scholarly journals Design and Management of a Self-Access Language Learning Space Integrated into a Taught Course

2016 ◽  
pp. 136-151
Author(s):  
Sahar Alzahrani ◽  
Vicky Wright
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Learning Resources ◽  
Learning Space ◽  
Look Ahead ◽  
Online Tools ◽  
The Many ◽  
The University

This paper reports on the design and management of an online self-access language learning (SALL) space that was used with a group of Saudi medical students to complement classroom-based learning. The aim was to increase the opportunities for communication and language practice and, more specifically, to help develop the learners’ language learning autonomy (Little, 1999). In a pre-study, a questionnaire and a focus group were used to collect information about the students’ needs and interests in language learning. The design of this space was informed by the students’ feedback on their language learning needs and styles as recommended by Breen (1986) and Marsh (2012). Desire2Learn, a widely used virtual learning environment, was used to provide learners with an online self-access center because of the many features it has which would help learners to take control of their learning. The learning resources and online tools included instant messaging (IM), a news stream, access to a facilitator and other learning support, moderated discussions, videos, images, activities and quizzes, as well as links to external materials and to free self-access language learning resources. A description will be provided of how the materials, the tools, and the facilities were integrated within this space along with the justification for each of the elements. A look ahead to how this study could be extended for use with all learners enrolled in the medical scheme of the university will be discussed at the end of the paper.

College English Learning Center Planning Based on Language Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 4493-4499
Author(s):  
Diwen Dong
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Independent Learning ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
English Learning ◽  
Learning Center ◽  
Learning Centers ◽  
Learning Materials ◽  
College English ◽  
The University ◽  
Functional Areas

Objectives: Planning for English learning centers for college students can meet the needs of students’ independent learning and achieve the purpose of enhancing students’ comprehensive English practice and application ability. Methods: This study proposed the characteristics and functions of the English learning center, as well as the resources and facilities of the learning center when planning the university English learning center, and explained the construction of the English learning center’s learning materials and the division of functional areas. The influencing factors of the construction of learning center materials mainly include students’ language level, learning needs, authority and applicability of learning materials. Results: On this basis, taking the English learning center plan of a university library as an example, the functional areas are divided into four functional areas: English listening, speaking, reading and writing. Conclusion: It is hoped that this research will provide some reference and reference for the planning study of university English learning center based on language learning.

Online Support for Students’ Writing Skills Development in a Technical Communication Introductory Module

2012 ◽  
pp. 772-785
Author(s):  
Yvonne Cleary
Keyword(s):  
Technical Communication ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Writing Problems ◽  
Communication Module ◽  
The Many ◽  
The University ◽  
Support Students

This chapter explores the development of online support for writing skills in one technical communication module taught at the University of Limerick. It demonstrates the need for writing support by exploring the many complexities of teaching and learning writing skills. Central to the discussion is the principle of process, rather than product, orientation. Students on the module have been surveyed over the past two years to determine their attitudes to, and perceptions of, their writing strengths and weaknesses. The chapter outlines and exemplifies the types of writing-problems students and instructors identify. Online support is posited as an intervention which facilitates autonomous learning. The chapter concludes by discussing how online resources, and especially the university virtual learning environment, Sakai (called Sulis at University of Limerick), can support students. It also suggests related research opportunities, especially in the area of using Web 2.0 technologies to foster autonomy.

Moving Towards Translanguaging

2020 ◽  
pp. 208-232
Author(s):  
Mara R. Barbosa
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Teaching Models ◽  
The University ◽  
Pedagogical Changes

Emerging bilinguals at US schools are generally subject to programs that are inadequate for their learning needs. It is crucial to find teaching models through which they can develop their academic language skills. This chapter presents the program Learn from the Experts, a partnership between a university and a high school, that fosters collaboration between Spanish and English learners. In this program, which follows the translanguaging pedagogy, Spanish learners from the university meet to collaborate with Spanish heritage English learners from the high school in lessons designed to develop each of the participants' skills in the language they are learning. The chapter also presents pedagogical changes made to the program resulting from the program team's reflection. It contributes to the development of models that support emerging bilinguals' language learning through collaboration with more experienced speakers without compelling speakers of minoritized languages to distance themselves from their languages and cultures.

