.
-          Setting goals and objectives: setting aims for language learning. “Students without aims are like boats without rudders; they do not know where they are going, so they might never get there!” (oxford, 1990:157)
-          Identifying the purpose of a language task: deciding the purpose of a particular language task enables learners to channel their energy in the right direction.
-          Planning for a language task: planning for language elements and functions necessary for an anticipated language task or situation.
-          Seeking practice opportunities: make good use of or create opportunities o practice the new language since it help learners in their proficiency.

• Evaluating your learning:
-          Self-monitoring: it is a good strategy for learners to identify and correct their own errors because the learners become aware of their difficulties and it helps in overcoming them.
-          Self-evaluating: learners evaluate their own improvement in the new language which encourages them to continue developing.

Social strategies

According to Oxford (1990:144), “language is a form of social behavior”. Language is also communication and it happens among people. Social strategies are very important because nobody learns a language alone, isolated, on the contrary, learning a language involves other people. There are three sets of social strategies and each set is composed by two strategies:
• Asking questions
-          Asking for clarification or verification: it involves asking to repeat, paraphrase, explain, slow down, or give examples when what someone said was not clear.
-          Asking for correction: asking someone for correction of errors that are obvious to other people.

• Cooperating with others
-          Cooperating with peers: working together with other language learners to improve language skills.
-          Cooperating with proficient uses of the new language: working with native speakers or other proficient users of the new language in order to improve the skills.

• Empathizing with others
-          Developing cultural understanding:  get to know the new culture often helps learners understand better what is heard or read in the new language. 
-          Becoming aware of others’ thoughts and feelings: observing the behavior of others, and when appropriate, asking about thoughts and feelings.
The affective strategies will be discussed more detailed in the following topic.
  
  1. Affective strategies
According to Oxford (1990:11):

Language learning strategies are not restricted to cognitive functions. Strategies also include metacognitive functions like planning, evaluating, and arranging one’s own learning; and emotional (affective), social, and other functions as well. Unfortunately, many language learning strategy experts have not paid enough attention to affective and social strategies in the past.

The term affective refers to the act of gaining control over emotions, attitudes, motivations, and values. Good language learners are those who gain control over these factors, and this control is gained through the use of a set of strategies that are called affective. According to Oxford (1990:14):

The affective side of the learner is probably one of the very biggest influences on language learning success or failure. Good language learners are often those who know how to control their emotions and attitudes about learning. Negative feelings can stunt progress, even for the rare learner who fully understands all the technical aspects of how to learn a new language. On the other hand, positive emotions and attitudes can make language learning far more effective and enjoyable.

Teachers can exert influence over the emotional atmosphere of the classroom in three ways:
• Changing the social structure of the classroom to give students more responsibility.
• Providing increased amounts of naturalistic communication.
• Teaching learners to use affective strategies.
By teaching strategies for language learners teachers help them to gain control over affective factors related to language learning.
Affective strategies are those that have to do with the emotional side of language learning. There are three main sets of affective strategies (lowering anxiety; encouraging yourself; and taking your emotional temperature) and these three sets are composed by ten strategies (using progressive relaxation, deep breathing, or meditation; using music; using laughter; making positive statement; taking risks wisely; rewarding yourself; listening to your body; using a checklist; writing a language learning diary; and discussing your feelings with someone else.)
The following diagram shows the affective strategies classification made by Oxford (1990:41):



Discussing your feelings with
someone else
 


Writing a language learning diary
 


Using a checklist
 


Listening to your body
 


Rewarding yourself
 

Taking risks wisely
 

Making positive statements
 

Using music
 

Using laughter
 

Using progressive relaxation,
deep breathing,  or meditation
 

Taking your emotional
temperature
 

Encouraging yourself
 

Lowering your anxiety
 

 Affective
Strategies
 



Now on, let’s take a deeper look at the affective strategies suggested by Oxford (1990).

4.1 Lowering your anxiety

4.1.1 Using progressive relaxation, deep breathing, or meditation

Oxford (1990:164) states that “a few minutes of relaxation in the classroom or at home using progressive relaxation, deep breathing, or meditation will help learners accomplish their learning tasks more peaceful and more efficiently”. These techniques help to reduce anxiety. It does not mean that the learner must lay down on the floor or assume yoga poses.
Progressive relaxation involves relaxing all the major muscle groups. Deep breathing is an accompaniment to progressive relaxation. It brings great calmness almost immediately when it involves breathing low from the diaphragm, not just from the lungs. Meditation also helps to reduce the anxiety that often affect language learners. Meditation “means focusing in a mental image or sound to center one’s thoughts” (Oxford, 1990:164).
Teachers can talk so students about their anxiety and train them to use these techniques in order to overcome language learning problems related to anxiety.

4.1.2 Using music

Listening to soothing music, such as classical concert, is a good way to relax and can calm learners and put them in a more positive mood for learning.
There is a language teaching method – the Suggestopedia – that states that using music in language learning classroom alter students’ mood and mental states.

