Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning in a Virtual Learning Environment (Advances in Digital Language Learning and Teaching)

By: Miranda Hamilton

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Synopsis: Digitalisedlearning with its promise of autonomy, enhanced learner choice,independence and freedom, is an intuitive and appealing construct butcloser 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?Thisbook describes the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) by agroup of advanced English language learners in Mexico, comparing whatstudents thoughtand what they didin response to the technology. The theoretical aim of the book is towork towards the construction of a theory of the development ofautonomy and virtual learning in an EFL context. Enhancedunderstanding about the relationship between autonomy and technologyhas the potential to inform academics, software designers, materialswriters, teacher educators, and teachers and to help learners intheir quest to acquire a foreign language.