Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1515/cercles-2023-2024
Zeynep Mine Derince
Abstract This article aims at analyzing the introduction of Critical Literacy as a transformative teaching approach in an English language teaching setting at tertiary level in Turkey. Applying a Freirian understanding of education, the method sought to tap the sociopolitical consciousness brought into the classroom by students and teachers and co-construct knowledge collectively while contributing to identity formation and social transformation. Both learners and teachers were encouraged to relate the curriculum to their own diverse experiences and to analyze broader social issues that are relevant to their lives and to wider contexts. Consequently, such issues as curriculum, language teaching and learning environment, materials and language policies were scrutinized from a critical perspective as part of the language learning and teaching process taking place in the classroom. The findings of this research provide significant insights for language learning and teaching praxis and show how Critical Literacy as a teaching method can contribute to the creation of more meaningful and supportive learning environments in classrooms and suggest empowering interactions among the actors involved.
{"title":"A critical literacy class: beyond English learning and teaching in Higher Education","authors":"Zeynep Mine Derince","doi":"10.1515/cercles-2023-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2023-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article aims at analyzing the introduction of Critical Literacy as a transformative teaching approach in an English language teaching setting at tertiary level in Turkey. Applying a Freirian understanding of education, the method sought to tap the sociopolitical consciousness brought into the classroom by students and teachers and co-construct knowledge collectively while contributing to identity formation and social transformation. Both learners and teachers were encouraged to relate the curriculum to their own diverse experiences and to analyze broader social issues that are relevant to their lives and to wider contexts. Consequently, such issues as curriculum, language teaching and learning environment, materials and language policies were scrutinized from a critical perspective as part of the language learning and teaching process taking place in the classroom. The findings of this research provide significant insights for language learning and teaching praxis and show how Critical Literacy as a teaching method can contribute to the creation of more meaningful and supportive learning environments in classrooms and suggest empowering interactions among the actors involved.","PeriodicalId":53966,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning in Higher Education","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135810739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1515/cercles-2023-2031
Samuel Nfor
Abstract This study investigated Model United Nations (Model UN), a simulation of the United Nations that is adapted for academic purposes and includes elements of discussion, negotiation, presentation, and engagement with global issues and international affairs. When students participate in Model UN, they are referred to as country delegates and represent different countries on different committees. As delegates, they join in discussions on global issues related to such topics as world conflict, international security, human rights, and education. In Model UN, student participants from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, collaborate and interact in a common language (English) spoken differently among participants to deepen their understanding of current world issues. By so doing, they reflect on their intercultural communicative competence summarized as the ability to interact with people from another country and culture in a foreign language. Following a Model UN semester course at a Japanese university and a Model UN conference held in Japan, interview sessions with Model UN student participants were moderated and recorded to understand their learning attitudes and experiences of studying in the Model UN context. The interview data were used to generate themes for thematic analysis. The study concluded that Japanese Model UN student participants’ interactions with other learners of English from different cultural backgrounds allowed them to reflect on their intercultural communicative competence and, thus, be able to develop tolerance towards language-related misunderstandings.
{"title":"Model United Nations: a thematic analysis of Japanese EFL students’ reflections on intercultural communicative competence","authors":"Samuel Nfor","doi":"10.1515/cercles-2023-2031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2023-2031","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study investigated Model United Nations (Model UN), a simulation of the United Nations that is adapted for academic purposes and includes elements of discussion, negotiation, presentation, and engagement with global issues and international affairs. When students participate in Model UN, they are referred to as country delegates and represent different countries on different committees. As delegates, they join in discussions on global issues related to such topics as world conflict, international security, human rights, and education. In Model UN, student participants from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, collaborate and interact in a common language (English) spoken differently among participants to deepen their understanding of current world issues. By so doing, they reflect on their intercultural communicative competence summarized as the ability to interact with people from another country and culture in a foreign language. Following a Model UN semester course at a Japanese university and a Model UN conference held in Japan, interview sessions with Model UN student participants were moderated and recorded to understand their learning attitudes and experiences of studying in the Model UN context. The interview data were used to generate themes for thematic analysis. The study concluded that Japanese Model UN student participants’ interactions with other learners of English from different cultural backgrounds allowed them to reflect on their intercultural communicative competence and, thus, be able to develop tolerance towards language-related misunderstandings.","PeriodicalId":53966,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning in Higher Education","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135810743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1515/cercles-2023-2023
José María Santos Rovira
Abstract Drawing on data collected via a web-based survey, this study investigates the attitudes of SFL (Spanish as a Foreign Language) learners in Portugal towards four Spanish varieties. A verbal guise experiment was designed to collect students’ perceptions of language variation. The sample comprised 196 undergraduate students from the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon (Portugal). The results show that Portuguese students of SFL have a clear preference for the Castilian variety, as it obtained the highest rates in all domains (power, personal qualities, and status). Unexpectedly, factors such as participants’ age or sex did not influence the answers given.
