Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning in a Virtual Learning Environment

Digitalised
learning with its promise of autonomy, enhanced learner choice,
independence and freedom, is an intuitive and appealing construct but
closer examination reveals it to be a rather simplistic proposition,
raising the following questions.


-What do we mean by autonomy?

-What are we implying about the role of the teacher, the classroom, and interaction between learners?

-What do we understand about the impact of technology on the ecology of the learning environment?


This
book describes the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) by a
group of advanced English language learners in Mexico, comparing what
students thought
and what they did
in response to the technology. The theoretical aim of the book is to
work towards the construction of a theory of the development of
autonomy and virtual learning in an EFL context. Enhanced
understanding about the relationship between autonomy and technology
has the potential to inform academics, software designers, materials
writers, teacher educators, and teachers and to help learners in
their quest to acquire a foreign language.

Miranda Hamilton is a Researcher in Cambridge looking at Learning Oriented Assessment with a focus on the use of technology. She recently completed her PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK.