Mariusz Kruk

The Development of Learner Autonomy Through Internet Resources and Its Impact on English Language Attainment

Abstract Since the arrival of the Internet and its tools, computer technology has become of considerable significance to both teachers and students, and it is an obvious resource for foreign language teaching and learning. The paper presents the results of a study which aimed to determine the effect of the application of Internet resources on the development of learner autonomy as well as the impact of greater learner independence on attainment in English as a foreign language. The participants were 46 Polish senior high school students divided into the experimental group (N = 28) and the control (N = 18) group. The students in the experimental group were subjected to innovative instruction with the use of the Internet and the learners in the control group were taught in a traditional way with the help of the coursebook. The data were obtained by means questionnaires, interviews, learners’ logs, an Internet forum, observations as well as language tests, and they were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results show that the experimental students manifested greater independence after the intervention and they also outperformed the controls on language tests.

The Contribution of Metaphor to University Students’ Explicit Knowledge About ELT Methodology

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between metaphor and a group of English students’ awareness of and engagement with various ELT methodology issues (feedback, induction, error, etc.). The study, conducted among 27 EFL students of English philology, was based on the triangular approach intended to yield both quantitative and qualitative data from a questionnaire and an argumentative paragraph. The analysis of obtained results reveals ontological correspondence between the concrete source domains from which the respondents derived their comments and the abstract target domains referring to various ELT concepts that they tried to explore and understand. An overall conclusion is that the conceptual and linguistic layers of metaphor can be viewed as a constructive tool for transforming language students’ implicit beliefs and assumptions into the explicit and thus more meaningfully as well as effectively exploited system of knowledge about L2 pedagogy ideas and principles.

On the possible interactions of varied EFL activities and learning styles with EFL students’ motivational changes

ABSTRACT L2 classroom is a place and process that undergoes an array of incessant and concurrent changes affecting its main agents, i.e. the teacher and students in a non-linear and unpredictable manner. Various aspects of their cognitive and affective potential fluctuate and intensify or weaken depending on what is going on in a particular L2 learning/teaching environment at a particular point of time. The present paper, drawing on the idea of complexity, multifariousness and spatiotemporal situatedness of a language classroom, is intended to examine the likelihood and dynamics of the reciprocal co-occurrence of a range of practical English learning activities, learning styles and changes in motivation. In the first, theoretical part the authors will present literature review with a special regard to the complex dynamic systems perspective on motivation. The second part is devoted to a discussion of findings from the qualitatively and quantitatively oriented research conducted on two groups of English philology students. Data gathering instruments included the questionnaires investigating the subjects’ while-class and after-class involvement, the learning style survey, the teachers evaluation of conducted classes and participant observation. Obtained results revealed certain patterns of motivational variability in relation to the students’ general learning preferences.

The Use of Internet Resources in Developing Autonomy in Learning English Pronunciation: A Qualitative Study

The main aim of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing discussion about the importance of autonomy in language learning and teaching by addressing the issue of the development of autonomy in learning pronunciation by means of Internet resources among Polish senior high school learners. The data were collected by means of learners’ logs, group and individual interviews, observations, evaluation sheets and open-ended questions included in a pronunciation autonomy questionnaire. They were subjected to qualitative analysis and, in some cases, the ‘quantizing’ technique was also involved, which allowed for the transformation of the qualitative data into quantitative data (Miles and Huberman 1994, p. 42). The findings show that the use of Internet resources and the resultant independent work were not only welcomed by the experimental students but also contributed to a change in the way they learned English pronunciation and the development of certain behaviors characteristic of autonomous learning.