Language Learning Strategies

Start with vocabulary and learning styles

Begin with Learning Vocabulary, a mind map that introduces memory and describes short-term storage and working memory. Follow its branches to see how the resource connects vocabulary learning with remembering information.

Next, open Learning strategies and learning styles. It considers how strategy use can vary with the task, the learner’s stage, age, context and individual style. Compare those factors with the ideas in the vocabulary map. You can use the comparison to think about why a learning approach might change from one situation to another.

Explore types of strategies

Strategies for language learning introduces cognitive, compensation and memory strategies. Other mind maps on the page discuss social and metacognitive strategies, including learning with others and managing learning. Read across the branches and make a short list of the strategy types you find.

Then look at Learning strategies as cognitive skills. The listed maps with this title include ideas about using the senses and techniques for acquiring second-language knowledge. Compare these ideas with the strategy types you noted earlier.

Use maps to practice recall

The page has no quizzes listed, but you can turn a map into a short self-test. Cover a branch, write a question based on its heading, and try to explain the idea before checking the map. For example, use the branches on short-term and working memory in Learning Vocabulary to form questions about what each covers.

Teachers can use the same approach to prompt discussion: ask learners to explain a branch, then compare their explanations with the resource. The maps can also support a conversation about the strategies learners already use.

Connect the topic to its unit

Within its English language unit, this topic brings together maps about learning strategies, learning styles and strategy instruction. Strategy Instruction discusses discovering existing strategies and presenting new ones, providing another way to connect the maps. Choose a resource and trace the ideas that interest you.