Name: Rochana Fitri Alyani

NIM: 1120224038

STYLE AND STRATEGIES

Theories of learning, GagnC's "types" of learning, transfer processes, and aptitude and
intelligence models are all attempts to describe universal human traits in learning. They seek
to explain globally how people perceive, filter, store, and recall information.

PROCESS, STYLE, AND STRATEGY

Historically, there has been some confusion in the use of process, style, and strategy , and so
it is important to carefully define them at the outset. Process is the most general of the three
concepts. All human beings engage in certain universal processes. . Human beings
universally engage in association, transfer, generalization, and attrition. We all make
stimulus-response connections and are driven by reinforcement. We all possess, in varying
proportions, abilities in the seven intelligences. Process is characteristic of every human
being.
Style is a term that refers to consistent and rather enduring tendencies or preferences within
an individual. Styles are those general characteristics of intellectual functioning (and
personality type, as well) that pertain to you as an individual, and that differentiate you from
someone else. Strategies are specific methods of approaching a problem or task, modes of
operation for achieving a particular end, planned designs for con trolling and manipulating
certain information. Strategies vary intra individually; each of us has a number of possible
ways to solve a particular problem, and we choose one-or several in sequence-for a given
problem.

LEARNING STYLES
The way we learn things in general and the way we attack a problem seem to hinge on a
rather amorphous link between personality and cognition; this link is referred to as cognitive
style. When cognitive styles are specifically related to an educational context, where affective
and physiological factors are intermingled, they are usually more generally referred to as
learning styles. Learning styles mediate between emotion and cognition, as you will soon
discover.
An impulsive style, on the other hand, usually arises out of an impulsive emotional state.
People's styles are determined by the way they internalize their total environment, and since
that internalization process is not strictly cognitive, we find that physical, affective, and
cognitive domains merge in learning styles.

Field Independence
In general psychological terms, that "field" may be perceptual, or it may be more abstract and
refer to a set of thoughts, ideas, or feelings from which your task is to perceive specific
relevant subsets. Field dependence is, conversely, the tendency to be "dependent" on the total
field so that the parts embedded within the field are not easily perceived, although that total
field is perceived more clearly as a unified whole.
A field independent (Fl) style enables you to distinguish parts from a whole, to concentrate on
something, to analyze separate variables without the contamination of neigh boring variables.
Cross-culturally, the extent of the development of a Fl/D style as children mature is a factor
of the type of society and home in which the child is reared. Affectively, persons who are
more predominantly FI tend to be generally more independent, competitive, and self-
confident. FD persons tend to be more socialized, to derive their self-identity from persons
around them, and are usually more empathic and perceptive of the feelings and thoughts of
others.
We could conclude that FI is closely related to classroom learning that involves analysis,
attention to details, and mastering of exercises, drills, and other focused activities. The second
of the conflicting hypotheses proposes that primarily FD persons will, by virtue of their
empathy, social outreach, and perception of other people, be successful in learning the
communicative aspects of a second language Fl/D may also prove to be a valuable tool for
differentiating child and adult language acquisition. The child, more predominantly FD, may
have a cognitive style advantage over the more FI adult.
FI/D has been conceived by psychological researchers as a construct in which a person is
relatively stable. Unfortunately, there seems to be little room in such research for considering
the possibility that FI/D is contextualized and variable. The burden on the learner is to invoke
the appropriate style for the context. The burden on the teacher is to understand the preferred
styles of each learner and to sow the seeds for flexibility.

LEFT- AND RIGHT-BRAIN FUNCTIONING

While we can cite many differences between left- and right-brain characteristics, it is
important to remember that the left and right hemispheres operate together as a "team.
Nevertheless, the left-fright-brain construct helps to define another useful learning style
continuum, with implications for second language learning and teaching.

AMBIGUITY TOLERANCE
The person who is tolerant of ambiguity is free to entertain a number of innovative
and creative possibilities and not be cognitively or affectively disturbed by ambiguity and
uncertainty. A certain intolerance at an optimal level enables one to guard against the wishy-
washiness referred to above, to close off avenues of hopeless possibilities, to reject entirely
contradictory material, and to deal with the reality of the system that one has built. . But
intolerance can close the mind too soon, especially if ambiguity is perceived as a threat; the
result is a rigid, dogmatic, brittle mind that is too narrow to be creative.
REFLECTIVITY AND IMPULSIVITY
It is common for us to show in our personalities certain tendencies toward reflectivity
sometimes and impulsivity at other times. It has been found that children who are
conceptually reflective tend to make fewer errors in reading than impulsive children (Kagan
1965);however, impulsive persons are usually faster readers, and eventually master the
"psycholinguistic guessing game. Teachers tend to judge mistakes too harshly, especially in
the case of a learner with an impulsive style who may be more willing than a reflective
person to gamble at an answer. On the other hand, a reflective person may require patience
from the teacher, who must allow more time for the student to struggle with responses.

VISUAL AND AUDITORY STYLES

Yet another dimension of learning style-one that is salient in a formal classroom
setting-is the preference that learners show toward either visual or auditory input. Visual
learners tend to prefer reading and studying charts, drawings, and other graphic information,
while auditory learners prefer listening to lectures and audiotapes. Such findings underscore
the importance of recognizing learners' varying style preferences, but also of not assuming
that they are easily predicted by cultural/linguistic backgrounds alone.

STRATEGIES
The field of second language acquisition has distinguished between two types of strategy:
learning strategies and communication strategies. The former relate to input-to processing,
storage, and retrieval, that is, to taking in messages from others. Rubin (Rubin & Thompson
1982) later summarized fourteen such characteristics. Good language learners:
1. find their own way, taking charge of their learning.
2. organize information about language.
3. are creative, developing a "feel" for the language by experimenting with its grammar
and words.
4. make their own opportunities for practice in using the language inside and outside the
classroom.
5. learn to live with uncertainty by not getting flustered and by continuing to talk or
listen without understanding every word.
6. use mnemonics and other memory strategies to recall what has been learned.
7. make errors work for them and not against them.
8. use linguistic knowledge, including knowledge of their first lan guage, in learning a
second language.
9. use contextual cues to help them in comprehension.
 10. learn to make intelligent guesses.
11. learn chunks of language as wholes and formalized routines to help them perform
"beyond their competence."
12. learn certain tricks that help to keep conversations going.
13. learn certain production strategies to fill in gaps in their own competence.
14. learn different styles of speech and writing and learn to vary their language according
to the formality of the situation.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
While learning strategies deal with the receptive domain of intake, memory, storage, and
recall, communication strategies pertain to the employment of verbal or nonverbal
mechanisms for the productive communication of information. Perhaps the best way to
understand what is meant by communication strategy is to look at a typical list of such
strategies.

STRATEGIES-BASED INSTRUCTION
Much of the work of researchers and teachers on the application of both learning and
communication strategies to classroom learning has come to be known generically as
strategies-based instruction (SBD (McDonough 1999, Cohen 1998), or as learner strategy
training. Several different models of SBI are now being practiced in language classes around
the world.
1. As part of a standard communicative methodology, teachers help students to
become aware of their own style preferences and the strategies that are derived
from those styles (Thompson & Rubin 1996, Oxford 1990a).
2. Teachers can embed strategy awareness and practice into their pedagogy
(Rubin &Thompson 1994; Brown 1989, 1990; Ellis & Sinclair 1989).
3. Certain compensatory techniques are sometimes practiced to help students
overcome certain weaknesses
4. Finally, textbooks (Brown 1998, Chamot, O'Malley & Kupper1992) include
strategy instruction as part of a content-centered approach