Search results for "learner autonomy"

Learning from learners: a non-standard direct approach to the teaching of writing skills in EFL in a university context

2016

Corpora have been used in English as a foreign language materials for decades, and native corpora have been present in the classroom by means of direct approaches such as Data-Driven Learning (Johns, T., and P. King 1991. 'Should you be Persuaded'- Two Samples of Data-Driven Learning Materials. In Classroom Concordancing,1-16. Birmingham University. English Language Research Journal 4.). However, the suitability of using learners' output in classroom tasks remains controversial. This paper describes a pilot study in the application of a non-standard direct approach where Spanish university students are invited to reflect on their production. In the experiment, carried out in several sessions…

Researching pronunciation learning strategies: An overview and a critical look

2018

Disparate goals that learners might have in learning second or foreign language pronunciation and the scant classroom time that can be dedicated to teaching this target language subsystem dictate that learner autonomy is of vital importance in this case and adept use of pronunciation learning strategies (PLS) can be viewed as key to the development of this attribute. Surprisingly, research on these strategies is scarce, mainly focusing on the identification and classification of PLS, diverse instruments are used for data collection and the findings are inconclusive. The paper provides an overview of the available research on PLS with respect to their identification, learners’ preferences co…

Learning paths on elementary university courses in Finnish as a second language

2015

Along with the growing degree of internationalisation, Finnish university education needs to address issues related to learning and teaching Finnish as a second language. From the perspective of teaching Finnish and related pedagogical development, it is essential to recognise when, where and for which purposes learners need Finnish at the various stages of the language acquisition process. This article focuses on the learning paths of three international students who studied Finnish on a one-term elementary course at the University of Jyvaskyla Language Centre. The article is based on a socio-cultural and ecological view on language learning and teaching. The data consist of learning diary…

A Corpus Study of Ideology-Driven Discourse Practice: The University Language Learner as Researcher. The Case of Prepositions

2016

It is widely acknowledged that both language learners and teachers have benefitted in many ways from the implementation of ICTs in and outside the classroom, and continue to do so. The range of skills that students, as future professionals, are required to master has risen exponentially in recent times, partly as a result of these technological developments. The implementation of ICTs has been coupled with a focus in higher education on exploring new ways of encouraging creativity in teaching and learner autonomy, both areas having gained ground recently in teaching practices (Weimer 2002). In this context, open-minded instructors should accept ICTs not just as simple gadgets, blindly adapt…

Emotions and Autonomy in Foreign Language Learning at University

2018

<div> <p>This article explores the role of emotions in foreign language learning at university level. Drawing on the recent literature regarding the affective dimension in language learning, it illustrates the ways in which students experience emotions in foreign language learning. Particular emphasis is given to the way in which students’ emotions, both positive and negative, emerge and change during their learning process. The article presents a study conducted among university students learning English in a co-directed and autonomy-inspired environment. Following a qualitative approach, students’ emotional expression was investigated, by means of individual advising sessions …

Student beliefs (or metacognitive knowledge) about SLA reconsidered

1995

In applied linguistics, interest in student beliefs (or metacognitive knowledge) about second language acquisition (SLA) is fairly recent, growing out of the emphasis on learner autonomy and on learner strategies in SLA. The purpose of this paper is to review those few studies that have been published so far, to give an outline of definitions of beliefs and research methodology, and finally to provide alternatives to these, based on recent developments in the social sciences. With a reconsideration of beliefs come reconsiderations of research data and methods.

Proactive and reactive dimensions of life-course agency: mapping student teachers’ language learning experiences

2014

Although the concept of agency has received a lot of interest in recent educational research, its significance in language learning biographies as well as contextual and relational aspects of learner agency are still little studied. This paper aims at a more thorough understanding of agency by studying student teachers’ previous language learning experiences. This paper is based on a dialogical analysis of 12 student teachers’ biographical essays describing their relationship with English as a foreign language. The participants are students in a Finnish class teacher and language teacher education programme that uses English as the primary medium of instruction. The study proposes a tripart…

Valodu mācīšanās atbalsts un tā vadība neformālajā izglītībā Latvijā

2013

Elektroniskā versija nesatur pielikumus

Baltic Journal of English Language, Literature and Culture, N. 3

2013

Fostering Teacher-Student Interaction and Learner Autonomy by the I-TUTOR Maps

2014

The paper analyses the use of an automatically generated map as a mediator; that map visually represents the study domain of a university course and fosters the co-activity between teachers and stu- dents. In our approach the role of the teacher is meant as a media- tor between the student and knowledge. The mediation (and not the transmission) highlights a process in which theres no deterministic rela- tion between teaching and learning. Learning is affected by the students previous experiences, their own modalities of acquisition and by the in- puts coming from the environment. The learning path develops when the teachers and the students visions approach and, partly, overlap. In this cas…