{"title":"Attitudes to Spanish language variation. A study on Portuguese students of Spanish as a Foreign Language","authors":"José María Santos Rovira","doi":"10.1515/cercles-2023-2023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2023-2023","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Drawing on data collected via a web-based survey, this study investigates the attitudes of SFL (Spanish as a Foreign Language) learners in Portugal towards four Spanish varieties. A verbal guise experiment was designed to collect students’ perceptions of language variation. The sample comprised 196 undergraduate students from the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon (Portugal). The results show that Portuguese students of SFL have a clear preference for the Castilian variety, as it obtained the highest rates in all domains (power, personal qualities, and status). Unexpectedly, factors such as participants’ age or sex did not influence the answers given.","PeriodicalId":53966,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning in Higher Education","volume":"74 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135810931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1515/cercles-2023-2036
Carmen Argondizzo, Gillian Mansfield
{"title":"Introduction: the variety of realities of language learning and teaching in Higher Education throughout the world. A step forward to keep on sharing ideas","authors":"Carmen Argondizzo, Gillian Mansfield","doi":"10.1515/cercles-2023-2036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2023-2036","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53966,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning in Higher Education","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135810494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1515/cercles-2023-2022
Kateřina Sedláčková
Résumé L’article présente le concept du cours « International communication and interaction: Play with languages! » réalisé dans le cadre du projet Erasmus + BIP ( Blended Intensive Programme ) orchestré par l’Université Masaryk auquel ont participé, virtuellement ainsi qu’en présentiel, des étudiants de quatre universités (OTH Regensburg, Université libre de Bruxelles, CY Cergy Université Paris et Université Masaryk). L’objectif du cours est d’amener les étudiants à se familiariser avec les stratégies plurilingues et à développer leur répertoire linguistique en communauté plurilingue et pluriculturelle. Le cours visant six langues (français, allemand, italien, espagnol, portugais, tchèque) dépasse les schémas classiques d’intercompréhension orientés à des langues apparentées. Les activités portent sur la complémentarité des langues dans l’apprentissage et encouragent le développement de la conscience métalinguistique. Ainsi, la notion de répertoire linguistique devient le pivot du cours. L’analyse des dispositifs pédagogiques et didactiques est réalisée à partir des productions langagières des participants et de leurs écrits autoréflexifs.
{"title":"<i>« Being plurilingual is a gift we make to ourselves</i>. » : amener les étudiants à valoriser et développer leurs compétences plurilingues et pluriculturelles","authors":"Kateřina Sedláčková","doi":"10.1515/cercles-2023-2022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2023-2022","url":null,"abstract":"Résumé L’article présente le concept du cours « International communication and interaction: Play with languages! » réalisé dans le cadre du projet Erasmus + BIP ( Blended Intensive Programme ) orchestré par l’Université Masaryk auquel ont participé, virtuellement ainsi qu’en présentiel, des étudiants de quatre universités (OTH Regensburg, Université libre de Bruxelles, CY Cergy Université Paris et Université Masaryk). L’objectif du cours est d’amener les étudiants à se familiariser avec les stratégies plurilingues et à développer leur répertoire linguistique en communauté plurilingue et pluriculturelle. Le cours visant six langues (français, allemand, italien, espagnol, portugais, tchèque) dépasse les schémas classiques d’intercompréhension orientés à des langues apparentées. Les activités portent sur la complémentarité des langues dans l’apprentissage et encouragent le développement de la conscience métalinguistique. Ainsi, la notion de répertoire linguistique devient le pivot du cours. L’analyse des dispositifs pédagogiques et didactiques est réalisée à partir des productions langagières des participants et de leurs écrits autoréflexifs.","PeriodicalId":53966,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning in Higher Education","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135810744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article addresses the issue of foreign language testing in the online mode and proposes a strategy to reduce the possibility of academic misconduct, specifically cheating, by designing tasks that assess the language skill of mediation in Legal English exams. Such tasks require test-takers to generate original answers, which can significantly reduce the risk of copying and pasting. Additionally, mastering the skill of mediation is a valuable asset for future lawyers. The authors introduce two original distinct intra-language mediation tasks that they developed for assessing English for Legal Purposes. One is aimed at first-year students with limited Legal English experience, while the other is intended for more advanced and experienced students. The article analyses student responses and evaluates their performance. The authors follow the action research approach, which involves a circle of observing, reflecting and acting, and raise questions concerning the originality of answers, production of a measurable sample of the target language, objectivity of assessment, and whether the practice in class impacts the success rate. The article also discusses challenges encountered during the process and how they were addressed. It can be concluded that mediation tasks are practical for online testing but could be used equally well for traditional classroom assessment.
