Strategic Language Learning: The Roles of Agency and Context (Second Language Acquisition, 49) - Hardcover

Gao, Dr. Xuesong (Andy)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1847692443 ISBN 13: 9781847692443

Publisher: Multilingual Matters, 2010

Synopsis

This monograph reports on a longitudinal inquiry into mainland Chinese undergraduates’ language learning experiences in an English medium university in a multilingual setting with a focus on their strategic language learning efforts. This book examines the issue as to what extent language learners’ strategic learning efforts depend on their ‘choice’, if ‘the element of choice’ is the defining characteristic of language learners’ strategic learning behaviour. The inquiry, using a qualitative and ethnographic research approach, reveals dynamic interaction between learners’ agency and contextual conditions underlying the participants’ strategic learning process. Such understanding informs pedagogical efforts to foster individual learners’ capacity for strategic learning and their capacities in opening up and sustaining a social learning space for exercising their strategic learning capacity or utilizing their strategic learning knowledge.

About this title

About the Author

Xuesong (Andy) Gao is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales. His current research interests are in the areas of learner autonomy, language learning narratives, language education policy, and language teacher education. He is co-editor of System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics.

Edition details

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1847692443
• ISBN 13: 9781847692443
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192