The editors and guest editors of Volume 35 have very kindly asked me to write an end-piece to this special issue of "The Language Learning Journal" that has focused on language learner strategies (LLS). Particularly they have asked me to evaluate the extent to which the papers presented in this volume adhere to some sort of theoretical consensus.…

This article reports on part of a larger study of the impact of strategy training in listening on learners of French, aged 16 to 17. One aim of the project was to investigate whether such training might have a positive effect on the self-efficacy of learners, by helping them see the relationship between the strategies they employed and what they…

This article addresses language learner strategy research in the context of second language learning and teaching in the UK. It arises from two sources: firstly, a personal background in research and writing about language learner strategy research in the context of modern foreign language learning and teaching in England and Wales; secondly, a…

The present study sets out to examine the strategies used by Chinese learners in a predominantly naturalistic environment and how such learner strategy use relates to their proficiency in the second language. Data were collected from four Chinese research students in the UK using semi-structured interviews. Their proficiency in English was…

This article explores the role which the social context of learning plays in the development of learner strategies. It is based on longitudinal foreign language classroom research in state comprehensive schools in the UK. It is built on the premise that the development of learner strategies is linked to the type of learning context in which they…

This article reports on a distinctive form of continuing professional development that emerged from a classroom-based collaborative research project between university researchers and teachers of French. We shall argue that one of the outcomes of this particular form of collaboration is a relatively unexplored, yet potentially important, approach…

This paper describes a pilot questionnaire study conducted with a class of Year 9 beginners in German in a comprehensive school, which set out to elicit information on learners' beliefs about speaking a foreign language, including their awareness of strategies. Findings revealed that most pupils showed knowledge of a range of cognitive, social and…

Cross-study comparison of the impact of strategy instruction (SI) is problematic because of differences in learning settings, the periods of time over which it is undertaken and the nature of the SI itself. Few studies indicate how the choice of skill areas and strategies has been tailored to meet the learners' age, stage and proficiency level,…

Learners' pronunciation errors when reading aloud in the L2 often suggest an inability to use the language's sound-symbol relationships, or grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs). UK teaching methodology has failed to provide systematic instruction in L2 phonological decoding, and there is an absence of research on the effectiveness of teaching…

Language learning strategy research has focused on the actions of the individual language learner and investigated the links between successful learning and the strategies that such learners use. At the same time, researchers studying beginner bilingual pupils learning English and learning to read in English in UK schools have also been interested…

Literary hypertext has often been acknowledged as the embodiment of poststructuralist literary theory (e.g. Coover, 1992; Landow, 1997; Bolter, 2001). The only literary medium that is produced, edited, published and received electronically, it encourages readings that defy the conventionally linear decoding process. With respect to text…