From conceptual frameworks to testable and simplified models of language learning strategy assessment

In the study of how students learn a second language, inventories have provided a readily
available methodological instrument used to assess strategies. Items describing ways of
learning a new language have been written, added to similar items, and organised into
categories of types and subtypes of strategies. In the construction of one inventory for learning
Russian and Spanish (Chamot, O'Malley, Kupper, & Impink-Hernandez, 1987), items were linked
to conceptually defined types of strategies (specifically, metacognitive, cognitive, and socialaffective
approaches to learning foreign languages). A 63-item version of this inventory has been
adapted to assess strategies of learning English as a Second Language (ESL), and strategic
preferences of ESL high school students from Sri Lanka and Japan have been linked to learner
variables such as ethnicity, mother tongue, religion, gender, and personality type (Liyanage,
2004, 2005). More recent scrutiny of participant responses to this language learning strategies
inventory (LLSI), has exposed limitations in its notional classification of strategies and basic
design. Factorial analysis of the responses of large heterogeneous samples did not support
preconceived links between items, strategies, and types of strategies. Moreover, the different
numbers of items for the three types of strategies affected measurement properties. Re-analysis
involving content analysis of inventory items, together with exploratory and confirmatory factor
analysis utilising a large data set, revealed a much simplified model of language learning. Clear
differences between what LLSI scales were supposed to test and outcomes based on analyses of
(a) item content and (b) responses elicited by these items indicate the need for caution when
using inventories to measure strategies for learning a second language