4.1.3 Using laughter

Watching a funny movie, reading a humorous book, listening to jokes are good ways to relax. Laughter is a good way to low anxiety and language learners can also benefit from “laughter’s anxiety-reducing powers” (Oxford 1990:165).
According to Oxford (1990:164-165), “the use of laughter is potentially able to cause important biochemical changes to enhance the immune system, so many hospitals are now sing ‘laughter therapy’ to help patients relax”.
There are many kinds of classroom activities which can provide a funny environment: role-plays, games, and active exercises in which learners are allowed to play as they learn.
  
4.2 Encourage yourself

4.2.1 Making positive statements

Positive statements help to self-encourage learners. The strategy of making positive statement helps to improve each of the four language skills.
Using positive statements are very important in language learning process, especially before a difficult language activity. Oxford (1990:165) provides a list of some positive statements teachers can urge learners to say:
• I enjoy understanding the new language
• I can get the general meaning without knowing every word
• People understand me better now
• I had a very successful conversation today
• I can tell my fluency is increasing
• I’m confident and secure about my progress
• It’s OK if I make mistakes
These statements self-encourage learners in order to make them feel comfortable about their own leaning process.

4.2.2 Taking risks wisely

It is very important to take risks in a language learning situation since making mistakes is part of the learning process.
Oxford (1990:166) states that taking risks does not mean:

Wild, unnecessary risks, like guessing at random or saying anything at all regardless of its degree of relevance. Risk taking must therefore be tempered by good judgment. Deciding to be a wise risk taker may require the supportive use of other affective strategies, such as making positive statements or rewarding yourself.

       It is a very important strategy which can be used in the four language skills.
  
4.2.3 Rewarding yourself
      
       Without doubt, it is very important for learners to be rewarded by external sources – praise from the teacher, good grade on a test, a certificate of accomplishment, and so on. However, it is extremely important for learners to be reward by themselves. Oxford (1990:166) states that “some of the most potent and useful rewards come from within the learners themselves”, but we all know that it is not a simple task and learners need to discover how to reward themselves for good work in language learning. Positive statements, when used after a particular good performance on the part of the learner, can be a very good form of self-reward.

4.3 Taking your emotional temperature

4.3.1 Listening to your body

It is very important to pay attention to the signals given by the body, however, according to Oxford (19920:167) is “one of the simplest but most often ignored strategies for emotional self-assessment”.
Performance in all four language skills can affect your physical state and negative feelings – tension, anxiety, and fear – tighten the muscles and affect all the organs of the body. Likewise, positive feelings – happiness, pleasure, contentment and excitement – can have either a stimulating or a calming effect.
It is very important to observe how your body is reacting to the situation. Oxford (1990:167) states that “turning in to the body can be a first step toward greater emotional self-understanding and control”.

4.3.2 Using checklist

This strategy consists in discovering feelings, attitudes, and motivations concerning language learning through the use of a checklist. It is a more structured way to ask themselves questions about their own emotional state, in general or related to a specific language tasks and skills.
Teachers must encourage students to complete checklists every day or every few days to assess their feelings and attitudes about language learning and learners must be aware of that fact that it is an important strategy to help increasing their language learning skills.

4.3.3 Writing a language learning diary

This strategy consists in keep writing a diary or journal about events and feelings in the process of learning a new language. In these diaries or journals learners should describe their feelings, attitudes and perceptions about the language learning process. Learners can also take notes of strategies they find effective for them.
Keeping writing a diary or journal help learners to be aware of their own improvement and it is important in the learning process. These diaries or journals can be kept privately or can be shared to other people.

4.3.4 Discussing your feelings with someone else

Language learning is not a simple process and it involves many feelings and learners often need to talk and discuss with another person – teacher, friends, classmates, and relatives – to discover and express feelings about language learning.
Checklists and diaries can be used as input to oral discussions about feelings and because of these discussions “anxieties and inhibitions diminish, and learners feel they have more control over their own fate” (Oxford 1990:168). It is a very important strategy to encourage students to express their feelings about the language learning process and discover what they need to be better learners.

4.4 Applying affective strategies to speaking skill

There are some exercises concerned with the affective strategies that can play an important role in order to overcome some problems. There are exercises that have to do with the four language skills, and there are other related to each skill in particular. It will be described some exercises taking into considerations the ones that would be useful to speaking skill, since it is the interest of this work.
4.4.1 Creating a language learning notebook

Creating a language learning notebook is a strategy which can be useful for the four language skills, since it can help learners throughout their language learning, and also feel more confident about their own development.
Doing a language learning notebook is a simple thing; learners only need a notebook. The language learning notebook helps learners to organize their own language learning, and, according to Oxford (1990:177) it can be used for many purposes:
• To record your goals and objectives for learning the language.
• To write down assignments given by the instructor.
• To keep a list of new words or expressions you have learned or want to learn.
• To write down words you have heard or read that you want to ask someone about or look up in the dictionary.
• To write down grammar rules you have learned or figure out in some way.
• To keep notes about conversations you have had in the language.
• To summarize what you need in the new language.
• To keep a record of errors you want to work on, and your hunches about why you might have made those errors.
• To comment on strategies you have used successfully or unsuccessfully.
• To record the amount of time you spend each week studying or using the target language.
The structure of the notebook depends on the learners’ style, personality, and purposes for using it. It can be simple or detailed. Oxford (1990) suggests keeping writing in the language learning notebook as often as possible and using it as a good friend in language learning process since it is a good way to get organized and to manage the learning.                                        

