Speaker
ABSTRACT
Collaborative online international learning (COIL) enables students to communicate in English with peers from another culture. Research has showed benefits of COIL for improving perceived intercultural competence (e.g., de Castro et al., 2018; Lázár, 2014) and language competence (e.g., Casañ-Pitarch et al., 2020), but researchers have only hinted that COIL benefits learner autonomy (e.g., Dooly, 2017; Fuchs, Hauck, & Müller-Hartmann, 2012; Little, 2016).
In this COIL project, students in Japan (n = 17) and Korea (n = 9) formed teams to produce digital games aimed at English learners. The project was intended to provide the students with an opportunity to use English while working independently from their teachers on a project of interest to them, ultimately increasing their learner autonomy.
COIL participants and students in non-COIL classes completed survey questionnaires measuring their learner autonomy at the beginning and end of the spring semester of 2024. The results showed a significant increase in learner autonomy in both the COIL group and a group that participated in flipped classes (n = 33), while a group in traditional classes (n = 8) showed a non-statistical increase.
In this presentation, we will provide details of the COIL project, including successes, challenges, and future plans.
KEYWORDS
learner autonomy
COIL
project-based learning
games
| TITLE | Promoting learner autonomy through COIL: Japan-Korea game creation project |
|---|---|
| RELEVANT SIG | Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) |
| FORMAT | Research-oriented Oral Face-to-face presentation (25 minutes, including Q&A) |
