Page 32 - LanGuide Project: Research and Professional Insights
P. 32
a Čebron and Emma Beatriz Villegas Cunja
skills and knowledge, enabling them to transfer earlier language-learning
experience in confronting a new language or in improving the level of pro-
ficiency of a language studied earlier.
The collections of exercises for individual languages and segments of
modules are organized according to validated knowledge and with inven-
tive use of concepts and methods. Thus, some collections are organized in
a systematic way, while others build on random sampling criteria. In both
cases, the exercises available on the LanGuide mobile app should be consid-
ered as a teaser to engage with comprehensive language courses delivered
in a formal learning setting. Alternatively, the exercises can sometimes
be used as on the spot reference for tackling immediate communication
needs. Due to the constraints imposed by the software options only a nar-
row set of language skills can be efficiently developed within the LanGuide
virtual environment, while extended communication practice within an
extended mutually supportive language-learning community could not be
set up at this stage of the LanGuide project.
In terms of affordances of the mobile technology, the LanGuide App
builds on the core advantages of a personal, user-centred, mobile and
ubiquitous learning process mediated by technology. It takes into con-
sideration the requirements of nowadays learners to have access to knowl-
edge and independent learning at their fingertips anywhere and anytime,
whenever it is convenient, especially during the void spaces of time during
breaks, transfers and activity gaps. It also allows the user to have control
over the pace and style of interaction with the app and thus lends itself to
lifelong learning practices.
The preliminary testing of the LanGuide App among a batch of over a
hundred users seems to suggest that these collections of exercises can gen-
erate initial motivation and interest in learning new languages (see also
Čebron et al., 2021; Lozano et al. in Chapter 4 and Načinović Prskalo et
al. in Chapter 2 of this monograph), but cannot predict levels of attrition
among learners at some further stage. Such an assessment will only be pos-
sible once the resources are tested for a longer period.
However, the problems of scant grammar explanations and pronuncia-
tion indications could only partly be overcome within this resource due to
the constraints inherent to the mobile technology. The language of instruc-
tion remained mainly English, or English in combination with the learner’s
target language, which could lead to frustration and even rejection of the
LanGuide App as a language-learning resource. Similarly, some of the sl a
principles such as communicative language learning activities and task-
32
skills and knowledge, enabling them to transfer earlier language-learning
experience in confronting a new language or in improving the level of pro-
ficiency of a language studied earlier.
The collections of exercises for individual languages and segments of
modules are organized according to validated knowledge and with inven-
tive use of concepts and methods. Thus, some collections are organized in
a systematic way, while others build on random sampling criteria. In both
cases, the exercises available on the LanGuide mobile app should be consid-
ered as a teaser to engage with comprehensive language courses delivered
in a formal learning setting. Alternatively, the exercises can sometimes
be used as on the spot reference for tackling immediate communication
needs. Due to the constraints imposed by the software options only a nar-
row set of language skills can be efficiently developed within the LanGuide
virtual environment, while extended communication practice within an
extended mutually supportive language-learning community could not be
set up at this stage of the LanGuide project.
In terms of affordances of the mobile technology, the LanGuide App
builds on the core advantages of a personal, user-centred, mobile and
ubiquitous learning process mediated by technology. It takes into con-
sideration the requirements of nowadays learners to have access to knowl-
edge and independent learning at their fingertips anywhere and anytime,
whenever it is convenient, especially during the void spaces of time during
breaks, transfers and activity gaps. It also allows the user to have control
over the pace and style of interaction with the app and thus lends itself to
lifelong learning practices.
The preliminary testing of the LanGuide App among a batch of over a
hundred users seems to suggest that these collections of exercises can gen-
erate initial motivation and interest in learning new languages (see also
Čebron et al., 2021; Lozano et al. in Chapter 4 and Načinović Prskalo et
al. in Chapter 2 of this monograph), but cannot predict levels of attrition
among learners at some further stage. Such an assessment will only be pos-
sible once the resources are tested for a longer period.
However, the problems of scant grammar explanations and pronuncia-
tion indications could only partly be overcome within this resource due to
the constraints inherent to the mobile technology. The language of instruc-
tion remained mainly English, or English in combination with the learner’s
target language, which could lead to frustration and even rejection of the
LanGuide App as a language-learning resource. Similarly, some of the sl a
principles such as communicative language learning activities and task-
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