Learner Agency

Learner agency is an important concept in current education.  This research describes the perceptions high school seniors have about their learning experiences.  Educational research indicates students’ self-regulation being an important factor in academic success, yet many educational practices still rely on teacher-centered instructional models.  Supporting learner agency could improve the quality of students’ engagement in their learning process, and help students become ready for the requirements of living in 21st Century.  In this phenomenographic inquiry into students’ perceptions of their learner agency nine high school seniors were interviewed about their engagement and learning experiences.  The analysis yielded an outcome space of four qualitatively different ways of perceiving learner agency 1. detachment from learning, 2. belonging to the school community, 3. synergy of learning ownership, and 4, unbound ubiquitous learning.  The outcome space was organized into a visual conceptualization of the hierarchical relationship between intentionality, agency, and quality of learning.  Based on the findings of this research, the recommendations for educational policy and practice include crediting informal learning, embedding choices into learning experiences, and supporting both students’ and teachers’ individual learning process.

Keywords: learner agency, learning environment, negative agency, phenomenography, learner-centered practices, deeper learning, quality of engagement, learning process.

The connections and networks we make both inside and outside of the classroom are critical to our current and future professional success and to the development of lifelong learning skills. Learner agency plays a central role in establishing and building those connections and networks, and by using a variety of online, networked theories, instructors are able to guide and support students in creating and developing their own network of personal learning. These teaching and learning approaches are not limited to heutagogy (self-determined learning), but also include connectivism and rhizomatic learning-all theories that promote learner agency through connectedness and connectivity in the learning process. This chapter discusses these learner-centred theories for networked learning and their role in promoting learner agency in online learning spaces and within learning ecologies as a whole.

Children’s agency is claimed to be foundational to learning and development (Mashford-Scott and Church, 2011), including learning of a foreign language. As an important aspect of learning a foreign language, the acquisition of L2 pronunciation has generally been discussed with reference to the input given to students or the actual oral output of the learners, yet no attention has been paid to how learners, especially very young learners, can become agents of their own learning of pronunciation through their interactional practices in instructed learning settings. Furthermore, only few studies (e.g. Reed 2012, Broth and Lundell 2013) have investigated the issue of L2 pronunciation through a conversation analytic account of actual classroom interactional practices with a micro-analytic approach. This study fills these two gaps in literature by employing a Conversation Analytic methodology to young learners’ classroom interactions through an investigation of how 5 year-old learners of English as a foreign language become agents of their own learning of L2 pronunciation. Based on detailed transcriptions of video-recorded interactions (18 hours) in a pre-school classroom context in Turkey, the study focuses on children initiated sequences of talk that challenge two intern language teachers’ pronunciation of particular words in English. By tracking these instances in the sequential unfolding of instructional practices throughout several weeks, this study illustrates how children initiated expansion sequences on pronunciation differences of two teachers may present clear examples of child agency. The findings have clear implications for children agency, teaching/learning of L2 pronunciation, and pre-service language teachers’ skills in managing children initiated sequences. 


References
Broth, M. and Lundell, F. F. (2013). Napouléon’s sequential heritage. Using a student error as a resource for learning and teaching pronunciation in the French foreign language classroom. Classroom Discourse. 4(1), 89-109.

Mashford-Scott, A. and Church, A. (2011). Promoting children’s agency in early childhood education. Novitas-ROYAL (Research on Youth and Language). 5(1), 15-38.

Reed, B. S. (2012). A conversation analytic perspective on teaching English pronunciation: The case of speech rhythm. International Journal of Applied Linguistics. 22(1), 67-87.
"

Despite the surge of digital technologies in professional and leisure fields, digital divides, that is, the differential appropriation of digital technologies, persist among learner populations in high-income countries and lead to unequal participation in different educational, social, political, and economic areas. Bridging these participation gaps in education is imperative, given the role of schools as institutions of both social reproduction and transformation as well as regarding the specific goal of developing foreign language discourse competence in English as a foreign language (EFL) pedagogy, which includes learner participation in local and increasingly global communities of practice using English as a lingua franca. This article draws on research and conceptual literature on digital divides and inclusive English language teaching, the notion of the common subject (“Gemeinsamer Gegenstand”), and scaffolding in technology-enhanced learning environments. It proposes and exemplifies a balance of openness and structuration in task design as well as between individualized, agency-driven learning paths and scaffolding in the context of the international blended learning project ‘Going Green – Education for Sustainability,’ which was completed by German secondary school EFL learners and their U.S. partners. The analysis of an exemplary project task demonstrates how learners can work on a common subject while engaging in learning activity at differential levels of complexity. The analysis of the scaffolding structure offers insights into its key affordances as they pertain to learner control, adaptivity, multimodality, creativity, and socio-affective dimensions in technology-enhanced learning environments.

This paper documents the identity negotiation and strategic language efforts of a female postgraduate learner of English from a rural Arab background. She needed to obtain a high score in the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam as a prerequisite to getting an unconditional offer from a UK university. The narrative inquiry reported here used a series of individual semi-structured interviews as the main data, with a variety of means, including written narrative and email exchanges. It is guided by Dörnyei [(2009). The L2 motivational self system. In Motivation, Language Identity and the L2 Self, ed. Z. Dörnyei and E. Ushioda, 9–42. Bristol: Multilingual Matters] concept of ‘possible selves’, and Norton [(2000). Identity and Language Learning: Gender, Ethnicity and Educational Change. Harlow: Longman/Pearson Education] notion of investment in language learning and the distinction between compulsory (i.e. largely regulated by cultural beliefs) and voluntary (i.e. basically internalised within the self) strategies. The data suggest that Noura's language strategic efforts were significantly constrained by her social networks, which limited her personal investment in language learning. Nonetheless, after receiving a Master's grant, Noura acted agentively to accomplish her ultimate vision of being the first women in her village to complete her postgraduate studies abroad, and participate in benefiting her country (i.e. individual and national interest). She did so through building a strong relationship with a Canadian colleague in her workplace, together with adopting other strategies. From this case study, pedagogical implications as well as areas for ongoing research are suggested.

The present paper introduces a research methodology for investigating the implementation of Web 2.0 applications in a task-based project. I propose a mixed-methods approach to classroom-based research that facilitates the investigation of learner perceptions and performance during Web-supported tasks as they unfold in the authentic classroom environment. Section 2 provides a definition and discussion of the research construct of learner perceptions. In section 3, the research instruments and overall design of the study are introduced. Finally, section 4 exemplifies the triangulation of data sources in the context of one task performance sequence, limited to one focus student.

Little research has explored individuals’ multilingual selves when learning a language other than English (LOTE) in conflict-affected situations. Therefore, this qualitative study sought to understand the motivation and ultimate vision of a group of internally displaced Syrians learning Turkish as an L3 or L4 in Afrin on the Syrian-Turkish border. The data were collected from the participants’ written narratives and two subsequent rounds of individual online semi-structured interviews. The data suggest
that the participants’ desire to learn Turkish ranged from the need to secure a job in Afrin to reasons associated with achieving their ideal selves by imagining themselves working/studying at a Turkish university and being integrated into the Turkish community in future. The participants were proactive agents, recognising that attending Turkish private tutoring courses with under-qualified tutors was not sufficient to improve their language proficiency. They capitalised on the availability of
technology-mediated learning artefacts and the support of some informal actors. This qualitative study has pedagogical implications and provides further evidence of the need for SLA research to serve all multilingual people, not just the privileged, by conducing empirical studies in non-affluent geographies.