Tandem language learning via e-mail: from motivation to autonomy

ReCALL ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMA USHIODA
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Affective Learning ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
Pedagogical Issues ◽  
Affective Dimension ◽  
Tandem Learning ◽  
E Mail

This paper examines the affective dimension of tandem language learning via e-mail. It begins by highlighting some of the obstacles to this mode of learning, including organisational and pedagogical issues as well as the particular issues confronting learners. Drawing on a small body of empirical data, it explores the interactions between these issues and what learners perceive to be intrinsically motivating about tandem learning. It concludes by suggesting that affective learning experience has a potentially powerful role to play in fostering the development of learner autonomy through the reciprocity on which successful tandem learning is founded.

Technology and Learner Autonomy: An Argument in Favor of the Nexus of Formal and Informal Language Learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 52-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chun Lai
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Learning Contexts ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
Technology Aids ◽  
Constructed Self ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article discusses some of the current research on technology in relation to learner autonomy, outlining major findings on the relationship between technology and learner autonomy in formal and informal learning contexts. Extant literature has discussed both teacher-initiated technology-enhanced formal learning environments and learner-constructed self-directed learning experience in informal learning contexts. Although valuable in the insights it provides into how technology aids learner autonomy, the two bodies of literature have largely been independent from each other, which may constrain our understanding.

scholarly journals Fostering students’ autonomy in learning English in nonlinguistic university

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 03007
Author(s):  
Oksana Pershukova ◽  
Nina Nikolska ◽  
Oksana Vasiukovych
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
Autonomous Learning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Autonomy Development ◽  
Special Approach ◽  
And Control

The study aims to find out whether it is possible to foster students’ learner autonomy in the context of ESP language learning in non-linguistic universities by using a special approach. The experiment was carried out at National Aviation University in Ukraine with two groups of first-year students of electronics (experimental and control) in 2018-2019. Testings to determine students’ level of communicative competence in English and surveys to identify students’ level of learner autonomy development were conducted in September and May of the same year of education. The control group did not receive any special training, while in the experimental group were created special learning conditions. With the purpose to prepare students to accept responsibility for their learning, they were given the opportunities to choose educational materials; to set goals of their learning; to reflect the process and evaluate the results of learning, etc. Modern technologies were widely used as well as scaffolding (if necessary). According to the results of the experiment, it was stated that only a part of the most active students used the created conditions and gained experience in autonomous learning. The conclusion was made about creating such an environment. It is a challenge that is appropriate to realize to give an autonomous learning experience to aspiring students.

Designing, implementing and evaluating a project in tandem language learning via e-mail

ReCALL ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Little ◽  
Ema Ushioda
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
Pilot Phase ◽  
E Mail ◽  
Learning English

Tandem language learning is based on a partnership between two people, each of whom is learning the other's language. Successful tandem partnerships observe the principle of reciprocity (“tandem learners support one another equally’) and the principle of learner autonomy (“tandem partners are responsible for their own learning”) (Little and Brammerts 1996: 1 Off.). This paper begins by exploring some of the theoretical implications of tandem language learning in general and tandem language learning via e-mail in particular. It then reports on the pilot phase of an e-mail tandem project involving Irish university students learning German and German university students learning English.

Enhanced awareness and its translation into action: A case study of one learner’s self-directed language learning experience

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoko Watkins
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Traditional Sense ◽  
Assessment Rubric

AbstractThe fostering of learner autonomy has become an essential element of modern pedagogy and an established object of research. There are many difficulties in providing evidence of learners’ development towards autonomy, however, since it is not measurable in a traditional sense. As a learning advisor (LA) at a private language university in Japan, I have worked closely with individual language learners who take our module designed to foster learner autonomy via the practice of self-directed language learning (SDLL). This article uses a case study of one particular learner’s SDLL experience to introduce an approach to documenting the development of learner autonomy that draws on document analysis and narrative inquiry. I first introduce a SDLL assessment rubric that allowed me to classify and analyze three kinds of data: narrative accounts of the learner’s seven-week learning journal, recordings of three advising sessions with an LA, and the learner’s final report. With reference to her achievement of the learning outcomes in the assessment rubric, I then portray the learner’s development of awareness and her response to her enhanced awareness in her particular learning context.

