self-directed learning

Self-directed Learning | Pinkie | November 11th, 2000

Dear Denizens of the List:

My MET assignment is going to be related to self-directed learning, and I've been reading Little "Responding authentically to authentic texts: a problem for self-access language learning?" (in "Autonomy and independence in language learning" 1997 eds. Benson P & Voller P, Longman). Little says...

"[When] learners want to approach authentic texts more from the learner perspective than from the user perspective, we should encourage them to generate their own exercises and learning activities by applying a range of simple analytical procedures to the authentic texts they encounter - procedures calculated to promote vocabulary learning, for example, or a greater sensitivity to morphosyntactic structure." (for suggestions, see Little, 1989; Little & Devitt, 1991)

The two publications cited are:

Little D (ed) (1989): "Self-access systems for language learning" Dublin: Authentik/CILT.

Little D & Devlin S (1991): "Authentik: the user's guide". Dublin: Authentik/CILT.

Both are apparently out of print, and neither is in my library. Is there anyone out there who knows where I might get hold of these publications, or who has access to them and would be prepared to send me the "suggestions" in question (or indeed post them to the list)?

By the way, for anyone with an interest in self-directed learning there's a very informative website, complete with extensive bibliography, here.

Best wishes, and thanks,

Pinkie

Self-directed Learning | Mary Lynn | November 11th, 2000

Dear Pinkie,

I think I read the first of the publications you mention years ago, anyway it was one about setting up a self-access centre. By the way, Authentik is a campus company based at Trinity College Dublin that produces 'authentic' materials for language learning (Can something be called authentic if it is re-produced/re-formatted for language learning and hence divorced from its original context?).

For English, there is a language learner's newspaper called 'Arrow', which is made up of clippings from British and Irish newspapers, along with recorded interviews and activities to go with both. It's not bad and the only published source of 'authentic' materials I know of. David Little is a lecturer/prof at Trinity College.

You could try contacting Authentik directly at info@authentik.ie to see if they have copies of what you're looking for. (They will also send you a free copy of their ELT newspaper (but not the tape), if you ask). Let me know how you get on. If no luck, I could probably round up copies of the Little papers from a library here and send you the relevant bits.

For my CL assignment, I'm looking at pedagogic uses of ATA (the Aston software for corpus analysis) and in my trawls, recently found the TALC (Teaching and Language Corpora) biennial conference websites. The 1998 site has abstracts of conference papers, among them one called 'Concordance Use in Self Access Grammar Materials', in case that might be of any interest to you.

Cheers,

Mary Lynn

Self-directed Learning | Pinkie | November 12th, 2000

Mary Lynn:

Thanks for the info on Authentik: have written to see if they can supply these books. My interest is in getting academic-writing students to use articles from their fields as language-learning resources: I'm hoping that Little will offer some useful ideas about "do-it-yourself" activities.

Can something be called authentic if it is re-produced/re-formatted for language learning and hence divorced from its original context?

Guess not! Still...

Thanks also for the stuff on language and corpora, which is certainly of interest to me, and I imagine to others too.

Best wishes,

Pinkie

Self-directed Learning | Jonathan Clifton | November 12th, 2000

Pinkie,

Am working on my MAP assignment and am looking at the concept of authenticity. I can recommend the following article:

Authenticity in the Language Classroom, Michael Breen, in Applied Linguistics, vol 6/1, 1985.

The article basically looks at text, task and learner authenticity and authenticity of the interaction generated. Breen makes the point that a non-authentic text may have an authentic learning purpose and may well be authentic from the students point of view and that an authentic/genuine text doesn't always have authenticity in the classroom. It is a little difficult to give a resume of the article in 100 words or so and would not really do Breen justice so I'll just give a couple of quotes that I though particularly relevant. Anyway here are a couple of quotes:

"Perhaps the criteria to guide the teachers selection and use of texts (...) reside initially not in the text themselves but in the learners"

"If we are aware of the learners frames of reference, then considerations of a texts authenticity become a relatively misty matter"

"Inauthentic language-using behavior might be authentic language learning behavior"

"Perhaps the most socially appropriate and authentic role of the classroom situation is to provide the opportunity for public and interpersonal sharing of the content of language learning, the sharing of problems within such content and the revealing of the most effective means and strategies to overcome such problems".

Hope the quotes give you some help. Can thoroughly recommend the article if you haven't already come across it.

Best

Jonathan Clifton

P.S. I also can recommend Self instruction in language learning, by leslie Dickinson, CUP 1987.