Study skills and study competence: getting the priorities right

Abstract

Most ELT study skills materials attempt to teach learners how to study by focusing on ‘technical’ skills of study, for example, note-making, essay writing, reading strategies, and so on. This approach assumes that the ability to study successfully is primarily a matter of imparting to the student a repertoire of such techniques. However, in our experience, what students frequently lack is not only a knowledge of study skills, but, more fundamentally, the underlying competence necessary for successful study—self-confidence, self-awareness, the ability to think critically and creatively, independence of mind, and so on. This underlying competence is the real foundation for successful study, since it provides the student with the capacity to solve study problems autonomously. It follows that study skills materials need to concentrate first and foremost on this level. Knowledge of the techniques of study is also important, but this should be acquired within a framework of study tasks that focuses, in the first instance, on building up the cognitive and affective capacity of the learner for study. This paper discusses these ideas and illustrates them through materials which we have designed and used.¹