Conferences
Conference reportsUpcoming
conferences
AILA Learner Autonomy Symposium, Singapore, Dec 2002Terry Lamb writes: The AILA
Congress offered the opportunity once again for members of the Scientific
Commission on Learner Autonomy in Language Learning to come together
and share their most recent research. The central focus of this opportunity
was provided by the SC Symposium entitled 'Relationships between Learner
and Teacher Autonomy: Realities and Responses', a theme which had been
identified in 1999 at the previous symposium in Tokyo.
Following
an introduction by Bill Savage (freelance consultant, Thailand) and
Terry Lamb (University of Sheffield, UK) describing the framework, aim
and process of the symposium, three papers explored the concept of autonomy.
The first, by Phil Benson from Hong Kong University, focused on teacher
and learner notions of control, and this was followed by Turid Trebbi's
(University of Bergen, Norway) paper on consciousness-raising and its
potential for increasing freedom from control. The final paper in this
section was presented by Hˆmlˆone Martinez from the University
of Kassel, Germany, who described her study of student-teachers' beliefs
about autonomy. Following
questions and discussion of the first set of papers, the symposium continued
with a series of papers focusing on 'realities and responses'. The opening
paper in this section, by Sara Cotterall and David Crabbe from Victoria
University of Wellington, New Zealand, examined the realities of constraints
on autonomy from learners' perspectives as revealed in an interview-based
study. This was followed by a paper by Sada Daoud (Al-Isra Private University,
Amman, Jordan) which explored the potential of teacher-initiated action
research for enhancing teacher autonomy and, in turn, learner autonomy.
Richard Pemberton and Sarah Toogood then presented a paper (written
in collaboration with two other colleagues from Hong Kong University
of Science and Technology, Susanna Ho and Elza Tsang) describing the
way in which collaborative work by teachers provided a practical way
of ensuring that their self-access center provided an environment conducive
to teacher and learner autonomy. The final paper in the symposium, by
Jonathan Shaw (Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok) addressed a different
form of teacher collaboration, namely team-teaching, and its potential
for empowering teachers to learn about student learning in an autonomous
context. Following a wide-ranging and stimulating discussion, the symposium
ended with a brief summary by Terry Lamb, in which he referred to the
many manifestations of autonomy which had been described, and stressed
the need to recognise that different contexts provide different types
of constraints on autonomy, some internal, some external, some real
and some perceived. The symposium had provided positive and practical
examples of empowerment, in which teachers and learners had found ways
of overcoming such constraints. He also highlighted some of the innovative
approaches to researching autonomy which had been adopted by the presenters.
Consistent
with the theme of autonomy, an innovative approach to symposium organisation
was adopted for Singapore. Short versions of the papers had all been
placed on the website in advance, and some electronic discussion had
been encouraged by the authors (though unfortunately technical problems
at the wrong moment limited the discussions). Authors then presented
a brief summary of their papers in the symposium itself, but also provided
questions for everyone to consider. These questions will be revisited
in the near future through discussions on Auto-L. The intentions which
lay behind this were that it would enable a wider population to take
part in the symposium than those able to attend, and that it would allow
for more time to spent discussing the relationships between learner
and teacher autonomy. Following
the symposium, the SC Business Meeting led to the election of three
new convenors: Ana Maria Barcelos, Terry Lamb and Richard Pemberton.
Thanks were expressed to the outgoing convenors, Sara Cotterall, Leni
Dam, and Bill Savage, for their energy and commitment over the years.
The new convenors hope to build on the very firm foundations of the
SC by encouraging a more collaborative research community, though the
development of projects and regional conferences. Of course,
many other excellent papers on the theme of learner autonomy were presented
at the AILA conference, apart from those in the symposium. It is now
the intention to publish two volumes of papers: one which will describe
the history and content of the symposium itself, and another which will
disseminate other conference papers on autonomy.
