Learning environments in university language centres: Transferring support to learners
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Seppo Sainio,
Seppo Sainio is a university lecturer in the University of Helsinki Language Centre.
Abstract
The study reported in this article was conducted in 2009–2010 at the University of Helsinki Language Centre. Its purpose was to produce new information on the use of learning environments, specifically in a university language centre. Data collected from student questionnaires were analysed and interpreted. The study reveals that the central function of learning environments is to transfer available support to learners during their goal-oriented study. Further, it is argued that all support should be aligned with the intended learning goals, and that learning environments should be designed and used in a manner that recognises their different ways of transferring support to learners.
The study serves a didactic purpose by offering research-based data for the development of teaching, and also functions as “pilot research” for further methodical development. The aim of the study was to investigate the learning process from the learners' point of view. The results are presented as a model offering a means for planning an aligned teaching and learning process in which different environments are used in an effective way.
About the author
Seppo Sainio is a university lecturer in the University of Helsinki Language Centre.
©[2011] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Approche systémique de l'innovation pour l'apprentissage en Centre de Langues
- Tensions entre politique du changement et stabilité : une dynamique nécessaire pour l'innovation dans les centres de langues universitaires
- From politics to policy: Rethinking the relationship between language centres and Modern Foreign Language departments
- Quality through networking – from reactive administration to proactive cooperation
- The student voice in quality assurance
- A comprehensive placement test tool for language centres
- Evaluating and improving informal assessment in the university language classroom
- Learning environments in university language centres: Transferring support to learners
- My Pronunciation Coach: Improving English pronunciation with an automatic coach that listens
- Effective writing tasks and feedback for the Internet Generation
- Communicating the cultural richness of Finnish hiljaisuus (silence)
- The eye of the beholder: Is English as a Lingua Franca in academic settings a monolingual or multilingual practice?
- Attitudes and motivational factors behind Finnish business students' choices of foreign languages
- A new LSP educational experience in Nebrija University