{"title":"Turning the tables on online exam cheating via language mediation tasks","authors":"Barbora Chovancová, Štěpánka Bilová, Alena Hradilová","doi":"10.1515/cercles-2023-2033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2023-2033","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article addresses the issue of foreign language testing in the online mode and proposes a strategy to reduce the possibility of academic misconduct, specifically cheating, by designing tasks that assess the language skill of mediation in Legal English exams. Such tasks require test-takers to generate original answers, which can significantly reduce the risk of copying and pasting. Additionally, mastering the skill of mediation is a valuable asset for future lawyers. The authors introduce two original distinct intra-language mediation tasks that they developed for assessing English for Legal Purposes. One is aimed at first-year students with limited Legal English experience, while the other is intended for more advanced and experienced students. The article analyses student responses and evaluates their performance. The authors follow the action research approach, which involves a circle of observing, reflecting and acting, and raise questions concerning the originality of answers, production of a measurable sample of the target language, objectivity of assessment, and whether the practice in class impacts the success rate. The article also discusses challenges encountered during the process and how they were addressed. It can be concluded that mediation tasks are practical for online testing but could be used equally well for traditional classroom assessment.","PeriodicalId":53966,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning in Higher Education","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135810729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1515/cercles-2023-2020
Catherine Jeanneau, Christian Ollivier
Abstract Developing digital literacy and, more recently, digital citizenship is one of the objectives promoted by the major international organisations involved in the education sector. However, in order to integrate digital citizenship into education a thorough understanding of the intended outcomes is required. This is why a meta-analysis of recent texts was carried out. The paper presents the result of this literature review consisting in a structured compilation of all the defining elements that constitute our profile of citizens as users of languages and digital technology. We suggest a way in which to integrate digital citizenship education into language education and describe the socio-interactional pedagogical approach adopted in the context of two projects, elang citizen and Lingu@num. This approach is based on the execution of authentic tasks, referred to as real-world tasks. We also present the results of a questionnaire carried out by teachers who explored these tasks and reported that by engaging in them, language learners can experience authentic communication and action as citizens in the “digital wilds” beyond the classroom walls and develop both their language skills and their digital citizenship.
