Learner Autonomy and Tandem learning: Putting Principles Into Practice in Synchronous and Asynchronous Telecommunications Environments

This paper has described three different approaches to learner autonomy which are: an individual cognitive, a social-interactive, and an experimental-participatory perspective. It also shows us examples of how various combinations of technology and pedagogy can lead to different degrees of implementations of learner autonomy principles.The idea and the implementation of tandem learning are very new and impressive to me. L1 and L2 learners were combined together to a tandem pair. It encouraged the learners to be responsible for their own and their partner’s learning. I think it is a very good idea to combine L1 and L2 learners together. However, it is crucial for us to teach learners to take up their own responsibilities in learning. When implementing this kind of technological language learning, school or panel heads and subject teachers should try to integrate it into the syllabus or part of the curriculum. Then teachers can do this kind of learning with students in class and this enables teachers to monitor closely to the progress of students.

Copyright

The introduction of copyright in the course is very useful as teachers do not have much knowledge about copyright and we are not aware of the importance of it. We copy exercises and assessment tests from supplementary exercise and download music and videos for teaching whenever we need or want without knowing whether we violate the law of copyright or not. It is important for us to pay a certain respect to the copyright of the one who create or make the exercises or videos. The introduction of Fair Dealing helps teachers and educational workers to use materials without violating the law and preserve the right for students to learn more. Yet, teachers should also obey the law of copyright so as to set a good example for students.

Practical considerations for Multimedia courseware development:an EFL IVD experience

The article gives us a successful use of interactive videodisc courseware for English language teaching. There are several aspects that have to be carefully planned, they are the design considerations, objective setting, instructional design and implementation. The use of interactive videodisc courseware is a very new idea to a language teacher like me. A good pick of movie can arouse students’ interest in learning English, especially good for students who have short attention span. Through watching movie, students can learn authentic and real life English language. However, the implementation of IVD involves a lot of manpower and resources. The IVD may not be affordable for ordinary schools. Teacher training is also crucial.
In my opinion, some schools fail to use CALL since teachers do not have enough knowledge about the manipulation of CALL. Without knowing the real use of CALL, it is difficult for teachers to make good use from it. That’s why teachers treat the use of CALL in an ad hoc manner.