As far as my experience is concerned, the language learning tasks in my university fall on point 3 on the flexibility continum, i. e., a restricted learning system. Students are given a limited set of predetermined choices in the language learning tasks. Tuition is usually restricted to a set schedule and students normally have to be physically present on campus for learning. They are not provided with many choices in the curriculum, nor are they provied courses which are designed to make them progess at their own pace. The tasks are not individualized enough and don't allow great opportunity to every student. However, changes are underway with the development of IT and with the rising awareness of using IT to add value to learning tasks. Some teachers in my university begin to realize the usefulness of the Web, and ask students to explore knowledge on certain topics related to the course by themselves. Some good language learning websites are also recommended by the teachers to the more advanced students who want to learn more beyond the textbook. Some tasks are designed to ask students to find useful knowledge through different sources mostly on the Internet, and present the product with integration of media. These kinds of tasks allow students to be actively involved in constructing knowledge for themselves with a focus on both the products and processes of learning. But these changes remain on a small scale and the whole learning system are still far from flexible.
Now many research studies have been conducted on learner-centre teaching method, and liberated learning tasks seem to be a trend in language teaching/learning. I expect to see it incorporated into teaching in my local circumstance in the near future. However, I think it is still too early to carry out "free" tasks in my university.
2 comments:
Xiao li, I like your detailed description of your teaching context within the "restricted" system. What strikes me is that those activities in your university may be useful and significant to other similar contexts. By focusing on both the product and the process, students surelly will learn by doing tasks.
Dear Greentea, it's interesting that although we work so far apart from each other, the learning and teaching context is almost the same. I guess it is just the case throughout China. Yes, everything is just restricted, predetermined and fixed. Although change is underway, it's slow and hard to see the significant effectiveness. However hard it is, a little improvement is better than no change at all. It's comforting to see that with more attention being focused on teaching especially the integration of IT into the instruction and learning course, both learners and instructors are benefiting. Yes, we look forward to a better liberated future but hard to imagine the free one. It must be demanding and learners should learn to be highly autonomous.
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