Evaluación de Ofertas

It is of importance to investigate language learners’ development of autonomy, providing an instructive picture for researchers, teachers, and learner themselves to guide the language learning (Wehmeyer & Shogren, 2016). Developed from previous indications (Lee, 1998; Little & Dam, 1998), three aspects of principles are addressed in this study to investigate the development of learner autonomy: learner’s

involvement in learning, engagement in interactive learning, and learning in a broader context.

Learner’s exercise and development of autonomy in learning should be built on the base of volunteer involvement (Kim, 2016). Voluntariness is considered as a pre-requisite of autonomous learning (Beauchamp & Childress, 2013; Fjordside & Morville, 2012). Learner autonomy rises as the level of self-determination of

learning-related issues in the process increases (Wang et al., 2016). In an autonomous learning context, engaging in learning or not should lie in the hands of individual learners, rather than being controlled by teachers (Ardi, 2017; Hubbard, 2017).

To enable autonomous learners to take control of learning, and to progress at their own pace, a flexible learning context is necessary (Ghafournia & Sabet, 2014; Mesh, 2010). Learners should be placed at the central position, and take control of the whole learning process, for having more rooms to learn in an autonomous way (Oder &

Eisenschmidt, 2018). Learners should be allowed to change their learning in

accordance with the promotion of their language levels, and with the change of their learning aims (Dogan, 2015; Hanifehzadeh & Ebrahimi, 2014).

It informs the study to investigate learner autonomy through focusing on learners themselves and their involvement in learning activities by using various learning materials. Examination of the flexibility of the learning context is needed to reveal whether Chinese university EFL learners have the opportunity to make decisions on their learning, and to develop autonomy.

Interaction and communication with teachers and peer learners often imposes influence on the adoption, exercise and development of learner autonomy in language learning (Kelly, 1996; Pianta, 2017), since autonomous learning “does not take place in a vacuum” (Pemberton 1996, p. 6), but in a sociocultural-shaped environment (Miller, 2009; Smith & Ushioda, 2009). In terms of the exercise and development of autonomy, interaction and independent work are of equal importance (Dam, 1995).

Autonomous learning may have strong collaborative and interactive elements (Little, 1995). Communication, interaction, collaboration, negotiation, etc. are some of the factors with importance in promoting learner autonomy (Bhattacharya &

Chauhan, 2010). Compared with independent work, autonomy may benefit more from learners’ interaction and communication in a sociocultural context (Ardi, 2017;

Hafner & Miller, 2011; Lee, 2016). In an interaction-supported learning context, learners construct their language knowledge through interaction and reflection (Sinclair, 2009). Learners are also expected to reach “the highest level” of learner autonomy through dialogic negotiation and interaction in language learning activities (Dang, 2010: p. 4).

In language learning, an interactive environment, with the support of modern ICTs, is crucial for learners to elevate their autonomy, and to encourage them to engage in autonomous learning activities (Benson, 2006; Tayjasanant & Suraratdecha, 2016). In this interactive context, learners are expected to be increasingly responsible for their engagement in interaction, and to take more responsibility for issues in interactive learning (Cakici, 2017; Valizadeh, 2016). Language learners, while learning in an interactive context, are supposed to be more independent from relying on teachers and peers, and to gain more autonomy in the process (Oxford, 2003).

Learner autonomy should not be limited within selected educational or cultural contexts, nor only for highly committed learners (Cotterall, 2000). It is expanded into life, as a goal for all kinds of learning that happen in various contexts (Littlewood, 1999). For autonomous learners, learning is not only interaction with teachers and peers in the classrooms, but also autonomous interaction with the world (Thanasoulas, 2000). This suggests the investigation of Chinese university EFL learners’ learner

autonomy should focus on their interaction and communication, as well as the learning contexts in which the interaction and communication occur.

The three principles of learner autonomy development are of value to conceptualize the investigation of EFL students’ development and exercise of autonomy in language learning. They provide a theoretical lens to analyse EFL students’ autonomy through examination of their learning activities. The principles are thus adopted as a guide for the study on Chinese university EFL students’ autonomous learning in an online context.

The cultural features of a society can also have impacts on the development and exercise of learner autonomy in language learning (Oxford & Amerstorfer, 2018; Palfreyman, 2018). The culture of individualism and collectivism suggest different social value systems, sourcing from teachers, peer learners, and the society in developing learner autonomy. The definitions of the two distinctive value systems made by Kim et al. (1994) and Triandis (1995) (cited in Littlewood, 2001: pp. 4-5) are:

Collectivism refers to a value system in which a person’s identity, attitudes and

actions are determined to a large degree by the groups to which he or she belongs; while individualism is the converse of collectivism. An individual person can

claim rights to self-fulfilment and freedom of choice, even if these sometimes conflict with the interest of the ingroups to which he or she belongs.

