Xiaohong Liu

School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China // xiaohongliu1211@gmail.com 

Jon-Chao Hong 

School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China // tcdahong@gmail.com

Li Zhao

School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China // li.zhao@njnu.edu.cn

ABSTRACT: 

Self-directed learning (SDL) is a basic individual ability in modern society. It is of great value to explore SDL and its relationship to learners’ online learning effectiveness. This study explored the relationships among online learners’ personality traits (neuroticism and extraversion), SDL (SDL-approach and SDL-attitude), and perceived online learning ineffectiveness (POLI). A total of 668 high school students who had received online learning completed the survey. Results revealed that neuroticism negatively predicted SDL-approach and SDL-attitude, whereas extraversion was positively correlated with SDL-approach and SDL-attitude, and SDL-approach and SDL-attitude were negatively correlated with POLI. In addition, the correlation between personality traits and POLI was significantly mediated by the two types of SDL. The findings provide educators with empirical evidence and insights about improving students’ SDL and understanding the importance of personality traits in online learning.

Keywords: 

High school students, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Self-directed learning, Online learning effectiveness

Min Zhang

School of Information Science and Technology, Northeast Normal University, China // zhangm122@nenu.edu.cn

Qiang Jiang 

School of Information Science and Technology, Northeast Normal University, China // jiangqiang@nenu.edu.cn

Weiyan Xiong

Department of International Education, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong // xiong.weiyan@hotmail.com 

Qi Li

School of Information Science and Technology, Northeast Normal University, China // liq410@nenu.edu.cn

Wei Zhao

School of Information Science and Technology, Northeast Normal University, China // zhaow577@nenu.edu.cn

ABSTRACT: 

Self-directed learning with mobile technology (SDLMT) is critical to students’ learning success. However, only minimal research has been conducted on the manner by which significant aspects (e.g., self-efficacy, student engagement) are related to SDLMT. This study analyzed the answers of 485 Chinese students (seventh to ninth grades) who were surveyed, and evaluated the relationships among self-efficacy (Internet self-efficacy and online communication self-efficacy), student engagement (behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and social engagement), and SDLMT. Structural equation model revealed that SDLMT was positively predicted by self-efficacy, and SDLMT was positively impacted by student engagement. Moreover, the mediation analysis was performed using the PROCESS plugin in SPSS and determined that after controlling for gender and grade, the relationship between self-efficacy and SDLMT was partially mediated by student engagement. Findings established the value of self-efficacy for SDLMT, and further emphasized the vital mediating role of student engagement. Hence, developing K–12 students’ SDLMT entails enhancing self-efficacy and student engagement.

Keywords: 

Self-efficacy, Student engagement, Self-directed learning, Mobile technology, Self-directed learning with mobile technology

Lianjiang Jiang

Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, HKSAR China // jljiang@hku.hk

Hayley Kam

Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, HKSAR China // kamhaynamhayley@gmail.com

Daniel Furgeson

Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, HKSAR China // danielf@connect.hku.hk

ABSTRACT: 

The importance of self-directed language learning is well documented. Yet whether and how teachers in K-12 contexts can facilitate self-directed language learning, particularly during the pandemic, remains underexplored. Informed by a sociocultural conceptualization of self-directed language learning as socially mediated action, this study presents a tale of two primary English teachers’ use of digital multimodal composing (DMC) to facilitate self-directed language learning among their young learners. Multiple sources of data were gathered, including in-depth interviews, observation, reflection, and multimodal videos. The analysis shows that using DMC in K-12 language pedagogies affords a new avenue for the two teachers to engage their students with self-directed language learning. The findings reveal that with DMC, the teachers facilitated their young learners with both artifactual literacies and participatory contributions to an online English community. With the artifactual and participatory patterns of literacy learning during DMC, the study argues that self-directed language learning for contemporary young learners is becoming multimodal, digital, embodied, artifactual, connected, collaborative, and distributed within and across multiple spaces. The study refutes a deficit perspective toward K-12 learners and advocates recognizing and building on their linguistic and cultural repertories for the emergent process of self-directed language learning with technologies. Implications on how K-12 teachers should go beyond technological know-how to pedagogical know-how are also discussed. 

Keywords: 

Self-directed language learning, Digital multimodal composing, Primary English teachers, Artifactual, Participatory

Carmen Durham

University of Northern Iowa, USA // carmen.durham@uni.edu

Loren Jones

University of Maryland, USA // ldjones@umd.edu

ABSTRACT: 

Technology continually changes day-to-day interactions, and emergent bilingual learners often multitask, using several digital tools, at times simultaneously, to communicate and learn. Students may text, post on social media, and listen to music as they complete their work. Studies have examined the affordances of technology for language learning, both inside and outside of traditional classroom settings. However, as we seek to better understand how teachers can incorporate students’ experiences and interests in academic settings, more research is needed on the nuanced ways that students leverage multiple digital tools as they multitask, or quickly alternate between technologies. This ethnographic study focuses on two high school classes of English to speakers of other languages in the United States. Through the lens of sociocultural theory, we examine how emergent bilingual students multitask with digital tools and how teachers facilitate technology use. Findings reveal that although teachers actively and explicitly approved specific assignments and digital tools that would lead to accomplishing daily language and content objectives, students also purposefully selected other digital tools that would help them co-construct knowledge with peers, and they often switched between various websites across multiple devices to examine content that was closely related to their interests and lived experiences. Evidence from previous studies supports that multitasking can be harmful to learning, but this study found that multitasking can also mediate learning, especially self-directed learning, which has important implications for how teachers implement digital tools in the classroom.

Keywords:

Multitasking, Sociocultural theory, Self-directed learning, English to speakers of other languages, Emergent bilingual learners

Yin Yang

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Competency Education Centre, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong //  yangyinnicole@gmail.com

Yuyang Cai

School of Languages, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, China // sailor_cai@hotmail.com

Yanjie Song

Department of Mathematics and Information Technology, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong // ysong@eduhk.hk

ABSTRACT: 

The effect of technology on primary students’ self-regulated vocabulary learning (SRVL) over time and its dynamic relationship with vocabulary outcomes have been scarcely studied. This quasi-experimental study reports a longitudinal inquiry into the effect of a mobile-assisted self-regulation scheme on primary students’ SRVL and the relationship between the changes in the perceived SRVL skills and vocabulary learning outcome. The study lasted seven months. Participants were 174 Grade 4 students (89 girls) from four classes at a primary school in Mainland China. Two classes were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. Students in both groups used the app named Vocab+, the former with and the latter without a mobile-assisted self-regulation scheme. Data collection included questionnaires on students’ perceived SRVL skills and vocabulary tests. Latent Growth Modelling (LGM) was used to analyse data. The results showed that perceived SRVL skills and vocabulary learning outcomes increased over time. The findings further revealed that students in the experimental group exhibited a steeper increasing trend in perceived SRVL skills and vocabulary learning outcomes. Besides, the association between the growth rates of students’ perception of SRVL skills and vocabulary learning outcomes was stronger with the experimental group than with the control group. Our results provided theoretical implications for understanding the relationship between SRVL skills and vocabulary learning outcomes from a developmental perspective.  

Keywords: 

Self-regulated learning (SRL), Mobile-assisted self-regulation scheme, Self-regulated vocabulary learning (SRVL), Latent growth modelling