Strategies Used By a Language Learner in a Distance Course Supported by an Audio-Synchronous Environment

The present article deals with the strategies of a foreign language learner in an on-line learning setting notably based on an audio-synchronous computer-mediated-communication environment. In the English for Specific Purposes training courses at stake, two groups of learners have been working on collaborative tasks. These two groups have been established according to an estimation of the learners' level in the target language. Our case study concerns one learner of the A1-A2 level-group, within which, however, the levels are still heterogeneous. This adult learner who has decided to resume university training has not practiced the L2 for many years. In a first theoretical part, we discuss the links between strategies & consciousness, & the classifications that distinguish the grouping of the learning strategies from the grouping of the use strategies. We go further into our categorization of strategies with the metacognitive, cognitive, affective & social types of strategies. In a second part of the article we present an original research methodology based on a questionnaire, a semi-directed interview, a critical-event-recall interview & the transcripts of the multimodal interactions. We analyze examples of strategy occurrences through excerpts of these crossed-data, with on the one hand the strategies mentioned for the preparation phase & on the other hand those that occurred in comprehension & production situations. A table summarizes & illustrates the variety of the strategies implemented by this learner. It allows us to further discuss our criteria of distinction between the two groupings of strategies, as well as the particular place of social strategies within the training arrangement at stake. We open up some perspectives about the so debated question of the teaching of strategies, notably in relation to social strategies & to those appealing to the characteristics of the technological environment, especially its multimodality. Adapted from the source document