Pixel International Conferences

In the European project ‘Speaking for Yourself’, 6 language institutions from 4 different countries investigated the question: how can we support our students to practise speaking on their own? This empowerment of the student to learn autonomously is important for several reasons. Firstly, learning a language requires a lot of practice and the time available in the classroom is not sufficient. Therefore, students need to be able to learn and practise on their own. Secondly, differentiation, especially at higher levels, is a key factor and autonomous learning provides the opportunity to differentiate according to the needs and wants of the student. Thirdly, when students learn to take their learning process in their own hands, they will continue to learn, even after the formal instruction is finished. Because of the complexity of language learning, we considered it more efficient to focus on one skill, namely speaking, because speaking is generally considered the most important language skill in terms of usage of the target language, but also the most difficult one to empower the learner for. There are numerous grammar, vocabulary and writing tools to be found on the internet. Reading and listening can be practiced using videos and texts, but speaking tools and activities to practice on your own are not widespread, so we wanted to investigate this challenge. As a method of enquiry, we chose action research: an efficient method to empower teachers and provide them with the ability to support their learners ànd to take their professional development into their own hands. In this presentation, we will explain how we conducted the action research, share our results and explain conditions and suggestions for implementing a similar action research in your own institution.

Keywords: Speaking, autonomous learning;