CHAPTER I1

THEORETICAL OVERVIEW

Theories of Language Acquisition

Cognitive Theory of Second Language Learning

Theoretical Background

Language as a Cognitive Skill

Schema Theory

Learllirlg Strategies as Cognitive Skills

CHAPTER - 11

Theoretical Overview

The general purpose of this chapter is reflected in four [main sections. The lirst

sect ion analyses the three views on second language acquisition. The second sect ion

describes 1an;;uage proficiency and the influence of cognitiori on second lar~yuage

acquisition. Anderson's theory o r cogriitive skill acquisition is dealt wit ti in detail

emphasising the stages of skill acquisition, language comprehension and language

y reduction. This theory is augmented by Rumelhart's schema theory. This section

ends with definition, classification and description of the learning strategies within the

franlrwork of Anderson's theory. The last section is a review of the various researches

on the role of learning strategies in second language acquisition.

Theories of Language Acquisition

Education in, English language arts borrows its theories from a range of

tlisclplines and numerous theorists. These rllcories can be mainly classified into three

groups on the basis of three prominent views - the behaviourist view, the innatist view

and the interactionist view This section analyses these three views.

'The Uehaviourist View

The t~ehaviourist view of language acquisition is simplistic and general.

According to this view, language learning, like other kinds of learning, occurs as a

result of the er~virontnent shapiny an individual with a given 1Q. They hold that an

indi \~i jual is reinforced positivelv or negatively for responses to various stiniuli One

can make sure that behaviour will recur by administering positive reinforcement, when

a desired behaviour occurs and by administeriny negative reinforcement when an

undesired behaviour occurs. This view of lansuage learning maintains that whet] a

child grows older. reinforcement becomes progressively more contingent on how

nearly the child's language matches the adults.

At a glance this view is very persuasive. Over the past several decades, scholars

have given richer insights into the complexity and creativity of human lanyuage, the

language learner and the processes of l anguay e actluisi t ion. These insi yhts have raised

crucial questions that the behaviourist view finds difficult to answer. it is difficult for

this view to account for the uniformity of language acquisition throughout the human

species. The behaviourist's heavy reliance on stimulus-response reinforcement

learning poses serious problems. I n the natural communicative interaction that forms

the basis for the child's language learning, he is very rarely reinforced positively or

rlegatively for the forms he uses. I t is difficult to accept the behaviourist notio~l of

general intelligence capacity as the only nlerltal ability accountable for language - acquisition, at early stage in children's lives, during which they acquire so much of a

comp!eu 1ing~:istic system (Li~ldfors. 199 I , Mukulel, 1998). The ir~ability of the

behaviourist view of language accluisition in arlswering certain crucial questions is very

clear from the above observation.

The Innatist 'View -

Partly in response to the apparent inadequacies in the behaviourist view, the

innat ist view of language acquisition gained ground. 1 t gives increased importance to

ir~nate hctors it] language acquisition. The earliest spokesman for the itinatist view was

Noarn Cho~nsky, who asserted that hutnans have a special innate capacity for human

languese called Language Acquisition Device (LAD). He maintained that every child

is borri with urliversals of linguistic structure or "universal grammar". Chorllsky ( 1957)

argued that the special innate capacity was the content; that is, a body of unconscious

knowledge of language universals. When a child was exposed to the language of his

community, this "language acquisition device" would be tri ygered and child becomes a

speaker of that language. But accumulating data from direct and intensive observatiori

of children learning language suggests an active, figuring out child than a triggered

language acquisition device. The special capacity of children tnay be special

processing abilities for figuring out how language works. This strong version of the

nnatist positiorl received support from biologically based research relating to ia~iguage

.develo[~rnent. Lenneberg ( 1964) drew attention to some important ways in which

' anguage acquisition is more akin to ge~letically determined ski1 Is (such as walking)

than to culturally transmitted ones, which are h e results of training. His work links

lanyuaee acquisition to biological maturation. According to him, hulnans have a

:.pecific predisp~sition for language acquisition and exposure in the environnlet~t is a

necessary condition for language acquisition. Our species is specifically adopted to

product. and process sequerlces of distinct speech sounds, both ilutomatically irnd

neurologically Biological evidence strongly supports the notion of an innate capacity

for language i r i human being.

