“Life would be marvellous for teachers if all students wanted to learn”

Biggs 1995

Matching in and out of class learning to enhance language learner autonomy

Marcella MenegaleCa’ Foscari University of Venice, 9 September 2011

In & Out

“From the standpoint of the child, the great waste in the school comes from his inability to utilize the experiences he gets outside the school in any complete and free way within the school itself; while on the other hand, he is unable to apply in daily life what he is learning in school” (Dewey 1907)

“Dal punto di vista del ragazzo, il grande spreco nella scuola deriva dall’incapacità di utilizzare le esperienze che vive fuori dalla scuola in modo completo e libero all’interno della scuola stessa; nel contempo egli è incapace di applicare alla vita quotidiana ciò che apprende a scuola”

The continuity between autonomy in developmental and experiential learning on the one hand and learner autonomy in formal educational contexts on the other is by no means straightforward. Whereas developmental and experiential learning proceed for the most part without an explicit agenda, formal learning is by definition a matter of conscious intention. In the world outside the classroom we may achieve a high degree of general behavioural autonomy without being explicitly aware of the fact. But when the development of learner autonomy is central to our pedagogical agenda, we cannot help but make it a matter of conscious intention” (Little, Dam 1998)

La continuità tra autonomia nello sviluppo cognitivo ed esperienziale da un lato e autonomia nell’apprendimento in contesti di istruzione formale dall’altro non è da considerarsi automatica. Mentre lo sviluppo cognitivo ed esperienziale avviene principalmente senza un programma esplicito, l’apprendimento formale è per definizione una questione di intenzione consapevole. Nel mondo fuori dalla classe possiamo raggiungere un grado alto di autonomia di condotta generale senza esserne esplicitamente consapevoli. Ma quando lo sviluppo dell’autonomia di apprendimento è al centro del nostro programma educativo, non possiamo che farne una questione di intenzione consapevole”

In & Out VERSUS learner autonomy

Benson 2010: Martin Lamb did some research in Sumatra with 11 and 12-year-old children. He found that most of their English language learning was out-of-school, and in fact their teachers said they were not learning very much in school.

Nunan 1991; Pickard 1995; Lamb 2004: successful students felt they had succeeded largely due to their own autonomous learning outside of school, while those who had failed tended to blame their formal learning experience.

What research studies say...

Net Generation“Net Generation students are achievement and goal oriented.

Their question is not “What does it mean?” or “How does it work?” (as previous generations were inclined to ask), but rather “How do I build it?” This predilection maps to learning theory’s emphasis on active learning. Discovery, exploration, experimentation, criticism, analysis – all represent active learning, a style that suits the Net Gen well.” (Brown 2005)

“Gli studenti della Net Generation sono orientati al risultato e all’obiettivo. La loro domanda non è “Cosa significa?” o “Come funziona” (ciò che le generazioni precedenti erano solite chiedere) ma piuttosto “Come lo faccio?”. Questa predisposizione richiama l’apprendimento attivo. Scoperta, esplorazione, sperimentazione, criticità, analisi – tutto rappresenta apprendimento attivo, uno stile che ben si adatta alla Net Gen”

INPUT 1

Brainstorming: Group discussion

What do you mean for in-class learning and out-of-class learning?

What are the contents? What are the means? What are the results?

Lam 2000; Lamb 2004; Hyland 2004: studies of language learning beyond the classroom do often show that there are more activities and more learning taking place outside the classroom than the researchers suspected. They also show that students often display more initiative in creating opportunities for out-of-class learning than expected.

What research studies say...

INPUT 2

Raising awareness: Group discussionDefine a target of learners.

Create a questionnaire for your students.

The questionnaire should have a double aim: 1.find out all possible info about their out-of-class

learning2. starting a pathway toward learner autonomy

through raising awareness

In Outinter ...trans... intra

• Intradisciplinary level: linking contents and concepts within the same discipline

• interdisciplinary level: linking several academic disciplines in a way that forces them to cross subject boundaries to create new knowledge and theory and solve a common research goal (integration of means/methodologies/ways but not of concepts)

• transdisciplinary level: linking abilities, cognitive behaviours which do not belong to a specific academic field in order to research a common goal and create new procedural knowledge

A few ideas... Landry & Bourhis 1997: “linguistic landscape” in sociolinguistic

field: relevant presence of FL in urban contexts (advertisement, signals, touristic information, government buildings, …)

Dagenais et al. 2009: the environment seen as a “multimodal text”, “cities as text”. Drawing children’s attention to layered readings of texts in different languages of the linguistic landscape entails developing critical literacy. Children are encouraged to ask: What are the interests of the writers and readers of texts? What is at stake for them in producing and decoding texts? Who has power to determine what languages appear in texts?

INPUT 3

Planning practice: Group discussion

Same target of learners as in Input 2.Think of an activity/module/strategies to allow students to match in

and out-of-class learning

How does this activity develop language learner autonomy?

How can learner autonomy help this activity?

Preparing presentation in plenary

• issues • ideas for getting started