GETTING FIT FOR INCREASED LEARNER AUTONOMY: A PEDAGOGICAL PROPOSAL FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

As educational approaches to language teaching evolve to include both technology and innovative teaching paradigms for the 21st century, teachers are increasingly expected to be able to create engaging learning environments that appeal to students with highly developed digital competences (AACTE & P21, 2010). Recently, two approaches have been lauded for promoting learner autonomy: telecollaborative exchanges and the flipped classroom. It is argued here that flipped learning that makes optimal use of technology can enhance the development of learner autonomy, however, this requires teacher know-how of effective instructional practices in order to create coherently sequenced activities (both in and out of class) that ensure meta-cognitive scaffolding. The flipped materials and activities, as well as the follow-up activities (whether carried out during online telecollaboration or in-class) have limited value, and do not automatically produce more autonomous learners, unless the teachers are able to design intricately meshed tasks that support the identified learning goals; that promote group awareness of the importance of collaborative learning; that ensure knowledge acquisition while encouraging student responsibility for their own language learning process.

This paper describes a pedagogical model (FIT) which combines, holistically, telecollaborative language teaching and learning, in-class dialogic learning and flipped classroom materials. The model is based on the accumulated experience and knowledge of two language teacher-educators who have carried out sustained class-to-class and professional telecollaboration for the past thirteen years. We first outline the FIT model, with examples of the meticulously planned sequencing of activities, followed by evidence of increased learner autonomy, based on longitudinal qualitative data. We conclude with a summary of gains in learner autonomy, based on key questions posed by David Little is in his closing keynote speech for the New Directions in Telecollaborative Research and Practice Conference, held at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland from 21 to 23 April 2016.