Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning in a Virtual Learning Environment

£34.19

Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning in a Virtual Learning Environment

Language acquisition Educational equipment and technology, computer-aided learning (CAL)

Author: Dr Miranda Hamilton

Dinosaur mascot

Collection: Advances in Digital Language Learning and Teaching

Language: English

Published by: Bloomsbury Academic USA

Published on: 11th April 2013

Format: LCP-protected ePub

Size: 256 pages

ISBN: 9781441189806


Digitalised learning with its promise of autonomy, enhanced learner choice, independence and freedom, is an intuitive and appealing construct but closer examination reveals it to be a rather simplistic proposition, raising the following questions.

What do we mean by autonomy?

What are we implying about the role of the teacher, the classroom, and interaction between learners?

What do we understand about the impact of technology on the ecology of the learning environment?

This book describes the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) by a group of advanced English language learners in Mexico, comparing what students thought and what they did in response to the technology. The theoretical aim of the book is to work towards the construction of a theory of the development of autonomy and virtual learning in an EFL context. Enhanced understanding about the relationship between autonomy and technology has the potential to inform academics, software designers, materials writers, teacher educators, and teachers and to help learners in their quest to acquire a foreign language.

Show moreShow less