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Harinder Khalsa has been teaching Italian at the University of Oregon since 1993. Recently she also started teaching her native language, Turkish, as part of the UO Yamada Language Center’s Self Study Language Program and is the coordinator of the same program. Harinder is the 2015 recipient of the Thomas F. Herman Award for Excellence in Pedagogy. She is also a co-convener and a member of the steering committee of the UO Language Council, a large group of faculty, administrators and students dedicated to the advancement of language studies at the University of Oregon.

Language learning can be perceived as a challenge for many adult learners especially when they are not aware of how they learn in general and as individuals. If they discover who they are as a learner, stating clearly what they want to be able to do as a result of learning, observing how knowledge is presented, what their role is in personalizing that knowledge and deploying targeted strategies to shift old habits of learning, then learners can overcome all or many of those challenges in language learning. With this in mind, at the University of Oregon, we teamed as multi-disciplinary experts in language teaching and acquisition (Melissa Baese-Berk, Kathie Carpenter, Spike Gildea, Harinder Khalsa, Jeff Magoto) to design a course on learning how to learn languages. In this course we plan to expose our students to various cognitive and metacognitive language learning strategies and sensitize them to the interaction between these strategies and individual learning styles (e.g. Cohen 2014; Oxford 2017; Oxford & Amerstrorfer, 2018; Coursera MOOCS Learning How to Learn, Mindshift). The course will also draw on current research in second language acquisition, including work at the UO (Baese-Berk & Samuel, 2016; Wright, Baese-Berk, Marrone, & Bradlow, 2015; Sykes, 2016; Sykes & Cohen, 2018). Students at the end will have a variety of approaches they can choose from and apply to mastering all three modes of communication (interpretive listening and reading, presentational speaking and writing, interpersonal speaking and writing) with an eye on how we develop intercultural and pragmatic awareness through each and every one of these modes of communication.

As a result of this experience we hope to enhance student agency in learning in general through language learning. At the end of this experience students will gain a set of transferable skills that will help them not only in their academic life but also in their careers such as being able to:  

• clearly state the purpose for their learning (a new language), set long-term goals
• break the long term goals into S.M.A.R.T. short term goals
• plan a course of action to meet them
• assess weaknesses and strengths objectively
• build community through collaborative learning strategies including peer feedback
• think critically and creatively about their strengths to address the weaknesses when faced with any new (learning) challenge
• manage time and beat the tendency to procrastinate
• make career connections and learn how to use the languages they speak to their advantage

We hope to have CASLS InterCom as a platform in future to create a repository of language learning strategies which could not only help our students but also inform the way we teach languages. 

References 

Baese-Berk, M. M. & Samuel, A.G. (2016). Listeners Beware: Speech Production May Be Bad for Learning Speech Sounds. Journal of Memory and Language, 89, 23-36.

Cohen, A. D. (2014). Strategies in learning and using a second language. London and New York: Routledge.

Oxford, R. L. (2017). Teaching and researching language learning strategies: Self-regulation in context. New York: Routledge.

Oxford, R. L, & Amerstorfer, C. M. (Eds.) (2018). Language learning strategies and individual learner characteristics: Situating strategy use in diverse contexts. London: Bloomsbury. 

Sykes, J. (2016). Technologies for teaching and learning intercultural competence and interlanguage pragmatics. In S. Sauro & C. A. Chapelle (Eds.), Handbook of technology and second language teaching and learning (pp.118 -133). New York: Wiley.

Sykes, J. & Cohen, A. (2018). Strategies and Interlanguage Pragmatics. Explicit and Comprehensive. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 8(2), 381-402. [invited] 

Wright, B. A., Baese-Berk, M. M., Marrone, N., & Bradlow, A. R. (2015). Enhancing Speech Learning by Combining Task Practice with Periods of Stimulus Exposure without Practice. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,138 (2), 928-937.

MOOCS: 

Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects | University of California San Diego - https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn (Can audit for free)

Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential | Created by:  McMaster University - https://www.coursera.org/learn/mindshift  (Can audit for free)

Other:

Why learning a language is hard & how to make it easier https://www.ef.edu/blog/language/why-learning-a-language-is-hard/

Here's Why It's So Hard To Learn A New Language As An Adult https://www.businessinsider.com/why-its-hard-to-learn-new-language-adult-2014-7?IR=T 

Learning Styles and Language Learning Strategies https://sites.educ.ualberta.ca/staff/olenka.bilash/Best%20of%20Bilash/language%20learning%20strats.html