4.4.2 Setting goals and objectives

It is very important for language learning process setting up goals and objectives for language learning. It helps learners to become clear about why they are learning the language, and what they want to get from the language learning. It helps learners feel more confident about the four language skills.
Oxford (1990:179) suggests a questionnaire for “determining language learning goals and objectives”:

1. Setting long-terms goals  First set some long-term goals for you. To do this , answer the following questions:
a. why you are learning this language? (check one or more)
_______For advancement
_______For good grades
_______For a new or better job
_______For travel
_______Because the language is required for graduation
_______To get to know people from the new culture
­­_______Because it’s fun
­_______Other (list)________________________________________________
b. Which skills are the most important to you? Given the purposes you have identified, decide which skills are the most important and how you need to spend your learning time. Indicate below the importance of each skill area (1= least important, 5= most important). Then, indicate how proficient you want to become in each of these skills (low, medium, high).
                                         Importance                                  Desired proficiency
Skill                                  (list 1 to 10)                                (list Low, Med, High)
Listening                          __________                                 _________________
Speaking                          __________                                 _________________
Reading                            __________                                 _________________
Writing                             __________                                 _________________
c. On the basis of your purposes for learning the language and of your skills priorities, what are your long-term goals for learning the new language for the next months or years? Sample goals: being able to hold a long social conversation in the new language; reaching a certain overall proficiency level; being able to give instructions in the new language without constantly using a dictionary. Goals should be realistic.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Now go back and write down a date for each goal – a time by which you expect to reach the goal. Setting such a date will enable you t check your progress toward meeting your goals.
2. Setting your objectives     After you have set long-term goals, set yourself some short-term objectives, too. These are aims for the next few hours, days, or weeks. Sample short-term objectives include memorizing a set of vocabulary words; mastering the past tense of regular verbs; reading a specific text or complete a particular assignment. Some of these objectives might take only a few hours, while others might take several weeks. Again, set a deadline for yourself for achieving these objectives so you can check you progress. (Repeat this process as needed)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Now put this questionnaire in your language learning notebook to remind you of you goals and objectives. Review periodically so that you will remember them and gear your learning toward them. Revise them as needed.

4.4.3 Gauging your skill progress

This exercise helps learners to assess their own progress in language learning skill. It is necessary only a paper and a pen.
This exercise consists in measure how well you are progressing – according to your own criteria of what is important for you. Oxford (1990) suggests a table in which students can rate their own progress. It is important because when learners become aware of their condition as a language learner, for example, if they note serious problem, they can think about strategies to overcome some of these problems related to language learning.
Related to speaking skill, Oxford (1990:183) suggests the following:

Speaking
1. When you speak to native speakers of the new language, do they seem to understand you most of the time, without your being asked to repeat? ________
2. In class do your classmates generally understand what you say in the new language? ________
3. Has your speaking improved since last month in terms of quality and quantity? ________
4. Do you find ways to express yourself orally even if you don’t know all the words? ________
On the basis of these questions, give yourself a rating on speaking (circle one):
1. Doing just fine, about where I should be
2. Not too bad, nothing to worry about
3. Serious problems

4.4.4 Relaxing

Tension and anxiety has to do with language learning; however relaxing is an exercise that helps learners to relax so that they are able to deal more affectively with language learning.
To practice this exercise, first, learners must tighten up their lower arm muscles as much as they can, and learners must try to hold this position for 20 or 30 seconds, despite of the fact that it will hurt a little. So, learners will see how much better they feel.
One way of relaxing is through progressive relaxation. Learners must, if possible, lay down, if not, sit in a comfortable position. They must tense their feet and them relax them. They must move up to the ankles, then to the thighs, then to the hips, the lower back, and all the way to their shoulder and relaxing each major group of muscles.
In the neck muscles and face muscles there is a lot of tension stored, so do the same with them. With this exercise learners will feel really comfortable and relaxed. Oxford (1990:184) suggests that “to maintain this feeling, for a few minutes imagine a lovely, relaxing scene like a beach or a forest. Center your thoughts on this beautiful spot, meditating on it gently as you breathe deeply. This is a scene you can return to as often as you want, to help you relax”.
This is a very good exercise, especially when learners will engage in an oral communication, since this skill involves a lot of tension. It can help learners to perform better some activities. 
  