In a more collectivist society, such as China and some other East Asian countries (Chen, Nassaji, & Liu, 2016), teachers, who usually act the role of “authority”, enjoy a higher status (Chiu, 2017; Han & Yin, 2016; Li, 2016). The decisions, made by teachers or by the group, in the name of the interest of the collective, often outweigh those of an individual learner (Triandis, 1995). Thus, in such a society, teachers and peer learners often impose external impacts on learner autonomy in learning activities. Individual learners, on the contrary, may change their learning routine, and exercise autonomy in a different way from individual learning to cater for the interest of the collective (Liang & Chen, 2011; Tran, 2007). It may be of greater importance to investigate the impacts in a Chinese context, whose specific value system of the society may magnify the influence, and lead to different outcomes of learners’ exercise of autonomy in language learning (Liang & Chen, 2011).

This informs the integration of sociocultural theories and learner autonomy to examine EFL learning, which is adopted in the current study. Investigating the exercise and development of learner autonomy in a broader sociocultural context is expected to enable teachers, learners, and researchers to be freed from an educational setting, and to gain a deeper understanding of autonomy in a broader environment.

The construct of learner autonomy is used to guide the investigation of Chinese university EFL learners’ language learning in an online context. It informs this study to examine these learners’ exercise and development of autonomy in their language learning in a CALL context under the influence of various factors, including learners’ involvement in learning, interaction and communication with others in a learning context, and broader sociocultural factors. Through incorporating the concept of learner autonomy, the study also investigates learners’ learning and its outcomes in an autonomous context.

3.3 Interactive learning

As Little (2003) has suggested, interaction is a key factor related to the generation of autonomy. Interaction is defined as “the social behaviour that occurs when one person communicates with another” (Ellis, 1999, p. 1). Interactive learning focuses on interaction between peer learners and with the teachers in the learning process (Gros, 2001). It involves more than one learner in the learning process and, at the same time, interactive learning provides them with learning and practice opportunities

(Fahrutdinova, Yarmakeev, & Fakhrutdinov, 2014).

The construct of interactive learning originated from Vygotsky’s SCT (Vygotsky 1978), which is viewed as one of the major theoretical frameworks in a language learning context for ability development and linguistic awareness promotion (Shen & Suwanthep, 2011). The construct lies on the basis of SCT, arguing that learners

intentionally construct their knowledge through interaction with the sociocultural contexts and corresponding reflections (Duffy & Jonassen, 2013). Interaction in learning “is expected to promote negotiation of meaning, and if it does so, this should be beneficial for language acquisition” (Chapelle, 2003, p. 56). It is considered as a significant factor contributing to language acquisition (Luk & Lin, 2017).

In interactive learning, learners are encouraged to interact via various means, including face-to-face and distance interaction, for promotion of each participant’s development by sharing information and resources, and helping, supporting, and encouraging peers (Challob, Bakar, & Latif, 2016; Rodliyah, 2016). It allows learners to develop their language abilities by engaging in complex language inputs and outputs to and from peers and teachers (Ahn & Lee, 2016; İnceçay & Koçoğlu, 2017). Interaction provides them with opportunities to be exposed to target language uses that are more cognitively complex, which leads to higher level of cognitive

development, as well as language development (Al-Abdali, 2016; Rahman, 2015).

This construct of interactive learning conceptualizes the language learning in a sociocultural context, where learners are expected to construct their linguistic knowledge and ability through interaction with the environment via mediations. It is adopted in this study as a key to investigate and understand EFL students’ language learning through interaction with teachers and peers in an online context.

3.3.1 Interactive EFL learning

Meaningful interactive learning always occurs in a learner’s ZPD, with the involvement of teachers, experts or peers (De Guerrero & Villamil, 2000; Lantolf, 2000; Ohta, 2000). Meaningful interactive learning that essentially promotes learners’ language development occurs through effective response, internal and external

negotiation, arguing against points, adding to evolving ideas, and offering alternative perspectives with one another while solving some real tasks (Rostami, Kashanian, & Gholami, 2016; Woo & Reeves, 2007). Interaction contributes to a learner’s cognitive and intellectual development, leading to improvement in their language abilities and knowledge (Hawkins, 2018; Saeed, Khaksari, & Eng, 2016).

In ZPD, interaction can enhance the development of language capacity through two linguistic evidences: the positive and the negative (Long, 1996; Vygotsky, 1978). Positive linguistic evidence is the help learners provide for peers in interactive

learning activities, while negative evidence is the assistance learners receive from peers that helps them improve their language abilities through rephrasing and

correcting language outputs (Swain, 1985). Being scaffolded by teachers and peers in interactive learning, learners can internalize language knowledge and abilities

(Al-Abdal, 2016; Vygotsky, 1978), and achieve better goals with interaction than learning alone (Nguyen, 2013). Interaction is an effective means for language learners to learn knowledge, and to practice their language skills (Hwang et al., 2016;

The notion of meaningful interactive learning provides a theoretical proposition to bridge the interaction with the concept of ZPD. It can guide the examination of participants’ learning in the their individual ZPD, and their perceptions of this approach for language development, particularly in an autonomous interactive learning context.