Breaking down barriers: a multi-modal approach to language learner difficulties

This paper reflects on ways in which university students in difficulty with language learning can be helped to become aware of what slows their learning process, by reflecting on their strategies for learning languages. Reflection was proved to be one way of launching them back into the language learning process, as well as experimentation with different ways of learning a language. It also considers the point of view of a teacher who takes on an advisory role, rather than a direct teaching role. THe experiments recounted in the paper reveal that there is an impelling need for learner strategies to be included in the first years of university language learning, and also that the possibilities offered by multimedia still remain unknown to many students.