Arab World English Journal, August 2015 Bejaia University, International Conference Proceedings – 2015 Pp. 92 –99
Integrating Strategy Training to Enhance Foreign Language Learning.
Ouerrad Belabbas
Department of Foreign Languages
Djillali Liabes University. Sidi Bel-Abbes
Abstract:
The implementation of the competency based approach to the teaching of EFL in the middle and secondary schools has inspired new methods and techniques at the level of syllabus design and textbook writing; and more specifically at the level of the teaching/learning process with great concern on developing learners’ different competencies and skills so as to achieve the ultimate educational objective, which is learners’ autonomy. Following the same objective of reforming the educational system, the Ministry of Higher Education has also introduced a new system labeled the LMD system which, as far as the teaching/learning process is concerned, resembles the one the students have been accustomed to in the middle and secondary schools, in the sense that they both have the ultimate objective of enhancing competitiveness and autonomy in learning. Consequently, this new orientation in our educational system towards learner-centered methods where the learner is central in the teaching/learning process requires a radical change in the beliefs, attitudes and teaching practice. This can be done in the form of an explicit instruction of cognitive and metacognitive skills which would help the learner become an efficient self-directed learner who would carry on his learning even after he has left school and university.
Keywords: Cognitive/metacognitive strategies, explicit training, learner autonomy, self directed learning.