CALL and the Learner
An AILA Research Network
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"Below is a message sent in by Alice Chik from City University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, who is doing a project on the relationship between learner autonomy and video games."
This project aims to explore the relationship between learner autonomy and out-of-class language learning, with a particular focus on foreign language learners' use of video gaming:
1. How do foreign language learners learn from video gaming?
2. What are their approaches in adopting video games for their language learning purposes?
3. What types of language learning skills and strategies do they develop during video gaming?
4. How do these out-of-class activities influence the development of learner autonomy in language learning?
The data collection methods will include:
1. Autobiographical language learning histories written by the learners and researchers to gain insight into their foreign language learning and video game playing histories and to serve as a source of triangulation with other data;
2. Observation and field notes from 10 video-taped gaming sessions, used to monitor the gaming process;
3. A blog, used to keep asynchronous reflections from learner-participants and researchers;
4. Semi-structured interviews conducted by the learner-participants with their friends and regular video gaming partners, used to enrich the understanding of video gaming and language learning from a wider community of young adults and video gamers; and
5. Focus group interview sessions, at the beginning and the end of the study, will be used as reflective practices to explore the development of learner autonomy and foreign language learning in relation to video gaming.
At the moment, we recruited 10 undergraduates from different disciplines. We plan to start the project in the last week of September, if you are interested in collaborating or knowing more about the participants, please contact Alice (alice.chik@gmail.com). You can also follow our project at http://en-videogaming.blogspot.com/
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Background of the ReN
Through the emergence of communication technologies, the past few years have produced a new body of research where the learner is given a more central role in a range of different ways, including having the learner express their opinions through blogging (e.g., Pinkman, 2005) or computer-mediated communication such as chat (e.g., Darhower, 2007), tailoring software that adapts to learners’ needs (e.g., Huang & Liou 2007), training learners to use existing software more effectively to facilitate the social-affective aspect of learning (e.g., Hubbard, 2004), or the development of learner autonomy (e.g. Reinders, 2007; White, 2007). Social networking sites such as Active Worlds and Second Life have also empowered learners to make decisions about who they wish to converse with, by what mode (i.e., text chat or oral communication), and freely engage in discussion with a real audience who shares similar interests (e.g., Dudeney, 2008). This is a growth area, where researchers examine the way technology facilitates interaction between teachers and learners, between native speakers and learners, and between learners themselves and the unique characteristics of this type of communication.
Convenors Hayo Reinders and Glenn Stockwell have combined to create an AILA Research Network which aims to bring together people working in the different areas related to the role of the language learner in CALL. Committee members are established researchers in the field of CALL, and
include Jozef Colpaert (University of Antwerp, Belgium)
Phil Hubbard (Stanford University, USA)
Hsien-Chin Liou (National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan)
Kazunori Nozawa (Ritsumeikan University, Japan)
and Cynthia White (Massey University, New Zealand).