Presenters: Jo Mynard and Katherine Thornton, Kanda University of International Studies, Japan
In this session, the presenters explore the nature of the written dialogue between learning advisors and language learners and discuss the importance of this kind of dialogue for the development of learner autonomy. By analysing comments written by learning advisors on students’ work in two different self-directed learning modules over a one-semester period, the researchers identify patterns of written advising which they will share during the presentation. The different approaches that advisors take and specific strategies that they use in written format to interact with students will be presented and discussed.
T1 Mynard & Thornton
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Dear Jo, dear Katherine,
I just had a look at your slides and I found your talk very interesting. Congratulations! In particualr, I found very interesting the analysis of the written comments of your advisors. Good choice of categories, inspiring results.
I have three questions:
1. How does your first step module look like?
2.. What do you have in the learning to learn pack?
3. How many students does each advisor follow?
If you would like to have a look at our learning to learn section at the Selbstlernzentrum of the Freie Universität Berlin, you can find it here http://www.sprachenzentrum.fu-berlin.de/slz/lernen_zu_lernen/index.html (unfortunately in German !)
Best
Giovanna Tassinari
Hi Giovanna!
Thanks for taking a look at our slides – we are working on our audio too so that it will make a bit more sense. We gave a brief overview of the modules during our presentation and showed some examples. The First Steps Module is mainly input based. Over the course of 7 weeks, learners are introduced to various ways of become more aware of the language learning process. The units are: needs analysis. time management, resources, learning styles, strategies, affect and balancing your learning. The learners do some activities, make connections with their own learning and write a reflection at the end of each unit. The learning advisor comments on the work and the reflections each week and it was these comments that we were looking at in this research. The follow-up module is called “learning how to learn” and this is a self-directed module where the learner makes a plan with help from a learning advisor and implements the plan over 8 weeks. Each week the learner documents the work and writes reflections and the learning advisor writes comments in response. We were analysing these comments in the present research. We acknowledge that it is a dialogic process, but were only presented a rather one-sided view in the present research. Each LA could have 40 or more assigned learners depending on their other duties.
Thanks for sharing your model – very interesting! I notice that someone wrote a comment for you.
Best wishes,
Jo