Learning to Learn Digitally

Abstract

How can educators empower and encourage their students to be more proactive, and give them the tools necessary to learn on their own, utilizing digital language learning resources in a culturally sensitive way? Described below is a project that introduced students to how technology and the Internet can empower the independent language learner. The goal was for the students to develop knowledge of and confidence in self-instruction and learn how to use technology and the Internet to further their language education independently. This article first outlines research into autonomous language learning with computers, offers a list of key elements for autonomous language learning, gives a description of how an independent language learning project was implemented and reports on results of student surveys that measured student response to the project. These students lacked the skills, knowledge and confidence to study on their own. However, by learning autonomous language learning concepts, and with instruction on how technology and the Internet can support a digital language learner, they gained the understanding and confidence to set and accomplish language learning goals on their own.

Local Norms in CALL Language Practice

“…We argued that it is an affordance of online communication that inexperienced Internet users who were new to distance education were able to form such a community, and crucially were able to collectively negotiate their own language practices against those of the native speakers. The idea of a community developing their own norms of language use may go against stereotypically rigid conceptions of exo-normative language learning, but we can strongly argue that such norm-setting practices build and sustain communities of practice, and crucially from a pedagogical perspective, promote individual learner autonomy (as Nguyen, 2010;Nguyen & White, C. (2011);Terhune, 2013;and White, J. R., 2015b have explicitly argued). An additional important methodological argument we have made is that it is possible to study norm-setting in limited shorttimeframe data sets.…”

Materials Design and Pedagogy for Technology-Enhanced Language Learning

“…Some studies have particularly shown that CALL helps to develop autonomy in language learning, through social network tools such as wikis (Kessler & Bikowski, 2010), collaborative digital technology (Hafner & Miller, 2011), and instructional support (Terhune, 2013).…”