Developing a strategy-based instruction approach to teaching and learning modern languages to train ab-initio primary PGCE trainees

This study was underpinned by the work of Rubin (1975), O'Malley & Chamot (1990), Oxford (2011), and Cohen & Macaro (2007), all of whom acknowledge that there are various automatic and unconscious strategies that learners use in their first language (L1) that can also be used when learning another language (L2). This premise is the foundation of the strategy-based instruction (SBI), proposing the development of self-regulation of learning through the use of meta-cognition to assist learners in identifying and using strategies to facilitate L2 learning. A modified version of this approach, incorporating an element of collaborative learning within a model of cognitive apprenticeship, was used to simultaneously develop trainees' L2 subject knowledge and teaching skills.