Behaviourist and innatist views of larlguage acquisition focus 011 cognitive

aspecls of the learner and his language learnins activity. The innatist view especially.

in its process version, sees the language-learning child as a cognitive activist. The role

of environment i s seen as shaping language learning through the reinlbrcement of

selectcd respcnses, as "triggering" the child's language acquisition device or as

providing data from which the child can discern underlying rules. The child is indeed a

cognitive being, making sense out of hidher world, including the world of lanyuage,

But the child is also a social being and learning of language reflects and uses hislher

social self.

The I nteractionist View

Obsenrarions of children's larlguage in natural setting, have forced to locate

language acquisition within a social framework. The interactionist view brings into

sharper focus the social nature of the learning of the language (Lindfors, 1991, pp.565-

57).

Piaget i 1973) was concerned with general questions about the nature of

Itnowledge and of human intellectual development His theories are linked with

lallguiipe education proyralnrnes involving process or activity rather than product of

c:ontel~t According to Piaget. human beings progress through a series of fixed stages at

variatde ratio. As we grow we both assimilate (incorporate new information within an

existing framework) and accorn~nodate (adapt our behaviour to the environment).

Piaget concedes that language becomes increasingly important as intelligence develops.

but he does not view language as the source of thought.

Vygotsky ( 1 978) paid tribute to Piaget, but differed from him in two ways.

First, he had a great interest in interrelationship between instruction and development.

He viewed leitrning as a cooperation between adult and child. Second, his focus was on

child egocentricity. Vygotsky considered speech as communication and as a social

event. To him "Meaning is socially constructed, hence learning and cognitive

development are affected by the interactions that an individual has with another"(p.97).

Vysotsky's notion is captured in terms like "collaboration", "collective activity" and

"cooperation". He identifies a "zone of proximal developmentS'(ZPD), which is the

potential of the individual to learn. I t i s the point at which the child can solve problems

in ccllaboratio~l with others. lnteraction then becomes crucial by providing the child

with the assistance he needs. "Learning awakens a variety of internal development

processes that are able to operate only when the child is interacting with people in his

environment and in cooperation with his peen" (Vygotsky, 1 978, p. I I I ) . Interaction

supports children's sense making by (a) providing an encounter with a new idea or

obsenyation, (b) providing co~nitive conflict. and ( c ) providing assistance or support

\'vrotsk!p - -, (1978) claims, "internal speech and reflective thought arisc from the

intcr.u:t ions between the child and persons in her environment" (p. 1 3 4 ) 1--lc cmphasises

"Scaffolding interaction".

The study of children learning language in different contexts and setting

provides 11s with some assumptions about language acquisition. They are as follows:

(a) the child is the active party in the learning process. The child, as a mernber of the

human species, is well endowed for learning human language; (b) the child is a

cognitive being and the language learning involves active sense making. that is, the

buildirig of a deep level system relating expression and prepositional meaning; (c) the

child is a soci.31 being and hislher learning involves hidher active observation of and

partici~ations in interaction with others, from which experience he constructs a system

relatin2 expression and social meaning; and (d ) the environment in which language is

learned is purpaseful. The child encounters language in use for various purposes and in

variods specific contexts (Lindfors. 109 1 ).

In this study the researcher adopts an eclectic view of language learning, which

incor~orat es innatist and interactiotlist approaches The interactive approac ti model

~~tilizctl in this study is based on the coyi~itive illtbt-nlation proccssin_c view or I1111nan

thought and action that considers the learner as an active cognitive being involved in

active sense miking with his environment through various strategies. The strategies are

cognitive skills that can be made use of by the learner so as to promote i~lteractiotl

bet wt:e n hislher cognition and learning n~aterial.

Coenitive Theorv Of Second lJanpnnee Learni~lg

Theoretical background. -

In this section, the theoretical background in second language acquisition is

developed. 'The theoretical efforts attempt to describe language proficiency and the

intl~lence of cognition on second language acquisition.

Chmmins ( 1 984) describes language proficiency in terms of two cont i~~ua - task

difficulties and the context in which language occurs. Difficulty may vary from

cognitively undemanding tasks to cognitively demanding tasks. The cotitext for

language use may vary from contents that are embedded or enriched with linguistic or

paralinyuistic cues for meaning to contexts that are reduced or absent of such cues to

meaning. Academic tasks tend to be copt~itively demanding and tasks outside

classroom are often cognitively undernand ing. The task difficulty dimension based on

the cogrlitive demands of the task has not been used by Cummins to describe the

potential role of cognitive processes in enhancing learning.

