Reading Reflection #3

Article: Theory and Research: Autonomy and Language Learning.. by.. Healey

According to Healey, an autonomous learner means a learner who can take some control over his/her learning. Some terms with a similar meaning to autonomy are learner independence, self-direction, and self-management. Autonomy is one of the preferred features in learning a language; therefore, much work has been done to find ways to encourage autonomous learning (Healey, 2007, p. 378) However, some issues of concerns in promoting autonomous learning are: setting, learning styles and strategies, age, individual versus group work, control and locus of power, cultural relevance.

Later on the article discusses the four perspectives on autonomy described by Oxford to CALL environments. Oxford’s four perspectives include technical, psychological, sociocultural and political-critical. The technical perspective is discussed in two issues: issue of setting and issue of content. In the issue of setting, the author describes four self-directed learning settings ranging from highly structured learning to highly self-directed learning. In the issue of content, the author describes situations where technology can come into play by helping learners to learn a language. In terms of the psychological perspective, Oxford states that self motivation can help learners to become autonomous and many CALL projects namely Web quests, Website, blog or podcast can help with that. The sociocultural perspective looks at learning as interpersonal interaction. Healey points out that even though computers are not full members of learning communities, using computers can help learners work together to create a better understanding of language use. (p. 386). In the political-critical perspective, the author mentions that technology can also shift in the locus of power. Using the internet, foreign language learners are not limited to get data provided by more skilled people locally available. (p. 387)

Healey’s article has confirmed what I have in mind concerning technology can help language learners to become autonomous. To me, learners can become autonomous if they start to take some control of what they do. Working on technology based projects such as creating blog, website or web quests can help these learners to have some control of their own work and it can create self-directed sense for them. In other words, they don’t have to rely on teachers all the time. However, I do realize that just technology is there doesn’t mean autonomy will be magically occurred. It does need good guidance from skilled teachers but absolutely not in the traditional way where teachers have all the controls of every learning moment.

Reading Reflection #2

Article: Getting the Mix Right Again: An update and theoretical rationale for interaction ..by..Anderson

Anderson attempts to define interaction at the beginning of the article since interaction has long been valued in education (Anderson, 2003). There are three modes of interactions: student-teacher, student-student and student-content. The body of the article is mainly used to discuss the equivalency of interaction among student interaction, teacher interaction and content interaction. Anderson believes that getting the mix right means balancing the three interactions in a way that it’s most cost effective and meets global demand for effective and affordable lifelong learning opportunities. Towards the end of his article, he gives examples of applying the equivalency theorem to popular education delivery modes.

Having read Anderson’s article, it got me thinking about how we, teachers who are interested in working with non-traditional classrooms, should really be careful of getting the balance right. For me, long distance learning such as web-based course should require less student-teacher interaction and require more of student-content interaction because one of the objectives of long distance learning is to save teacher time. Then, teachers can use their valuable time in planning, designing and evaluating courses. Now, there might be a question about teacher’s feedback. Students need teacher’s feedback.. of course I agree with that. However, I think that could be done periodically and as needed. It doesn’t have to be too frequent.

This is my first time taking an online course. I found that this course provides me with lots of student-content interaction by asking me to read the assigned reading and student-student interaction by asking me to respond to classmates’ blogs. I like the course so far so good.