CALL and the Learner
An AILA Research Network
You have found the AILA Research Network for CALL and the Language Learner. On this website you can read about our activities, conferences, and publications and contribute to research. Join us as as free member to be able to submit papers and contribute to our AILA symposium in Beijing.
This special issue of Language Learning & Technology will focus on the relationship between technology and learner autonomy. The affordances and constraints offered by new learning environments, whether in mobile, immersive, distance, or other forms of learning, often place greater, and in many cases different, demands on learners’ ability to manage their own learning. At the same time, they can also offer greater potential to support learners in the learning process. We are inviting submission for papers that explore these affordances and constraints and the development of autonomy. Papers should be grounded in a theoretical framework that formulates research hypotheses and then seeks to confirm or disconfirm them by following an appropriate research methodology (http://llt.msu.edu/resguide.html).
Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
• Metacognitive demands of new learning environments
• New ways of using technology to foster autonomy
• Technology and social aspects of autonomy, e.g., social networking
• Effects and outcomes of technology use in relation to learner autonomy
• Sociocultural inquiry into autonomy-related aspects of learning through technology
• Technology and the measurement of autonomy
Please send an email of intent with a 500-word abstract by March 20, 2010 to llt-editors@hawaii.edu.
Publication timeline:
• March 20, 2010: Submission deadline for abstracts
• April 15, 2010: Invitation to authors to submit a manuscript
• September 3, 2010: Submission deadline for manuscripts
• October 3, 2011: Publication of special issue
Please post your comments, suggestions and feedback on the Wall below. Or just drop us a note to say you visited!
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).