Week 7 - Learner Autonomy and the One Computer classroom

As I stated in my nicenet posting, I am very enthusiastic about promoting learner autonomy. It is not always easy as we need to envision new roles for ourselves as teachers and encourage the students to envision themselves as active, not passive learners. I sometimes work with adult students who have not taken classes in many years and it is interesting (and a bit discouraging) to see knowledgeable active professionals revert to passivity when in a classroom with a teacher. As a teacher, I try to promote continuous language learning; it is not something that is only learned and used in the classroom. In fact, the classroom is a kind of lab for safe experimentation before really putting the language into practice outside the classroom. This is where "the rubber meets the road". If it's a successful interaction, the learner gets an authentic feeling of satisfaction. If it's an unsuccessful interaction, the learner realizes it and returns to the classroom with a specific need that the teacher can help the learner address. Unfortunately, sometimes there is a great length of time between the classroom experimentation phase and the real experience phase.

Learning a language is a fascinating intellectual undertaking, but ultimately the point is communication. Fortunately, with modern technology, the opportunities for communication have multiplied beyond what could be imagined even 10 years ago. When I began teaching, I didn't have a computer in class although I have always had a computer in the office. Now, I usually have a computer in class that is connected to an overhead projector and is connected to the Internet. It was great to read about so many interesting ways to use a computer in the classroom by reading the posts and lesson plans this week. I especially appreciated Arjana's use of Skype to connect learners throughout the world in a communicative lesson and Camelia's lesson which looked at the Prince Charles and Princess Diana story and compared it to the fairy tale paradigm. I'm already thinking about how I can use these ideas in the fall semester.

I'm hoping that my summer technology project will help the learners develop their cognitive and especially their metacognitive learning strategies. Liliya noted in one of her posts that her students had difficulty with self-reflection. I am concerned that my students as well may find this skill a challenging one. Perhaps it comes from a sense of powerlessness. If students don't feel they really have the power to control their learning, there is not much point in doing self-reflection activities. As learners become more active and are given more personal choice and responsibility, they may see that they do have more control over their learning and that they really can achieve their goals. However, there needs to be a lot of scaffolding and small tasks along the way before students are really capable of setting goals and monitoring their own progress.

The article written by Dimitrios Thanasoulas entitled What is Learner Autonomy and How can it be Fostered? is one that I return to again because it is a clear summary of the subject and cites many good sources. Another article I found this week is a 2009 article written by Bonny Norton entitled Language and Identity. In the article, the author discusses the notion of personal motivation and includes the concepts of learner identity and imagined communities. Learners are not just individuals, they are members of communities. When we learn a new language, we can also learn a new identity or expand the identity we have. Sometimes teachers, classmates, or the greater community impose an identity on the learner that is not wanted. This relates to the issue of power which is a key component of critical theory, which is mentioned in Thanasoulas' article. Language is power and whoever controls the language, is powerful. Perhaps in the 21st century, we can also say that technology is power. Besides giving students access to the power of language, we may also need to give students access to the power of technology as well.

I'm looking forward to more work on my project and to the work we do in Week 8!

Janet