4.4.5 Calming down through meditation and music

Meditation and music can help learners to focus and become calm, so that language learning does not feel so stressful. This exercise can be practice for few minutes at a time, several times a day.
To do this, learners just have to sit comfortably in a quiet place and think of one thing: an object, a word, a syllable, or a pretty place. Despite the fact that learners’ mind will wander at first, they must bring their minds back to the thing they are thinking about. It is necessary to breathe slowly and deeply from the abdomen, not just from the chest.
If learners enjoy doing it, they can also play some peaceful background music while they meditate. It is a very good exercise every time learners feel tension because it is a useful way of relaxing the body and centering the mind. It can be done all the time at home and also can be tried during class time. It can be done before learners engage in oral conversations, in order to calm down the tensions.

4.4.6 Praise be!

This exercise consists in making learners praise themselves for good work and encourage themselves to keep on learning.
Learners must pay attention to specific accomplishments and successes in learning and make positive statements – affirmations – to themselves about their work. These statements help learners change negative attitudes about themselves as language learners, and they can speed up the process of learning by convincing themselves that they will succeed.
Oxford (1990) suggests that learners should say positive statements to themselves at least three to five times a day, and more if possible. It is also teachers’ role to encourage learners doing it. Oxford (1990) lists some general statements that can help learners feel more confident as language learners:
• I am a good language learner
• I am confident and secure in language learning
• I am progressing well in my language learning
• I can learn from my errors and do not have to be afraid of them
• It’s OK if I take risks in language learning
• I don’t have to understand everything all at once
• I can tolerate a bit of confusing
• My warm personality helps me in language learning

4.4.7 Assessing your emotions

This exercise consists in using a checklist to assess their emotional state and to link their emotional with the events of their language learning and other aspects of their lives.
The checklist is simple to use and requires little time, however, it should be used at least once a week, or if possible, every single day. Oxford (1990:187) states that “this checklist is not a complicated psychological profile that tells deep secrets about you! It is an easy way for you to keep in touch with yourself in a private, personal, and regular way, so that you can better handle the demands of language learning.
Oxford (1990:188) suggests a checklist for language learners, in order to take their emotional temperature:

Part A
Date:_____________________                Language studied:______________________
Period covered (check one):
_________Day          _________Week              _________Other (specify):__________
Part B  List language tasks or events in which you have just been involved, for example, 
giving an oral report, writing a letter, doing drills, holding a conversation. 
(Give weather details are useful to you, including if you want, the other people involved.
Don’t skip this; it shows you how certain tasks/events trigger particular feelings!)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Part C  Describe how you’re feeling now, especially in relation to the learning talks or events above. 
(Check the one descriptor per line that best describes you. Realize that nothing is either black or white, 
and that any single descriptor is not necessary better than its opposite).
______happy                                                        ______unhappy
______proud                                                        ______ashamed
______confident                                                  ______unconfident
______peaceful                                                    ______anxious
­­­______unafraid                                                   ______afraid
______risk-taking                                                ­­­______cautious
______clear-thinking                                            ______confused
­­­______friendly                                                    ______unfriendly
______interested                                                  ______bored
______calm                                                          ______angry
______strong                                                        ______weak
______energetic                                                   ______tired
______outgoing                                                   ______shy
______accepting                                                  ______critical
______able to tolerate contradictions                  ______unable to tolerate contradictions
______want to learn the language                       ­­­______don't want to know the culture

4.4.8 Stress checking

Many learners feel under a little or a lot of pressure when they are learning a second or foreign language, and sometimes they do not know what is causing the problem. Oxford (1990:189) states that we must be aware of what is causing the worry:

The first thing to do is to identify, if you can, what it is that is bothering you most about the problem or situation. Is there anything you can do about it? What steps might you take to solve the problem or address the main issue? What would your best friend or a respect adviser do about the problem if faced with it?
Try to look for someone to talk about the problem. Get new ideas about how you might deal with it. If the problem is truly serious, seek professional help from a teacher, counselor, or other person.

It is very important to pay attention stress and try to solve the problem related to it because it can have a bad consequence as the time pass. Oxford (1990:190) suggests a stress checklist to identify whether or not signs of stress:

Circle each of the signs of stress that you have noticed in yourself lately.

Anger                Inability to think, concentrate,                    Tight muscles
                         or make decisions
Isolation            Depression                                                 Headaches
Exhaustion         Anxiety                                                      Sleeping too much or too little
Pickiness           Fear                                                            Eating too much or too little
Irritability          Worry                                                         Reliance on alcohol or drugs

4.4.9 Keeping a diary

It is a useful strategy for language learners to keep a diary in which they can feel free to write whatever they want, but write something every day (do not have to be long and involved; just a few lines or a few paragraphs a day might be enough). This must be a private diary, learners do not need to show it to anyone else. For this reason, learners can use it any way they want, to describe emotions, desires, issues, difficulties, achievements, learning strategies, conversations, how the time is spent, and so on.
Oxford (1990:191) states that “to providing a record of emotions, writing a diary is actually a form of therapy in itself. Diaries are useful for ‘letting off steam’, helping you sort through conflicting feelings, and sometimes coming to new conclusions about how you feel, think, and act”. This practice helps learners to think through their learning problem and identify your accomplishments.
We had just analyzed some of the exercises concerned with the affective strategies and that can play an important role in order to overcome some problems related to language learning. Now on, we are going to study a little about affectivity, which is also an important aspect in language learning process.
        