The Canarian Conference
on Developing Autonomy in the Foreign Language Classroom, La Laguna,
Tenerife, February 25th
to March 1st 2003
Naoko Aoki writes: The Canarian Conference
on Developing Autonomy in the Foreign Language Classroom was held in
La Laguna, Tenerife from February 35th to March
Coming from outside the European context,
the biggest issue which concerned European colleagues seemed to me to
be how to cope with the large-scale introduction of the concept of learner
autonomy into national educational systems. The term learner autonomy
has been in many national curricula of European countries for a while,
but the Council of Europe's European Language Portfolio (ELP) project,
which was first proposed in 1997 and piloted in many EU countries between
1998-2001, has added urgency to the need to educate a large number of
teachers to be able to use ELP as a tool to nurture learner autonomy.
Quite a few presentations in the Canarian Conference focused on teachers
and teacher education. Many presenters also suggested the need for networking
with other disciplines, fields, content areas and professions.
The programme was very dense, but the
presentations were thematically grouped and a substantial length of
discussion time was set aside at the end of each group's presentation.
I personally found it more productive than having ten minutes discussion
time at the end of each presentation. We also had time for small group
discussion for writing up conclusions of the entire conference and sharing
them with the whole group at the end of the conference. This was also
a very good opportunity to reflect on what I learned in the conference
and share it with others.
Finally I would like to mention the remarkable hospitality of the members of the conference organizing committee who made our stay on the island comfortable and enjoyable in every imaginable way. Many thanks to Leslie, Jose Luiz and their friends and family members!
The Inaugural
Conference of the Independent
Learning Association,
Supporting Independent Language Learning
in the 21st Century, will be held in Melbourne, Australia. The conference,
the first in what is planned to be an annual event, aims to act as a
forum for those involved in promoting learner independence in Australia,
New Zealand and around the world. The conference will be of interest
to managers and staff of self-access language centers, lecturers in
language learning and all those interested in self-directed language
learning in universities, polytechnics, tafes and private facilities. Objectives:
Themes:
Plenary speakers:
Contact address:
info@independentlearning.org
Full details
on website: http://www.independentlearning.org/conference.htm The
Open University, Milton Keynes, UK: 4-5 December 2003 The conference, entitled Independent Language Learning: New Research
Directions, is organised by the Department of Languages, The
Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. It will focus
on new research into independent language learning, concentrating particularly
on:
Other aspects of independent learning such as learner advising, non-specialist learners or study abroad are by no means excluded. Plenary speakers:
For further
details and registration, please see the conference website at http://dol-conf.open.ac.uk UNTELE
2004, Compiègne, France: 17-20 March 2004 The fifth
Compiègne
conference on the Use of New Technologies in Foreign Language Teaching
has as its main theme: Teacher and Learner Autonomy vis-à-vis
Information Communication Technology. Does autonomy
help language learning and acquisition? Does technology help autonomisation?
Does technology serve the teacher and/or the learner? Has it become impossible
to circumvent technology? Can technology cater for both teacher and learner
needs and expectations? What can technology offer? Plenary speakers:
Dead-line for paper proposal: 15 August 2003 For further information, please consult the conference
web site: http://www.utc.fr/~untele Hong
Kong University of Science & Technology/Zhejiang University: 14-18
June 2004 The conference, entitled Autonomy
and Language Learning: Maintaining Control, will be held in Hong
Kong and Hangzhou
(China). It echoes the Autonomy and Language Learning conference
we held in 1994, and the 1996 publication that followed it, Taking
Control: Autonomy in Language Learning. One
of the main aims of this conference is to highlight what has (and has
not) been achieved in the field of learner autonomy in language learning
in the last 10 years. Participants
will be addressing the topic of autonomy and language learning from many
different angles. The conference themes include:
The plenary
speakers are: Naoko Aoki, Phil Benson, Leni Dam, Edith Esch, David Little and Philip Riley. The five-day,
two-site nature of the conference provides a chance not only for seeing
people and places, but also for extended discussion and networking with
conference participants. Come along
to Hong Kong and Hangzhou to meet leading practitioners in the field,
and to share your own experiences of promoting learner autonomy. We look
forward to seeing you! Abstract deadline: 31 December 2003 Conference website: http://lc.ust.hk/~center/conf2004/ |
Back to top