scholarly journals Grappling with grammar on a virtual learning platform: the case of first year French students at the University of Wollongong

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-23
Author(s):  
A. Bissoonauth Bedford ◽  
◽  
Ray Stace ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Virtual Learning ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Learning Platform ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
French Grammar ◽  
The University

This paper reports on an online discussion forum that was created on the University of Wollongong’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to aid and support the learning of French grammar at beginner/false beginner level. The aim was to provide a blended learning situation which combines face to face teaching with online learning using multimedia resources. The key objective of the online forum is to encourage undergraduate students take an active role in their language learning through interaction with peers. Methodology draws on educational practice influenced by a constructivist approach, particularly on the importance of building one’s knowledge and linguistic skills through interaction and cooperation with others. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of data show examples of peer exchanges acting as activators in the meta-learning that was occurring outside class hours including reflection and independent language learning awareness.

scholarly journals “It comes from you”: Agency in adult asylum seekers’ language learning through Process Drama

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-32
Author(s):  
Fiona Dalziel ◽  
Erika Piazzoli
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Role Reversal ◽  
Process Drama ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
The University ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

Abstract In this paper, we present a study of adult asylum seekers learning Italian as a Second Language through Process Drama. Adopting an ecology of language approach, we first set the scene by examining some of the most salient issues regarding the language learning needs of asylum seekers and refugees, including the challenge of fostering both language proficiency and a sense of autonomy and agency. We then introduce the topic of performative, or drama-based pedagogy, focussing on how this has been adopted for second-language learning, presenting the main features of Process Drama. We go on to evaluate a number of drama-based projects aimed specifically at adult asylum seekers and refugees before presenting the specific context of this study. The Process Drama sessions, organised in the 2016/2107 year, were part of a project called “Cultura e Accoglienza”, which allowed for the enrolment of 30 asylum seekers as “guest students” at the University of Padova in Northern Italy. In particular, we look at one of the Process Drama sessions, in which the participants became members of an association of community workers welcoming migrants, and the teacher took on the role of the asylum seeker. Through the dramatic frame, we, as facilitators, drew on the learners’ expertise in settling into the Italian culture, and in welcoming new arrivals. Our aim was that of using ‘time’, ‘place’ and ‘role reversal’ as distancing devices to challenge the notion of ‘otherness’. The analysis from videos, focus groups and teacher journals suggests that the drama gave participants the chance to shift perspective, and that this impacted on their sense of agency as second language learners.

Online Support for Students' Writing Skills Development in a Technical Communication Introductory Module

2010 ◽  
pp. 280-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Cleary
Keyword(s):  
Technical Communication ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Writing Problems ◽  
Communication Module ◽  
The Many ◽  
The University ◽  
Support Students

This chapter explores the development of online support for writing skills in one technical communication module taught at the University of Limerick. It demonstrates the need for writing support by exploring the many complexities of teaching and learning writing skills. Central to the discussion is the principle of process, rather than product, orientation. Students on the module have been surveyed over the past two years to determine their attitudes to, and perceptions of, their writing strengths and weaknesses. The chapter outlines and exemplifies the types of writing-problems students and instructors identify. Online support is posited as an intervention which facilitates autonomous learning. The chapter concludes by discussing how online resources, and especially the university virtual learning environment, Sakai (called Sulis at University of Limerick), can support students. It also suggests related research opportunities, especially in the area of using Web 2.0 technologies to foster autonomy.

