Faculty Publications and Conference Presentations

<p>Self-access learning has recently received much attention from language practitioners, educators and linguists in the language learning field. Much emphasis has been put on the effectiveness of the self-access system. However, it is difficult to locate studies concerning the learning patterns in self-access systems. This paper looks on two levels into the different learning patterns among university students studying in a self-access learning environment. First, it addresses the impact of the different learning patterns on language learning under self-access systems. Second, the paper discusses our research findings on the learning patterns among university students when learning in the self-access mode and proposes appropriate self-access working models to enhance language learning.</p>

To investigate the value of electronic conferences for English learners, I will first review some major studies related to the use of computers in language classrooms, then present a qualitative analysis of an e-mail corpus collected from a large-scale international writing project that involved 20 ESL discussion groups at the college level. The study attempts to investigate the democratic influence of computer-mediated communication (CMC), and examine the subsequent benefits for language learners. It was found that electronic conferencing encourages a movement from teacher-centred to learner-centred pedagogy, resulting in students constructing their knowledge together, heightening their language awareness, developing spontaneity in communicating in English and sharpening the precision of their word choice.