'I-ikunoff ( I 985) in a model, which describes student's functional proficiency in

academic settil~gs. extended the fundamental context of language competence

esprsssed bv (Z~~~nmins. H e added three intersectins concepts: interactional, academic

and participative competence. For example, successful panici pat ion in a classroom

setting requires that a student: ( a ) observe classroom social rules of discourse. (b)

function at increasingly coinplex cognitive le\.els and (c) be competent in the

procedural n~les of the class. He failed to elaborate the role of cognitive process in

enhancing student comprehension or learning.

C'anale and Swain (1980) proposed a theoretical framework in which

conlmunicative competence has three major components: grammatical competence.

sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence. In this model, the strategic

component refers to the communicatior~ strateyies. which can be differentiated from

learning strategies by the intent of the strategy use,

Studies have assisted in idrntiljring the role of cognition in second language

acquisition. Hialystok ( 1 978). identified four categories of learning strategies in her

model of second language learning: inferencing, monitoring, formal practici t~g and

functional practicing. In this model, learning strateyies are defined as "optimal means

for exploiting available information to improve conlpetence in a second

languagc"(p.69). A type of strategy used by the learner depends on the type of

knowledge required for a given task. He discussed three types of knowledge: explicit

linguistic kno\.vledge. implicit linguistic knowledge and general kr~owledge of the

world

Bialystok ' s model can be contrasted to Krashen's h4onitor Model ( l981). which

includt:~ two types of knowledge processes: "acquisition" and "learning" Krashen

describes "acquisition" as occurring in spontaneous language contexts, subconscious.

and It-ading to conversational fluency. Learning" is equated with conscious knowledge

of t h t rules of language derived from formal and t raditiol~al illstructio~~ in yralilmar.

The "h4onitor" is a highly deliberate and conscious process in which the learner applies

grammatical niles to language production. In Krashen's view. "learning" does not lead

to "acquisition", because the only function of learning i s to act as a monitor or editor of

the learner's output. So the conclusion ol'this ri~odel is that conscious use of leart~ir~g

strategies will make little contribution to the development of language competence.

Filln~ore and Swain (1984) integrated liny~iistics with affective and cognitive

components of learning. Learning strategies and cognitive processes were said to be

tlie principal iilfluences on the rate and level of second language acquisition. But the

role that the strategies clain~ with regard to mental processes in second language

learnjr~g was nut identified.

McLaughlin, Rossman and McLeod (1983) suggested a more cognitive view of

second language acquisition. The learner is viewed as an active organiser of incoming

information, with processing limitations and capabilities. Motivation is corisidered as

an in~portar~t element in language learning and the learner's cognitive system is central

to PI-c cessing. 'fhe learner is able to store and retrieve infol.lnation depending on the

degree to which the information was processed. One implication of information

procs!:sirly Ibr second language acquisition is that learners actively impose cognitive

schemata o n incoming data in order to organise the information The learr~ers may

ach ie~e auto~naticity in second language acquisitiorr by using either a top-down

approach (knowledge-governed system), which makes use of internal schemata, 01. a

bottom-up approach (an input-soverned system), which makes use of external input. i n

either case. cognition is involved, but the degree of cognitive involvement is set by the

interaction between the task, the knowledge and the mental processes undertaken by the

learnel-.

Spolsky (1985) proposed a model of second language acquisition based on

preference rules in which cognitive processes play an important role. In his view, three

types of condition apply to second language leaning: necessary conditions, y radient

conditions and typicality conditions. Spolsky's model of second language acquisition

:ontains two clusters of interrelated conditions representing these three types of

conditions The first cluster contains social context conditions, such as the learning

setting and opportunities. The secorld cluster consists of learner factors such as

c.apability, prior knodedge and motivation, The learner makes use of these latter

conditions to interact with the social context of learning and it leads to the amount of

language learning that takes place. In Spolsky's model, learning strategies would be

part of'the capabilities and prior learning experiences that the learner brings to the task.

.A precise role of strategic processing in second language acquisition is missing

fiom these theories of second language acquisition, l'he manner in which the intluence

of cosnitive processes is exerted with respect to other inental processes or with respect

to langaagr t a s k is not described by these theories.

L a n ~ u a ~ e as a cognitive skill.