{"title":"Training citizens as users of languages and digital technology. Real-world tasks to tame the digital wilds","authors":"Catherine Jeanneau, Christian Ollivier","doi":"10.1515/cercles-2023-2020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2023-2020","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Developing digital literacy and, more recently, digital citizenship is one of the objectives promoted by the major international organisations involved in the education sector. However, in order to integrate digital citizenship into education a thorough understanding of the intended outcomes is required. This is why a meta-analysis of recent texts was carried out. The paper presents the result of this literature review consisting in a structured compilation of all the defining elements that constitute our profile of citizens as users of languages and digital technology. We suggest a way in which to integrate digital citizenship education into language education and describe the socio-interactional pedagogical approach adopted in the context of two projects, elang citizen and Lingu@num. This approach is based on the execution of authentic tasks, referred to as real-world tasks. We also present the results of a questionnaire carried out by teachers who explored these tasks and reported that by engaging in them, language learners can experience authentic communication and action as citizens in the “digital wilds” beyond the classroom walls and develop both their language skills and their digital citizenship.","PeriodicalId":53966,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning in Higher Education","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135810945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1515/cercles-2023-2002
A. Díaz, Naomi Fillmore, Marisa Cordella
Abstract The state of language education in Australia has long been described as paradoxical. Oscillating between periods of increased attention and seeming invisibility, over the last thirty years, the language learning sector has been punctuated by a succession of aspirational declarations and funding injections with little long-term impact on its overall standing. Despite the increasingly multilingual makeup of Australian society, language education at all levels has largely remained stuck amidst monolingualising education policies and alarmist discourses. The latest instance of this paradoxical condition is a fee-reduction incentive for university students to study a language, which, in practice, stands to further weaken the language offerings in many Higher Education institutions. In this paper, we use the imagery of circularities and ripples to explore the challenges facing language education across sectors in Australia. Through data collected in Queensland secondary schools, we discuss how these challenges transcend the traditional delineation of macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of language policy and planning. We argue that challenges go both in circles within the same level (circularity) and flow outwards to other levels (ripples), which include Higher Education. For this reason, siloed approaches to funding and scholarly research contribute to a wicked state of inertia and, ultimately, diminish opportunities to break free from these cycles in the future. We conclude by acknowledging our complicit roles and ethical responsibilities as Higher Education scholars in the perpetuation of these cycles, as but a first step in engaging productively with the possibilities of leveraging these rippling circularities.
{"title":"The (im)possibility of breaking the cycle of rippling circularities affecting Australian language education programs: a Queensland example","authors":"A. Díaz, Naomi Fillmore, Marisa Cordella","doi":"10.1515/cercles-2023-2002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2023-2002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The state of language education in Australia has long been described as paradoxical. Oscillating between periods of increased attention and seeming invisibility, over the last thirty years, the language learning sector has been punctuated by a succession of aspirational declarations and funding injections with little long-term impact on its overall standing. Despite the increasingly multilingual makeup of Australian society, language education at all levels has largely remained stuck amidst monolingualising education policies and alarmist discourses. The latest instance of this paradoxical condition is a fee-reduction incentive for university students to study a language, which, in practice, stands to further weaken the language offerings in many Higher Education institutions. In this paper, we use the imagery of circularities and ripples to explore the challenges facing language education across sectors in Australia. Through data collected in Queensland secondary schools, we discuss how these challenges transcend the traditional delineation of macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of language policy and planning. We argue that challenges go both in circles within the same level (circularity) and flow outwards to other levels (ripples), which include Higher Education. For this reason, siloed approaches to funding and scholarly research contribute to a wicked state of inertia and, ultimately, diminish opportunities to break free from these cycles in the future. We conclude by acknowledging our complicit roles and ethical responsibilities as Higher Education scholars in the perpetuation of these cycles, as but a first step in engaging productively with the possibilities of leveraging these rippling circularities.","PeriodicalId":53966,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning in Higher Education","volume":"13 1","pages":"29 - 49"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42594384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1515/cercles-2023-2009
Nang Kham Thi, D. Vo, Marianne Nikolov
Abstract Students’ writing proficiency is measured through holistic and analytical ratings in writing assessment; however, recent studies suggest that measurement of syntactic complexity in second language writing research has become an effective measure of writing proficiency. Within this paradigm, we investigated how automated measurement of syntactic complexity helped distinguish the writing proficiency of students from two Higher Education institutions. In addition, we also examined language-related errors in students’ writing to further indicate the differences in the error patterns of the two groups. Data was drawn from a corpus of 1,391 sentences, comprising 58 texts produced by first-year undergraduate students from Myanmar and Hungary. Automated tools were used to measure the syntactic complexity of students’ writing. We performed a corpus-based analysis, focusing on syntactic complexity, while language-related error patterns in writing were investigated through an epistemic network approach. Findings suggested that the Myanmar students tended to write longer essays comprising simpler sentences, whereas the Hungarian students preferred shorter texts with more complex sentences. Most complexity measures were also found to distinguish the texts produced by the two groups: length of production units, sentence complexity, and subordination indices. An examination of the language-related error patterns revealed statistically significant differences in the error patterns in student writing: errors were found to be more prevalent in Myanmar students’ essays. Implications for enhancing teaching L2 writing in educational contexts are discussed.