5.     Affectivity: what is it?

Learning a new language involves not just some cognitive aspects. There are many things that have to be taking into consideration. Cook (2005) criticizes the fact that many researchers are only worried about the language itself and they do not think about the subjective aspects in a language learning process. He believes that every human being has a particular way of thinking and acting.
According to Brown (1994) there are two aspects that have to be considered when you are learning a new language: the intrinsic side of affectivity and the extrinsic factors. The intrinsic side of affectivity has to do with personal factors within a person that contribute in some way to the success of language learning. Extrinsic factors remind us that a language learner brings not just two languages into contact but also two cultures and this second culture has to be learned with the second language.
As we can see, learning a second language involves many factors. According to Hilgard (1963, apud Brown, 1994:134), “purely cognitive theories of learning will be rejected unless a role is assigned to affectivity”, which means that, many variables has to be considered in a language learning process. By the way, what is affective? As it had already been mentioned, affective refers to the aspect of mind that is characterized by states and processes such as emotion, feeling, mood, motivation, or attitude. The word affective is most commonly used in psychology and psychiatry. It is the emotional side of human behavior and in language learning process it has to be juxtaposed to the cognitive side since one current psychological theory, the lateralization of the brain function, holds that one half of the brain deals mainly with the affective or emotional. Moreover, Brown (1994:135) believes that “the development of affective states or feelings involves a variety of personality factors, feeling both about ourselves and about others with whom we come into contact”. These personality factors will be discussed later on.
In the same way, Ellis (1999, apud Cook, 2005) says that there are many factors that contribute to language learning process and she gives attention to two of them, that are called internal and external factors. External factors refer to the input that learners receive into the learning environment. The social environment is also external factor. Into the internal factors, Ellis (1999) quoted the cognitive factor and the flair that learners have. Despite of these two factors, which are easily visible and very important, there are others that also can influence directly the language learning process.

5.1 Critical period

According to Brown (1994: 52), there is a “critical period” for language acquisition. He says that, there is “biologically determined period of life when language can be acquired more easily” and the “critical period” is when “language is increasingly difficult to acquire. The critical period hypothesis claims that there is such a biological timetable”. This is a period in which certain abilities do not develop easily. It is said that the critical period occurs around puberty, beyond which people seem to be incapable of acquiring a nativelike accent of the language they are learning.
Also there are some other aspects that affect language learning success: neurological, psychomotor, cognitive, affective and linguistic considerations.

5.2 Neurological considerations

Neurological researches show that as the human brain matures, certain functions are assigned – process that is called lateralization. Certain functions, such as intellectual, logical, and analytic are lateralized to the left hemisphere of the brain; while others functions, such as emotional and social needs are controlled by the right hemisphere.
Brown (1994:54) says that “during this time the child is neurologically assigning functions little by little to one side of the brain or the other; included in these functions, of course, is language.”
While Lenneberg (1967, apud Brown, 1994) suggest that lateralization is complete around puberty, Krashen (1973, apud Brown, 1994)) believes that it happens in a much earlier age – around age five. Scoval (1969, apud Brown, 1994) says that the “plasticity of the brain” is what enables children to acquire easily a second or foreign language. He also believes that possibly it is the accomplishment of lateralization that makes it difficult for people to acquire fluent control of a second or foreign language.   

5.3 Psychomotor considerations

Related to neurological considerations we have the psychomotor coordination of the “speech muscles” in language acquisition – more commonly called accent. We all know that there are several hundred muscles that are used in the articulation of the human speech (throat, larynx, mouth, lips, tongue, and other). The muscles development begins at birth and continues to develop as the child grows up.
Learning a new language becomes more complicated in adulthood because there are some sounds from the second or foreign language learners are studying that we do not have in our native language since a degree of muscular control is required to achieve the fluency of a language.  For this reason, we know that children acquire authentic pronunciation while adults generally do not, since pronunciation involves the control of so many muscles. It is important to remember that there are cases when people who learned a language in adulthood become very proficient, but Brown (1994) says that, these, however, appear to be “isolated instances”.
In contrast of these, it is important to say that pronunciation of a language is not the most important criteria. There are many people who do not have a “perfect” pronunciation but who have fluent control of a language, which means that, muscular coordination is important but not the most important aspect – communicative and functional purposes of language is far more important.

5.4 Cognitive Considerations

Human cognition is best developed in the first sixteen years of life and less rapidly developed after adulthood. Piaget’s theory suggests that, at puberty – age eleven – a person becomes capable of abstraction and of formal thinking. The question is: why adults, possessing superior cognitive capacity, often do not “successfully” learn a new language?
Rosansky (1975, apud Brown, 1994:59) explains that the first language acquisition takes place when children are highly “centered”, and are generally not aware of the fact that they are learning a language, nor they are aware of social values and attitudes. She says that “he is not only egocentric at this time, but when faced with a problem he can focus (and the only fleetingly) on one dimension at a time. This lack of flexibility and lack of decentration may will be a necessity for language acquisition”. For these reasons, adults language learners who are too consciously aware of what they are doing generally present some difficulties in learning the new language.
  

