Autonomy, Social Interaction, and Community: A Distance Language Learning Perspective

Abstract

Language learning is being transformed by the opportunities for social networking and construction of distributed communities ushered in by Web 2.0 technologies, which have become intimately integrated into everyday life. At the same time, the demand for flexible learning has grown, driven by social and economic changes also frequently the result of rapid technological development (Nicolson, Murphy, and Southgate 2011: 3–4). This combination of tools and learning needs has led to increasing use of distance, distributed, or blended learning and suggests that a distance learning perspective, reflected in this chapter, may have relevance for the wider language learning and teaching community. The developments in technology and re-configuration of learning spaces are set against the backdrop of a shift in learning theories, and theories of second language acquisition, from a person-centred, individualistic perspective on the process and nature of learning to a view of learning as a social process, situated in a particular context or situation, as exemplified in the work of Vygotsky (1986) and Lave and Wenger (1991). This has led to reconsideration of what it means to be an autonomous language learner and the interplay between autonomy and motivation in a socially situated view of language learning.