Second lanyuage acquisition is better understood with a description of the

interaction between language and cognition. The theory described in this sect ion is

based tin a cognitive information processing view of human thought and action and this

theory forms tke basis of this study. In cognitive theory, individuals are said to process

infort;~.ltion. and thoughts involved in this cognitive activity are referred to as "lnental

processes" 1,earniny strategies are special ways of processing information that

znhance comprehension and learning. The theory used here describes how second

languages are learned and what role learning strategies play in the language acquisition

Srocess.

Anderson ( 1983, 1 985) has described cognitive ski1 l acquisition as a "three-

:itage process" This framework is useful in the current context as it helps to identitjr

:ind test the , ~ i s t e n c e and applicability of specific learning strategies that are

i1pprop;-iate at l~arious stages in the skill acquisition process Anderson distinguishes

between what "we know about" or static information in memory and what we know

'.how to do" or "dynamic" information in memory. All the things we know about

constitute declarative knowledge, and the things we know how to do are procedural

\:nowledge Declarative knowledge is maintained in lorly-term melnory in ter~ils of -

rneani~ly 01- pn~pos i t iona l represer~tation Our ability to understand and generate

Ianguase or 10 ;~pplv our knowledge of rules to solve a problem would be examples of

~'rocetlural knowledge. Declarative knowledge or factual information may be acquired

quickly; procedural knowledge such as lanyuage acquisition i s acquired gradually and

only with extensive opportunities for practice.

Stages o f skill acquisition,

Anderson (1983) described three stages of skill acquisition: the cognitive,

associative and autonomous stages. These are the stayes through which one proceeds

from the rule-bound declarative knowledge used in perfbrmal~ce of a con~plex scale to

the nlore automatic proceduralised stage. During the cognitive stage, the learners are

instructed how to do the task and it involves conscious activity on the pan of the

learner. The acquired knowledge at this stage is typically declarative and can be

described verbally by the learner. During the second stage the errors in the original

leclalative representation of the stored information are gradually detected aad

eli~ninated. The connections among the various elements or conlponenrs of the skill are

strensthencd at this stage. Though one becomes a fluent speaker, one remembers the

~ules of yrammar. During the autonomous stage the performance becomes increasingly

fine-tuned, automatic and errors disappear. There is much less demand on working

rnemory or consciousness at this stage.

rhis t hree-stage theory of skill acquisition assumes that individuals will learn

the rules underlying perfor~nancr of a complex skill as a precursor to competent and

automiltic skill execution. This process of skill acquisition is referred to as knowledge

c.3tilpilation and contains two basic components: prclceduralization and co~nposition

(Gagle. 1985) In proceduralization, the learner generates a propositio~lal

represent at ion of a sequence of actions and converts this propositional representation

into production systems. Colnposition consists of combining several productions that

have already hecorne automatic into a single production and serves to overcome the

limitalions of short-term memoly. Two other important aspects of this theory are

"cont~ olled" and "automatic processes". Cognitive task may be conceived of as

i ~ . ~ ~ o l v i ~ ~ y contl-olled processes, w llich require the attelltion of the learlier, and auto~liatic

proce:.ses that do not require the attention of' the learner. A complex skill can be

perfcmmed wit-hout conscious etions if it is processed automatically. There are three

basic ilifficulties with Anderson's description of the stage wise acquisition of complex

cogn'tive skills - the rule bound nature of learning, the insistence of a unitary process of

learning con~plex cognitive skills and the possibility of inelXcient system of instructior~.

Laneuage conrprehension.

In cognitive theory language comprehension is viewed as consisting of active

snd cc~nplex processes in which individual constructs meaning from aural o r written

;nforl-,~:~tiorl .-\nderson ( 1 983 ) differer~t iates coa~prehension into three interrelated

processes: perceptual processing, parsing and utilizatior~. Co~~~prel~ension is an active

:onst~ucti\~e prscess that applies equally to listening or to reading. At each of the

;tages. co~nplev processing and strategic analysis take place and i t assists the individual

in detccti~~g or inferrins meanings and in relating the information to existins

k n o ~ ledge. The various ways in which the existing knowledge is stored. whether as

real w x l d knowledge or linguistic knowledge, will be used to interpret test ineani~~y.

When individuals rely upon meaning based representations of real world schematic

knowledge to analyse and predict the content of text, they are using top-down

proces:;ing. and while they use or rely upon individual word meanings or gramnlatical

~haracteristics, they are using bottom-up processing, Cognitive theories suggest that

zfiective processing of text requires the use of both top-down and bottom-up processing

(Howard, 1985).