5.5 Affective considerations

This is the most interesting aspect for this work as well as is considered the most complex of the four domains.
As emotional creatures we are also influenced by our emotions. According to Brown (1994), the affective domain includes many factors: empathy, self-esteem, extroversion, inhibition, imitation, anxiety, attitudes, between other aspects (which are going to be discussed later on). When we consider the nature of language any affective factor can be relevant.
Very young children are totally egocentric. Everything revolves about them. As they grow older they become more aware of themselves, more self-conscious to define and understand their self-identity. In preadolescence they see themselves as “separate and identifiable entities but ones which, in their still-wavering insecurity, need protecting” (Brown, 1994:61). By that time, children develop inhibitions about their self-identity, and feel afraid to expose themselves, and at puberty these inhibitions tend to increase because they must acquire a totally new physical, cognitive, and emotional identity, which make them feel completely confusing about everything: their egos are affect by the way they understand themselves and the way they use the communicative process to bring on affective equilibrium. The simultaneous physical, emotional and cognitive changes of puberty give rise to a defensive mechanism in which the language ego becomes protective and defensive, and it causes some emotional problems related to language learning process.

  
6.     Personality factors that affect language learning success

A large number of variables are implied in considering the emotional side of second or foreign language learning process. As we could see, affective refers to emotions or feelings. According to Brown (1994:135)

The affective domain is the emotional side of human behavior, and it may be juxtaposed to the cognitive side. The development of affective states or feelings involves a variety of personality factors, feeling both about ourselves and about others with whom we come into contact. 

Bloom, Krathwohl, and Masia (1964, apud Brown, 1994:135-136) provide an extended definition of the affective domain:

1. At the first and fundamental level, the development of affectivity begins with receiving. Persons must be aware of the environment surrounding them, be conscious of situations, phenomena, people, objects; be willing to receive, willing to tolerate a stimulus, not avoid it, and give a stimulus their controlled or select attention.
2. Next, person must go beyond receiving to responding, committing themselves in at least some small measure to a phenomenon or a person. Such responding in one dimension may be acquiescence, but in another, higher, dimension the person is willing to respond voluntarily without coercion, and then to satisfaction from that response.
3. The third level of affectivity involves valuing, placing worth on a thing, a behavior, or a person. Valuing takes on the characteristics of beliefs or attitudes as values are internalized. Individuals do not merely accept a value to the point of being wiling to be identified with it, but commit themselves to the value to pursue it, seek it out, and to want it, finally to the point of conviction.
4. The fourth level of the affectivity domain is organization of values into a system of beliefs, determining interrelationship among them, and establishing a hierarchy of values within the system.
5. Finally, individuals become characterized by and understand themselves in terms of their value system. Individuals act consistently in accordance with the values they have internalized and integrate beliefs, ideas, and attitudes into a total philosophy or world view. It is at this level that problem solving, for example, is approached on the basis of a total, self-consistent system.

The fundamental notions of receiving, responding and valuing are universal. In language acquisition the learners need to be receptive to whom they are communicating and to the language itself, respond to people and to the context of communication, and to place a certain value on the communicative act of interpersonal exchange.
Understanding how human beings feel, respond, believe, and value is an extremely important aspect in language learning process. For this reason, Pike (1967, apud Brown, 1994:136) states that:
Language is behavior, that is, a phase of human activity which must not be treated in essence as structurally divorced from the structure of nonverbal human activity. The activity of man constitutes a structural whole in such a way that it cannot be subdivided into neat “parts” or “levels” or “compartments” with language in a behavioral compartment insulated in character, content, and organization from other behavior.

Now on, we are going to analyze some specific personality factors in human behavior and how they are related to language learning process.

6.1 Self-esteem

Self-esteem is an essential aspect in language learning process. According to Brown (1994136), “no successful cognitive or affective activity can be carried out without some degree of self-esteem, self-confidence, knowledge of yourself, and belief in your own capabilities for that activity”.
Coopersmith (1967, apud Brown, 1994:137) provides a “well-acceptable” definition of self-esteem: 

By self-esteem, we refer to the evaluation which the individual makes and customarily maintains with regard to himself; it expresses an attitude of approval or disapproval, and indicates the extent to which an individual believes himself to be capable, significant, successful and worthy. In short, self-esteem is a personal judgement of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes that the individual holds towards himself. It is a subjective experience which the individual conveys to others by verbal reports and other overt expressive behavior.

