Implementation of Social Strategies in Language Learning by Means of Moodle

Abstract

The methodology of second language teaching has varied considerably in recent times. It has changed from mere translation and memorization of linguistic structures, which was carried out by learners of classical Latin and Greek, to constructivist learning, in which the student has to build structures with the help of the teacher, and above all, must develop and employ strategies throughout the process, leaving aside structural learning and memorization. There are many researchers who have studied learning strategies, for example, Brown (1994), Chesterfield & Chesterfield (1985), O'Malley & Chamot (1990), Oxford (1990), Tarone (1981), Thompson & Rubin (1982) and Wenden & Rubin (1987). In spite of the fact that there is not a universal concept of strategy, all of them agree that there are techniques used by students to facilitate learning. The strategies have been classified according to their characteristics in the following groups: metacognitive, cognitive, social and affective. In this study, we analyze the social strategies that a second language student employs using the Moodle e-learning platform. The reason why the use of social strategies have been studied within this virtual platform is that it was built around constructivist philosophy and with the aim of promoting cooperative learning, which is closely related to the use of social strategies. For this investigation, a group of students from the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) was selected and a questionnaire developed bearing in mind four kinds of social strategies, namely, asking, cooperating, empathizing and practicing. Index Terms—language learning strategies, languages, Moodle, Web 2.0