Social/Affective Strategies in EFL Writing

Abstract：Language learning strategies not only refer to the specific techniques and skills that learners use to accelerate language acquisition， but also refer to the beliefs that direct such techniques and skills. By means of enhancing students’strategies awareness， the training of learning strategies not only played an active role in actual writing performance， but also had a potential positive effect on language proficiency improvement.

Key word： learning strategies； English writing； strategy training

1. O’Malley and Chamot’s Classification （1990）

Influenced strongly by the findings of cognitive psychology， O’Malley has classified learning strategies into three categories depending on the level or type of processing involved. They include metacognitive strategies， cognitive strategies and social/affective strategies. Metacognitive strategies are used to express higher order executive skills that may entail planning for learning， monitoring of one’s production or comprehension， or evaluating whether a learning activity is successful or not. Metacognitive strategies can be applied to a wide variety of learning tasks. The main metacognitive strategies include advance organizers， directed attention， selective attention， self-management， functional planning， self-monitoring， delayed production and self-evaluation. Cognitive strategies operate directly on incoming information， manipulating it in ways that enhance learning.（O’Malley and Chamot， 1990：44） Cognitive strategies may be limited in application to the specific learning tasks. Typical strategies that have been discussed in the cognitive category include： rehearsal， repetition， organization， grouping， inferencing， summarizing， deduction， imagery， transfer， elaboration. As to social/ affective strategies， it can be stated that they represent a broad grouping that involves either interaction with another person or ideational control over affect.（ O’Malley and Chamot 1990：45） As the name suggests， these kinds of strategies include two aspects： using social-mediating activities to assist in learning or retention of information； using mental control to affect the interfering factors in learning. Generally， they are considered applicable to various tasks. Cooperation， questioning and self-talk are the principal social/ affective strategies.

2. Social/Affective Strategies in EFL Writing

2.1 Group Investigation

There are six specific stages involved in GI. In the first stage， the teacher identifies the general topic and helps the students （working in groups of 2-6）， through discussion， to identify subtopic and how to organize for group study. In the second stage， students work together to plan how they will carry out the investigation of their subtopic or set of questions. The third stage is probably the longest in this method. During this time， students work on their investigations. In the fourth stage， students work together in their groups， analyzing and evaluating the information they have obtained. In the fifth stage， each group presents a summary of the results of its investigation so that all students gain a broad perspective of the general topic. The sixth stage involves the evaluation of reports and presentations as well as individual learning.