L a n e u a ~ e production.

In cognitive theory language production is seen as an active process of meaning.

itlstruction and expression. Anderson (1985) indicates that language production can be

divided into three stages. They are construction (selects communication" yoals and

identitics appropriate meanings), transfor~~~ation (language rules are applied to

rransfo~ 111 intended meanings) illto the fo1-nl of the iilessage and executiorl (the message

i n expressed in its audible or observable form) These three stages can be recursive

2.fter tnr initial communication goal is established.

In construction. an individual decides what to s a y This decision is based on rile

oals rbe speaker or writer has for language production. I n transformation, the second

stage of language production, the speaker or writer converts the information into

~neaniny ful sentc:nces Duri t ~ g the execution stage these mental representation will be

writter~ Aowr~

In sum, cognitive theory views language generation as an active and rncaning

based process that applies to both speaking and writing. The generation process

cons4sts of three stages analogous to the stages of language co~npret~ensioa, but with

impccant difierences. Both cognitive and second language tl~eorists indicate that

language producers move back and forth between the planning or construction stage

and articulation or transfonnation stage as they actively develop the meaning they wish

to express through speech or writing.

The cognitive theory gives a descriptive view of languaye comprehension and

production The theory indicates that comprehensiorl of both oral and written text i s an

active and constructive process. Language production is also seen as involving

selection and organizational processes to express meaning.

Anderson's cognitive theory was relied on, for discussing second language

acquisition as a complex cognitive skill. But it was found necessary to augment

pol-tions of the theory with newer concepts of nlemory processes expressed by

Ru~nelhan ( 1980) in his schema t h e o q He described schemata as the buildins blocks

of cogt~ition and emphasized that within each schema are elaborated rletworks of

interconnected ideas Schemata have three il~ajor charactcsistics. First, each is

compGsed of variables whose content is determined by the person's past experience.

Sccontj, each schema i s tvpically embedded withi11 allother larscr schema and in a

similar way has other schemata embedded in i t . Third, schenla and information within

each schema vary in degree of abstraction. This characteristic has special menrliny for

both teaching and learning The emphasis the teacher places on the level of the schema

influttnces student learning behaviours.

There are two types of schemata. namely the descriptive sche~nata that help us

organize our knowledge about a body of knowledge and the procedural schemata that

guide our actions and help us perform in an effective manner. Procedural schemata are

especi;llly important in the areas of problem solving arld skill learning, where the

panic,ular schema determines the actions of the problem solver. Two other related

characteristics of schemata are that schemata are active processes and are constantly

being re-evaluated in terms of their f i t and utility. The process of learning can be

thought of as the development of schemata that allow individuals to understand and

finction in theii- world.

When rhe learner encounters new information, three qualitatively different

modes of learning occur: accretion, tuning and restructuring. Accretion is the simplest

~f this process and involves the incorporation of new facts or instances to an existing

xherna. Tuning involves ~nodification of a schema to accommodate new informatiorl.

iestnlcturing i~lvolves the creation of new schemata to make sense of situatiot~s that

anno not bc interpreted with ewistin~ schemata. ever1 after some tuning Meanit~gf~~l

learnin!: occurs when the ideas ill a new schema are connected not olily to each otl~el.

but idso to previously established schemata in a logical manner. The major task facing

t l ~ c teacher is encouraging and requiring students to actively th ink about the new

material to be learned, and helping them to find relatiot~ships not only within the new

content itself, 1)ut also with content previously learned.

Accretion seems cl~aractrristic of Anderson's coynitive stage of learning and

applies more to declarative than to procedural knowledge. Tuning is parallel to

Anderson's shift from the associative to the autorlomous stage or proceduralisation.

Restructuring can be represented in Anderson's theory as one of the processes involved

in acquiring or transferring declarative knowledye.

Learninp! Strategies as Cognitive skills --

In this section learning strategies are defined and classified and then described

w i t h i the framework ,of Anderson's theory An attempt is made to illustrate strategies

that corresponti tb mental process and to clarify the distinction between n~etacognitive

and cognitive strategies.

Anderson (1983) defines learning strategies as cotnplex procedures that

individuals apply to the task. They may be represented as procedural knowledge,

. which may be acquired tl~rough cognitive, associative and autono~nous stages of

learning .As with our procedural skills at the different stages of learning, the strategies

may be conscious at early stages of learning a t ~ d later be performed nutornatically.