{"title":"Investigating syntactic complexity and language-related error patterns in EFL students’ writing: corpus-based and epistemic network analyses","authors":"Nang Kham Thi, D. Vo, Marianne Nikolov","doi":"10.1515/cercles-2023-2009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2023-2009","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Students’ writing proficiency is measured through holistic and analytical ratings in writing assessment; however, recent studies suggest that measurement of syntactic complexity in second language writing research has become an effective measure of writing proficiency. Within this paradigm, we investigated how automated measurement of syntactic complexity helped distinguish the writing proficiency of students from two Higher Education institutions. In addition, we also examined language-related errors in students’ writing to further indicate the differences in the error patterns of the two groups. Data was drawn from a corpus of 1,391 sentences, comprising 58 texts produced by first-year undergraduate students from Myanmar and Hungary. Automated tools were used to measure the syntactic complexity of students’ writing. We performed a corpus-based analysis, focusing on syntactic complexity, while language-related error patterns in writing were investigated through an epistemic network approach. Findings suggested that the Myanmar students tended to write longer essays comprising simpler sentences, whereas the Hungarian students preferred shorter texts with more complex sentences. Most complexity measures were also found to distinguish the texts produced by the two groups: length of production units, sentence complexity, and subordination indices. An examination of the language-related error patterns revealed statistically significant differences in the error patterns in student writing: errors were found to be more prevalent in Myanmar students’ essays. Implications for enhancing teaching L2 writing in educational contexts are discussed.","PeriodicalId":53966,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning in Higher Education","volume":"13 1","pages":"127 - 151"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66802808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1515/cercles-2023-2008
Demet Turan-Ozturk, Cagri Ozkose-Biyik
Abstract This quasi-experimental study investigates the effects of collaborative activities on tertiary-level EFL students’ learner autonomy in Turkey. To achieve this aim, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected with the help of a learner autonomy questionnaire, index cards filled out by the students, the instructor’s journal, and an interview with the instructor of the experimental group. Two groups of 40 students in total from the preparatory program of a central Anatolian university were appointed as experimental and control groups. The results of the quantitative data analysis revealed that, after the implementation of collaborative activities in three consecutive weeks, there was a statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of their autonomy level; the students in the experimental group scored higher than those in the control group, which implies that they showed more autonomous skills in areas such as motivation, curiosity to learn, risk-taking, problem solving and decision making skills to improve learning. The results of the qualitative data analysis revealed that collaborative activities employed in this study (e.g., problem-solving activity, role-play, games) allowed participants to learn from each other, and gain a sense of responsibility. The overall results suggested that collaborative learning practices could be implemented to help EFL students increase their learner autonomy level. Additionally, curriculum and assessment methods of educational institutions might be revised to include more collaborative activities.
{"title":"The effect of collaborative activities on tertiary-level EFL students’ learner autonomy in the Turkish context","authors":"Demet Turan-Ozturk, Cagri Ozkose-Biyik","doi":"10.1515/cercles-2023-2008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2023-2008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This quasi-experimental study investigates the effects of collaborative activities on tertiary-level EFL students’ learner autonomy in Turkey. To achieve this aim, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected with the help of a learner autonomy questionnaire, index cards filled out by the students, the instructor’s journal, and an interview with the instructor of the experimental group. Two groups of 40 students in total from the preparatory program of a central Anatolian university were appointed as experimental and control groups. The results of the quantitative data analysis revealed that, after the implementation of collaborative activities in three consecutive weeks, there was a statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of their autonomy level; the students in the experimental group scored higher than those in the control group, which implies that they showed more autonomous skills in areas such as motivation, curiosity to learn, risk-taking, problem solving and decision making skills to improve learning. The results of the qualitative data analysis revealed that collaborative activities employed in this study (e.g., problem-solving activity, role-play, games) allowed participants to learn from each other, and gain a sense of responsibility. The overall results suggested that collaborative learning practices could be implemented to help EFL students increase their learner autonomy level. Additionally, curriculum and assessment methods of educational institutions might be revised to include more collaborative activities.","PeriodicalId":53966,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning in Higher Education","volume":"13 1","pages":"271 - 293"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45731931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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