Skype-Based Tandem Language Learning and Web 2.0

2009 ◽  
pp. 101-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Mullen ◽  
Christine Appel ◽  
Trevor Shanklin
Keyword(s):  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Community Building ◽  
User Participation ◽  
Internet Applications ◽  
Target Languages ◽  
San Diego State University ◽  
Tandem Learning

An important aspect of the Web 2.0 phenomenon is the use of Web-embedded and integrated non-browser Internet applications to facilitate community-building and direct user participation and interaction. Social Networking Services, online noticeboards, chat rooms, and other interactive environments enable students to engage directly with native speakers of their target languages. As a way of bringing language learners together, Web 2.0 technologies promise an enormous transformation in language learning. With regard to voice communications specifically, synchronous, peer-to-peer voice-over-IP (P2P VoIP) tools such as Skype, GoogleTalk, and others are an example of a new channel of online interaction that is likely to play an increasingly important role in online community-building and language learning. This chapter analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the Skype service as a tool for tandem language learning. It presents a variety of ways in which Skype’s strengths can be enhanced and its weaknesses overcome by incorporating the exchange into a wider Web 2.0 environment, based on insights we have gained over the course of an ongoing study. In particular, the importance of a task-based approach informed by the principles of tandem learning is emphasized. Preliminary qualitative results are reported of two years of ongoing Skype-based tandem exchanges between Japanese students of English at Tsuda College, Tokyo, and American students of Japanese at San Diego State University. Finally, a prototype is presented for a new dedicated Web 2.0 environment designed to optimize the Skype tandem learning experience and to facilitate further research in the field.

scholarly journals Leading the Proverbial Thirsty Horse to Water: ESL Learners’ Experience with Language Learning Contracts

2012 ◽  
pp. 452-464
Author(s):  
Normah Ismail ◽  
Masdinah Alauyah Md Yusof
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
Learning Contracts ◽  
Learning Contract ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
Language Teaching And Learning

There is agreement among language educators that the process of language teaching and learning should aim to develop autonomous language learners. While the advantages of autonomy seem to be quite obvious, fostering autonomy in practice can prove to be difficult for some language learners. This paper describes the use of learning contracts as a strategy for enhancing learner autonomy among a group of ESL learners in a Malaysian university. Through learners’ account of their experiences with the contracts, the study concludes that the learning contract has potential use for language learning and that learners’ positive learning experience remains the key to the success of any endeavour seeking to promote learner autonomy. The paper ends with some implications for teachers and learners who wish to use the contracts as a strategy for language teaching and learning.

scholarly journals Students and ICT

2004 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Barr
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Communications Technology ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
E Mail

Thispaperdiscussesthereactionofstudentsinthreeuniversitiesto the use of information and communications technology(ICT) in their language learning experience. Although thefindings apply to the language-learning context, there are moregeneric implications for the wider area of computer enhancedlearning. The study uses qualitative and quantitative datacollected as part of a doctoral investigation into computerbasedlanguage-learning environments. The paper considersone main research question: are students resistant, radical orreluctant users of the technology, and why? It examines howand why students use the Web, e-mail and CALL packages toenhance their learning. This study shows that students aregenerally not unsympathetic towards it, although some of thefactors that affectthe level of student use of the technology, suchas course relevance and access of computers, are often outsidetheir control.

THE ADVANTAGES OF PROMOTING LEARNERS’ AUTONOMY IN EFL CONTEXT

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hapsari Dwi Kartika
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Autonomous Learning ◽  
English Teaching ◽  
Efl Context ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Students Success

This paper explains why learner autonomy is taken into account in language learning where English is a foreign language for the learners particularly in Indonesia. The definition of learner autonomy and its advantages to language learner in EFL contexts will be described within this paper. Many scholars from psychological education and English teaching and learning had proved that language learning can be improved by certain strategy. They revealed the correlation between the autonomous learning with students’ success in learning with different aspect. The definition of autonomy is similar to many different words such as self-regulated and self-determined. Finally, the writer suggests how teacher can promote the autonomous learning atmosphere in the classroom.Keywords: strategy, promoting autonomy, EFL context, Indonesia

Language learning via e-mail

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Söntgens
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
E Mail

A Sociocultural Approach to Learner Autonomy in the Language Classroom

Relay Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 17-26
Author(s):  
Tetsushi Ohara
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Sociocultural Theory ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Sociocultural Approach ◽  
Mediational Means ◽  
Social Views

Approaches to understanding learner autonomy in language learning often contain dichotomous views: those that emphasize individual attributes and those that emphasize social influence. In order to articulate our understanding of learner autonomy, it is necessary to find approaches, which view a dialectic unity between the individualistic views and the social views. Sociocultural theory based on the concept of mediation is an approach, which has potential to offer a unique way to analyze learner autonomy. While using sociocultural theory as the main theoretical framework, this article attempts to understand how students take charge of their learning in the language classroom. Qualitative data indicate that interpersonal relationships between students work as mediational means for students to engage in their learning in the classroom. From this finding, it is argued that by understanding mediational means that students employ and are appropriate in the classroom, we are better able to track the students’ ability to take charge of their own learning.

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