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Language Learning Strategies and Multilingualism
part of the cognitive component. In other words, he positions tasks along a continuum from cognitively demanding to cognitively undemanding and language from context embedded to context-reduced, thus viewing language proficiency in terms of those two continua: task difficulty and linguistic context. Another model, however, places a more important emphasis on learning strategies within its cognitive component. The Model of Second Language Competence proposed by Wong Fillmore and Swain (1984) includes cognitive, affective and social components. While first language learning occurs as a result of inherent developmental and experiential factors, the authors maintain that successful second language learning is mainly due to learning strategies. The role of language learning strategies and their relation to the affective and social components in the model are not specified by the authors. A particularly useful framework of second language acquisition, as recognized by O’Malley and Chamot (1990), is Anderson’s Adaptive Control of Thought (ACT) Model (Anderson, 1983, 1985) which rests on the distinction between declarative and procedural knowledge. The ACT model is extremely complex; however, the current context of language learning strategy research will mostly benefit from the fact that it helps identify, test and apply specific learning strategies according to the stage of language learning (O’Malley & Chamot, 1990: 20). Anderson assumes three main differences between declarative (what we know about) and procedural knowledge (what we know how to do). The former is either possessed or not, while the latter can be partially possessed; declarative knowledge is acquired instantly, whereas procedural knowledge is acquired gradually. Finally, declarative knowledge can be communicated verbally, but procedural knowledge cannot. Learning a language, like any other type of skill learning, begins with declarative knowledge which