Learrl-ing strategies, according to Weinstein and Mayer (1986), have learning

hcilitabion as a goal and are il~te~~tional on the part of the learner. The goal of strategy

use i s to "affect the learning ~notivational or affective stage, or the way in which the

lear11l:t selects, acquires, organizes or integrates new knowledge" (pp. 3 1 5-27).

Strategies may have affective and conceptual bases, and may influence the learning of

simple or con~plcx tasks.

Tlie distinctions among Iran~ing, cornmunicatiorl and production strategies are

particularly important in second language acquisition. As Tarone ( 198 1 ) notes,

learning strategies are attempts to develop linguistic and socio-linguistic competence in

;he target language. The use of the strategy is to learn the target language rather than to

comnlunicate (pp. 285-91). Production strategies are used to accomplish

communication goals and comnlunication st ra tg ies are an adaptation to the failure t o

realize a la~lyuaye production goal

Learning strategies have been differentiated into three categories depending 011

:he l e d or type of' 'processing involved (O'Malley, C hamot, Stewner-Manzanares.

Kuppzi and Russo, 1 985). (a) Metacognitive strategies are learni~lg straregies that

nvolime thin kin!$ about or knowledge of the learning process, planning for learning,

nonitoring learning while it is taking place, or self-evaluation of learning after the task

las been completed (pp. 43-60). (b) Cognitive strategies involve mental manipulation

l l r transformation of materials for tasks and this is intended to enhance comprehension.

.~cqui::i\ion or I-etention. Weinstein and Mayer ( 1 986) suggest that these strategies call

be subsumed under three broad groupings: rehearsal, organisatio~~ and elaboration

Jrocrjses ( p p 3 1 5-27). (c) Social and atfective strategies consist of usilly social

inter;ic:tions to assist in the comprehension, learning or retention o f inforn~ation. I t may

also consist ofusit~g mental control over personal atkct that interferes with learning.

In Anderson's theory, procedural knowledge is the basic mechanism through

which control over coy nit ion is exercised. Procedural knowledge as represented in

pr-odwtion system is used to examine, test and modify the procedural system and to

extend the system's range of control. Production systems have a goal statenlent in the

condition (IF) preceding an action (THEN), and therefore provide direction in planning

future t houyhts for behaviour.

Planning is a key metacoynitive strategy for second lanyuage acquisition and to

k~derson , it is a procedure for conflict resolution anlong competing action statements

that ;tpplies to the conditional clause in the production system. Planning may be

influenced by goals for performing a task. The signiticance of yoal is suggested in the

jistinztion betwee11 top-down processing, which capitalises o n known information. and

~ottom-up processing, which starts with features of the input. Learners may plan

~pport\lnistically an alternative between top-down and bottom-up processing.

iependiny on :he task demands. Two other metacoynitive processes described in

4ndel.son's theory are selective attention and monitoring Selective attent ion could be

an important facilitator of the learner's efforts; if training is given in learning strategy

I hat inc-ludes selective attention for keywords or phrases. Monitoring involves setting

~:oals for leiirn~ng and deploying alternative procedures when the goal is not met. ,-

ldonitoriny can be described as beins aware of what one is doing or bringing one's

l ~ l c l ~ ~ a l processes urlder C O I ~ S C I ~ U S S C I I I I ~ t lbv and ~ t i d c ~ . ellkctive cant rol,

Anderson's theoretical analysis of cognition irlcludes descriptions of strategies

like i~nagery, organization, inferencirlg, elaboration, deduction and transfer To him

images are one way in which information is stored in memory. The importance of

images in comprehension process is that they may assist in recalling verbal materials.

Organization or grouping as a strateyy for comprehension is embedded in Anderson's

description of parsing productions. I t is also usehl for building connections between

related ideas. Elaborated memory structures are poweh l aids to recall. individuals

can enhance menlory for concepts if they increase the number of related ideas that are

present at the tirnr of study or recall. lnferencing involves using information in text to

guess n~eanings of new linguistic items, to predict outcomes or complete missing parts.

Inferencing has rich possibilities in comprehension tasks.

Tn this study the researcher has incorporated some of the metacognitive,

cognitive and social 1 affective strategies so as to promote interaction between the

language learning material and the learner's cognition. The strategies are embedded in

the task, but explicit directions to use the strategies accompany it.

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