This study builds on previous research using the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). Most previous SILL research has made comparisons across the entire survey or in terms of strategy categories and has stressed proficiency level at the expense of other variables. The present largescale (N = 374) study of language learning strategy use by students at three different course levels at the University of Puerto Rico relates strategy use to gender as well as to L2 proficiency level and includes analysis of variation in the use of individual strategies on the SILL. Like previous researchers, we found greater use of learning strategies among more successful learners and higher levels of strategy use by women than by men. Our analysis, however, revealed more complex patterns of use than have appeared in previous studies. With both proficiency level and gender, only some items showed significant variation, and significant variation by proficiency level did not invariably mean more frequent strategy use by more successful students. The strategies reported as used more often by the more successful students emphasized active, naturalistic practice and were used in combination with a variety of what we term bedrock strategies, which were used frequently or moderately frequently by learners at all levels. The study's generalizability and its implications for teachers and researchers are discussed.

A Closer Look at Learning Strategies, L2 Proficiency, and Gender

This chapter begins with definitions and an overview of methods used to identify learners' strategies, then summarizes what we have learned from the large number of descriptive studies of strategies reported by language learners. Research on language learning strategies has a history of only about thirty years, and much of this history has been sporadic. The 1980s and early 1990s were a period of substantial research on language learning strategies, much of it descriptive. This period was followed by an apparent loss of interest in language learning strategies, judging by limited reported research and few related conference presentations. Recently, however, a number of new investigations have reinvigorated the field. The focus of the chapter is on the evolution of research on language learning strategy intervention studies, the issues that have emerged from this research, and metacognitive models that can be useful in the language classroom. The discussion concludes by setting out directions for future research.

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Language learning strategy instruction: current issues and research

Much research in second language acquisition (SLA) centres on the relationships among individual difference measures such as language attitudes, motivation, anxiety, self-confidence, language aptitude, learning strategies, field independence, and measures of achievement in the language. Numerous studies have supported the proposed influences of these individual difference variables on achievement, and a number of models have been developed to explain the relationships among subsets of these variables. However, there is a lack of research examining the relationships among all these variables simultaneously. In the present study, we investigate a large number of individual difference measures to determine their underlying dimensions, to contrast their predictive validities, and to evaluate their contributions in a causal model of SLA. Our study was based on a sample of 102 university students enrolled in introductory French. The results indicated substantial links among the affective measures and achievement. Support was found for these connections in the proposed causal model.

Towards a Full Model of Second Language Learning: An Empirical Investigation

Differences in the metacognitive awareness of reading strategies among native and non-native readers

Learning strategies are the thoughts and actions that individuals use to accomplish a learning goal. Extensive research has identified the learning strategies used by students of a variety of second and foreign languages and a somewhat smaller body of research has documented the effectiveness of helping less successful language students improve their performance through learning strategy instruction. This article discusses current issues in language learning strategy research that affect teachers and learners of foreign languages. These issues include: identification procedures of learning strategies, terminology and classification of strategies, the effects of learner characteristics on strategy use, the effects of culture and context on strategy use, explicit and integrated strategy instruction, language of instruction, transfer of strategies to new tasks, and models for language learning strategy instruction. These eight issues are explored through a discussion of existing research that illumines the issues. Suggestions are presented for future research on issues that have not yet been thoroughly explored.

Issues in language learning strategy research and teaching

Assessing the use of language learning strategies worldwide with the ESL/EFL version of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL)

Under the heading of reliability, most textbooks refer to classical reliability indexes as appropriate measures for determining interrater agreement. It is argued that interrater agreement is a psychometric property that is theoretically different from classical reliability. Interrater agreement indexes measure the degree to which two or more raters agree on the observation of one or more behaviors on one or more subjects and are not theoretically related to classical test theory. A detailed set of formulas is presented to illustrate a set of algebraically equivalent rater agreement indexes that are intended to provide the educational and psychological researcher and practitioner with a practical means of establishing a measure of rater agreement. The formulas are illustrated with a data set. The formulas can be used for dichotomous and continuous data for two or more raters, on one or more subjects, on one or more behaviors. These rater agreement indexes are useful with performance assessments such as observations, porfolios, performance evaluations, essay writing evaluations, authentic assessments, and so on, where multiple facets impact rater agreement.

Rater Agreement Indexes for Performance Assessment

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Expert Science Teaching Educational Evaluation Model (ESTEEM): Measuring Excellence in Science Teaching for Professional Development.

The Constructivist Teaching Practices Inventory in Elementary Physical Education (CTPI-EPE) was developed for the purpose of this study to assess teachers' expertise in constructivist-oriented physical education teaching. One hundred and eighty-three elementary physical education teachers completed the CTPI-EPE. Four subscales of the CTPI-EPE emerged from an exploratory factor analysis and were in line with major dimensions of constructivist-oriented teaching practices. The results established support for the reliability and validity of the CTPI-EPE that provided us with diagnostic information about identifying expertise in constructivist-oriented physical education teaching practices within the continuum from novice to expert teaching levels.

Self-Evaluation of Expertise in Teaching Elementary Physical Education from Constructivist Perspectives

Three species of Habrostroma dominate stromatoporoid faunas in the Lower Devonian (Lochkovian) of five areas in North America: New York, Virginia, Maine, Bathurst Island, and Ellesmere Island. In addition, they occur in what could be the upper Silurian (uppermost Pridoli) of Virginia, and possibly New York. Measurements of nine morphologies from 127 specimens of Habrostroma were subjected to an average linkage cluster analysis. Using average linkage between groups, three distinct clusters were revealed. Group assignments made from the cluster analysis were saved, and entered into a canonical discriminant analysis with the nine morphological variables. An overall Wilks’ lambda was calculated, and is statistically significant at alpha <0.001. The hit rate for classifying group 1 is 98%, that for group 2 is 100%, and that for group 3 is 97.9%; the total hit rate is 100%. The morphological variables contributing most to group membership are: (1) percent cystlike microlaminae, (2) microlaminae per mm, (3) gallery height, (4) laminae per mm, and (5) laminar thickness. The statistics confirm that there are three species: H. centrotum, H. microporum, and H. consimile.Habrostroma centrotum occurs in all five areas. This is unusual because Virginia, New York, and Maine are part of the Eastern Americas Realm, and the arctic islands are part of the Old World Realm. Separation of the realms is based on a high percentage of unique genera in each. A breach in the inter-realm barrier is proposed to have existed across the Canadian Shield during the Lochkovian. The nature of the breach is determined to be a shallow-water filter, allowing the passage of a limited number of taxa.

The stromatoporoid Habrostroma in the upper Silurian (uppermost Pridoli)–Lower Devonian (Lochkovian) of North America, and the paleobiogeographic significance of H. centrotum (Girty, 1895)Stock and Burry-Stock—Uppermost Silurian–Lower Devonian stromatoporoidsJournal of Paleontology

Judith A. Burry-Stock

Papers

Assessing the use of language learning strategies worldwide with the ESL/EFL version of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL)

Rater Agreement Indexes for Performance Assessment

Expert Science Teaching Educational Evaluation Model (ESTEEM): Measuring Excellence in Science Teaching for Professional Development.

Self-Evaluation of Expertise in Teaching Elementary Physical Education from Constructivist Perspectives

The stromatoporoid Habrostroma in the upper Silurian (uppermost Pridoli)–Lower Devonian (Lochkovian) of North America, and the paleobiogeographic significance of H. centrotum (Girty, 1895)Stock and Burry-Stock—Uppermost Silurian–Lower Devonian stromatoporoidsJournal of Paleontology