Self-esteem is a self-judgement of worth or value. Low self-esteem would be represented by statements like “I sure feel stupid!”, while high self-esteem would present comments like “I feel so good about what I just did!” Self-esteem can be a trait – a global personality characteristic – or a state – related to a particular situation.
Global self-esteem – which arises when the person is at a mental age of eight – is related to self-perceptions of competence in various areas – academics, athletics, physical appearance and conduct – and a personal assessment of the importance of each of these areas. When a person is doing well in those areas, global self-esteem is enhance, however, if the person fail in those areas global self-esteem is maintained despite this failure. Teachers can play an important role in making learners succeed and feel generally good about them. Learners with high global self-esteem maintain positive evaluations of themselves, and it is very important in language learning process.
State self-esteem is related to a specific situation, event or activity type. Learning a language has to do with this type of self-esteem: classroom environment decreased situational self-esteem in a language class. It is easy to see that learners who have particular problems in language learning situation are those who have low self-esteem.
Speaking skill seems to be the ability which most causes low self-esteem once learners has to expose themselves in front of other people in order to understand other and to be understood by other.

6.2 Inhibition

As it had already been mentioned all human beings “build sets of defenses to protect the ego” (Brown, 1994:138). This defensive inhibition to protect the ego happens mainly in adolescence when there are physical, emotional, and cognitive changes, and it continues into adulthood.
Inhibition is closely related to self-esteem since:

(…) those with higher self-esteem and ego strength – are more able to withstand treats to their existence and thus their defenses are lower. Those with weaker self-esteem maintain walls of inhibitions to protect what is self-perceived to be a weak or fragile ego, or a lack of self-confidence in a situation or task.

It has to do with language learning process because learners take a new identity when they are learning a new language and it involves risk-taking and, of course, many errors, which are considered part of the learning process. However, when learners perform some mistake they tend to be very critical of their own mistakes, which, in some way, impede success.   

6.3 Risk-taking

According to Rubin and Thompson (1982, apud Brown, 1994:140), one of the characteristics of a good language learner is “the ability to make intelligent guesses”, which means that, risk-taking plays an important role in language learning success. Moreover, Rubin (1975, apud Brown, 1994:141) stresses that “the good language learner makes willing and accurate guesses”. Despite of the fact that risk-taking is an important part of the language learning process, students try to avoid doing it because in classroom it:

(…) might include a bad grade in the course, a fail on the exam, a reproach from the teacher, a smirk from classmate, punishment or embarrassment imposed by oneself. Outside the classroom, individuals leaning a second language face other negative consequences if they make mistakes. They fear the frustration coming from a listener’s blank look, showing that they have failed to communicate; they fear the danger of not being able to communicate and thereby get close to other human beings. Perhaps worst of all, they fear a loss of identity (Brown, 1994:140).

It is important to say that “person with a high motivation to achieve are…moderate, not high, risk-takers” (Beebe, 1983 apud Brown, 1994:141). Moreover, Oxford (1990) suggests that it is essential to learners take moderate and intelligent risks, such as guessing meanings and speaking up despite the possibility of making mistakes.
Language learners, who are afraid of ambiguity, become emotionally paralyzed and unwilling to take any moderate risks in language classroom, so as to ensure that they are not vulnerable. Scarcella and Oxford (1992:59) stress that “these students are stalled by actual or anticipated criticism from others or by self-criticism that they themselves supply”.

6.4 Anxiety

Anxiety is a very important aspect in language learning process once it can affect drastically the learning. According to Brown (1994:141), it is difficult to define in a line; however, he suggests that “it is associated with feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension or worry”.
According to Scovel (1978, apud Brown, 1994:141) anxiety is “a state of apprehension, a vague fear…” According to Horwitz (1986, apud Bailey and Nunan, 1996) students suffering of foreign language anxiety feel apprehension, worry, dread, and started panic when they have to speak in the target language. The author also says that anxious students have difficulties in concentrating, become forgetful, tremble, and have palpitations and exhibit avoidance behavior, such as, skipping class and over-studying. 
According to Scarcella and Oxford (1992), there are two kinds of anxiety as well as in self-esteem: state and trait. Anxiety can be a permanent character (trait anxiety) or can arise in response to a particular situation or event (state anxiety). In language classroom, learners present situational or state anxiety rather than trait anxiety. It is because, in general, anxious learners are reacting to certain aspects of the language learning situation, such as incomprehension input, teachers’ intolerance of silence, unequal opportunities teachers give to students, lack of knowledge, and fear of making mistakes and so on. 
Anxiety can have a very negative consequence on language learning process. Moreover, anxiety is too prejudicial to language learning once that as Horwitz (1986, apud Randall, 2007:2) reports that “nervous, fearful language learners find it very hard to tell the difference between sounds and structures in statements presented in the target language and have a lot of difficulty grasping the content of target language messages”.
According to Horwitz (1986, apud Randall, 2007), anxiety is a problem also found among foreign language teachers. In her researchers she found that non-native foreign language teachers report some of the same fears students are relating. For this reason, some teachers avoid communication in the target language in language learning classroom because they are scared of making mistakes and being wrong in front of the students.