Language students and their technologies: Charting the evolution 2006–2011

ReCALL ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline H Steel ◽  
Mike Levy
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Online Tools ◽  
Language Students ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The University ◽  
Compare And Contrast

AbstractThis paper has two key objectives. Firstly, it seeks to record the technologies in current use by learners of a range of languages at an Australian university in 2011. Data was collected via a large-scale survey of 587 foreign language students across ten languages at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Notably the data differentiates between those technologies that students used inside and outside of formal classrooms as well as recording particular technologies and applications that students perceived as beneficial to their language learning. Secondly, this study aims to compare and contrast its findings with those from two previous studies that collected data on students’ use of technologies five years earlier, in 2006, in the UK and Canada. The intention is to chart major developments and changes that have occurred during the intervening five-year period, between 2006 and 2011. The data reported in two studies, one by Conole (2008) and one by Peters, Weinberg and Sarma (2008) are used as points of reference for the comparison with the present study.The findings of the current study point to the autonomy and independence of the language learners in this cohort and the re-emergence of CALL tools, both for in-class and out-of-class learning activities. According to this data set, learners appear to have become more autonomous and independent and much more able to shape and resource their personal language learning experience in a blended learning setting. The students also demonstrate a measure of sophistication in their use of online tools, such that they are able to work around known limitations and constraints. In other words, the students have a keen awareness of the affordances of the technologies they are using.

scholarly journals Developing Digital English Materials Based on Contextual Teaching Learning for Economics Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Imam Fauzi ◽  
Yayat Ruhiat ◽  
Lukmanul Hakim
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Learning Resources ◽  
English Learning ◽  
Fundamental Goal ◽  
Economics Students ◽  
Contextual Teaching ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
The University

This study refers to the problem study of the teaching and learning needs which requires English learning resources in order to meet the expectations of students during the ESP pandemic teaching and learning process. The fundamental goal of this research is to create effective digital English learning resources for students at the University of Serang Raya's Economics faculty. The main goals of creating a digital English coursebook based on contextual teaching-learning are to help Economics students enhance their English language skills and to meet their learning demands. This research was carried out using the PSDD model as a research and development method (Preliminary Study, Design, and Develop). The information is gathered using a questionnaire and a speech assessment form.

Moving Towards Translanguaging

2022 ◽  
pp. 1111-1129
Author(s):  
Mara R. Barbosa
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Teaching Models ◽  
The University ◽  
Pedagogical Changes

Emerging bilinguals at US schools are generally subject to programs that are inadequate for their learning needs. It is crucial to find teaching models through which they can develop their academic language skills. This chapter presents the program Learn from the Experts, a partnership between a university and a high school, that fosters collaboration between Spanish and English learners. In this program, which follows the translanguaging pedagogy, Spanish learners from the university meet to collaborate with Spanish heritage English learners from the high school in lessons designed to develop each of the participants' skills in the language they are learning. The chapter also presents pedagogical changes made to the program resulting from the program team's reflection. It contributes to the development of models that support emerging bilinguals' language learning through collaboration with more experienced speakers without compelling speakers of minoritized languages to distance themselves from their languages and cultures.

scholarly journals Transforming the online learning space through advanced development retreats

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Belton ◽  
Sue Folley ◽  
Sophie McGown
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Learning Technologies ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Technology Enhanced Learning ◽  
Learning Space ◽  
Implementing Change ◽  
Changing Practice ◽  
The University

Learning technologies have the potential to transform Higher Education, although multifaceted demands on staff time, confidence and training in using new technologies, and a lack of support can make this transformation difficult. The University of Huddersfield recently transitioned to a new virtual learning environment (VLE), which provided the opportunity to change the way staff view and use the new VLE for teaching and learning. As part of this project, three off-site retreats were run to help staff to reflect on and develop their teaching practice to better support student learning in the digital space and develop advanced online resources that support the democratisation of learning, close differential attainment gaps and give every student the best chance of success. Although much is written about different models of practice, there is a lack of theory and conceptualisation around changing practice. Examining the motivations and experiences of staff who participated provides insight into the challenges of implementing change on an institutional level, whilst examining their setup and design highlights ways to support staff during this process. Using participant feedback and experiences to underpin this research, we explore the immediate and ongoing outcomes of these off-site retreats to help transform the University’s approach to technology-enhanced learning.

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