Critical incidents as a window into simple language management
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Dagmar Sieglová
Abstract
Language learning is a life-long process. In a world that connects people across nations through study, work, travel and socializing, new chances and challenges arise, intensifying a need to improve modern foreign language skills. The aim of language education, therefore, should not be limited to providing mere language instruction but it should also involve the development of learner autonomy so that students are equipped with strategies, methods, and approaches for managing their language development over the course of their whole lives. Higher Education Institution (HEI) teaching practices need to react to this reality through their teaching approaches and methodologies. The following study conducted with ŠKODA AUTO University presents an analysis of the current students’ simple language management (LM) process, which reveals their language learning attitudes, behaviors and ‘acts toward’ language. Data were collected between 2017 and 2020 from students’ written narratives describing and analyzing critical incidents (CI) that reflect the learning strategies the students adopt, the study styles they use, motivation for learning, as well as the actions they plan and conduct. As a result, these findings form the basis of a deeper understanding of the language teaching process, which in turn enhances language education methodology.
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© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Empowering learners in their critical, creative and autonomous thinking: from a good language learner to a better world citizen
- Articles
- Podcasting as project-based learning and its effect on the acquisition of linguistic and non-linguistic skills
- Vers une dynamique collaborative d’enseignement/apprentissage au sein de la démarche communic’actionnelle
- A pilot course with project-based learning in an intensive English program
- “My resistance disappeared”: Japanese university learners’ feedback to a student-centered English discussion course
- Critical incidents as a window into simple language management
- Assessing verbal interaction: towards European harmonization. Insights from the co-operation between Spanish and French language exams for Higher Education (CertAcles/CLES)
- Developing a rating scale for integrated assessment of reading-into-writing skills
- The longitudinal development of self-assessment and academic writing: an advanced writing programme
- Self-access learning of English intonation with speech software: examining learners’ perceptions with a focus on their concerns and negative comments
- Non-English major students’ perceptions of aspects of their autonomous language learning
- Identifying ELF programs in Italian University websites: what gaps need to be filled
- General and specialist vocabulary knowledge as predictors of academic success in EMI university programs
- English medium instruction in Higher Education of Afghanistan: students’ perspective
- Development of second language productive skills through CLIL in a Japanese university: a pre-experimental longitudinal study
- Native peers as mediators and experts in language learning in Higher Education
- Activity Report
- Learning languages through virtual exchange: an international university network
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Empowering learners in their critical, creative and autonomous thinking: from a good language learner to a better world citizen
- Articles
- Podcasting as project-based learning and its effect on the acquisition of linguistic and non-linguistic skills
- Vers une dynamique collaborative d’enseignement/apprentissage au sein de la démarche communic’actionnelle
- A pilot course with project-based learning in an intensive English program
- “My resistance disappeared”: Japanese university learners’ feedback to a student-centered English discussion course
- Critical incidents as a window into simple language management
- Assessing verbal interaction: towards European harmonization. Insights from the co-operation between Spanish and French language exams for Higher Education (CertAcles/CLES)
- Developing a rating scale for integrated assessment of reading-into-writing skills
- The longitudinal development of self-assessment and academic writing: an advanced writing programme
- Self-access learning of English intonation with speech software: examining learners’ perceptions with a focus on their concerns and negative comments
- Non-English major students’ perceptions of aspects of their autonomous language learning
- Identifying ELF programs in Italian University websites: what gaps need to be filled
- General and specialist vocabulary knowledge as predictors of academic success in EMI university programs
- English medium instruction in Higher Education of Afghanistan: students’ perspective
- Development of second language productive skills through CLIL in a Japanese university: a pre-experimental longitudinal study
- Native peers as mediators and experts in language learning in Higher Education
- Activity Report
- Learning languages through virtual exchange: an international university network