6.5 Attitude

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005:85), attitude is “the way that you think and feel about sb/sth; the way that you behave towards sb/sth that shows how you think and feel”.
Attitude is a very important aspect in language learning success because it affects “how successful you are in achieving your academic and personal goals; how you feel, mentally and physically; and how look, what you say and what you do” (Bete, 2001:1).
Bete (2001:1) stresses that to have a positive attitude is essential in language learning and the author suggests “seven easy ways to develop a positive attitude”:
2)      Be confident
3)      Be positive
4)      Be punctual
5)      Be patient: some things just take time to do this world, and so are your talents
6)      Believe in yourself: you are unique in this world, and so are your talents
7)      Set goals for yourself: then work hard to achieve them
8)      Get fun out of life: don’t take yourself too seriously
Teachers must pay special attention to attitudes learners bring to language learning and help them to turn any negative attitudes into positive ones.
Now, I am going to write my final considerations, in which I am going to explain how this work could help me overcome some of the problems I, as a foreign language, have been found.


7. Final considerations

My primary intent had been to find useful affective language learning strategies in order to help students develop the speaking skill.
I began by describing language learning skill. The skills are divided into two categories: the receptive – listening and reading – and the productive – speaking and writing. In order to make a successful language learning receptive skills should always precede productive ones. I then presented a description of the speaking process since it seems to be the most handy and immediate form of communication.
Following this, I stated the importance of interaction in language learning classroom. Through interaction students may develop the language in which they are exposed to and the language they are suppose to produce. Some of the interaction in language learning classroom takes place naturally, but most of the time, it is necessary teachers interference to make it happens.
Sometimes whether teachers interfere or not, there are some students that seem not want to participate in language learning classroom and it were identified some aspects that make them stop speaking in the target language: students low English proficiency, fear of making mistakes, teachers’ intolerance of silence, difficult teachers’ language input, unequal opportunities given by the teachers to the students, and so on.
Then, I began on language learning strategies defining them and presenting the importance of them on learning process. Language learning strategies are conscious actions which help learners improve their abilities in the learning and it plays an important role since they help language learners solve problems encountered during language learning process. Language learning strategies can make learning easier, more affective, and even more fun.
Language learning strategies are classified by many researchers in different ways, but more or less the same, without any radical changes. However, what seems to be the most complete classification is made by Oxford (1990). She apparently tried to subsume within her classification every strategy that had previously been cited in the literature on learning strategies. The author divided language learning strategies into two major classes (direct and indirect) which are subdivided into six different types of strategies (memory, cognitive, and compensation – under the direct strategies; metacognitive, affective and social – under the indirect) and nineteen sets. 
Then, I began by describing the affective side of language learning since it is my primary interest in this work. Oxford (1990) states that affective strategies to help learners overcome some affective problems related to language learning. She suggests some strategies such as using progressive relaxation, deep breathing or meditation, using music and laughter in order to low anxiety; make positive statements, take risks and reward as a kind of encouragement; listen to your body, keep a language learning diary and discuss your feelings to someone else in order to take your emotional temperature. Then, I analyzed how these strategies can be applied to speaking skill in order to improve it.
Affective strategies can be very useful to overcome some personality factors that affect language learning success such as: self-esteem, inhibition, risk-taking, anxiety, attitude, and so on.
During the development of this work, it was clear to understand that language learning is not only a process of acquiring linguistic rules or participating in communication activities. More than that, language learning is a process in which individual learners are constantly putting themselves in a position of having their own self-concept undermined and subjecting themselves to criticism and negative evaluations since the chance of making mistakes in language learning environment is much greater than in other subjects.
As a language learner as well as a foreign language teacher, I have found too difficult to deal with this criticism and negative evaluations caused by language learning process. I also have been faced with some personality factors that affect language learning such as inhibition, anxiety, and low self-esteem. However, by the time I was developing this work, I became more aware of my difficulties and about what are some of the causes of these difficulties.  I could realize that speaking is a complex skill and requires more than just a right way of pronouncing words.
I have already started use some of the affective strategies suggested by Oxford (1990), such as deep breathing, making positive statements, assessing emotions and discussing feelings to someone else, and I could already obtain good results and it makes me feel very motivated.
It was a great work for me because I could reflect on my own language learning process. It allowed me to be aware of my own problems and face them. It was really satisfactory because I could myself think about a solution to overcome some of my own problems related to speaking skill.
I got the conclusion that it was very helpful to me and I really intend to continue putting these strategies into action trying to become a better speaker in the English language.  
To sum up, I realize that learning a foreign language requires dedication and hard work, and I think I had already a good start.

References

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COOK, V. Second language learning and language teaching.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

GOMES, A.O. O ensino explícito da estratégia de aprendizagem “agrupamento” (grouping) a alunos de inglês como língua estrangeira. 2003. Dissertação (Mestrado em Letras) – Faculdade de Letras, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, 2003.

GONTIJO, N.A.R. A abordagem de ensinar de duas professoras de inglês: um enfoque nas atividades de produção oral. 2004. Dissertação (Mestrado em Letras) – Faculdade de Letras, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, 2004.

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