Participants' networkings in international collaborative learning projects and their second-language development

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25370645
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: University of Miyazaki
• Principal Investigator: Araki Tamao 宮崎大学, 語学教育センター, 准教授 (20324220)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YAMAMOTO Kayo 宮崎大学, 語学教育センター, 准教授 (70438323) ; YOKOYAMA Shozo 宮崎大学, 医学部, 教授 (60347052) ; NAMBU Miyuki 宮崎大学, 医学部, 准教授 (90550418)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: CALL / e-learning / 学習者言語 / 動機づけ / CMC / 相互行為

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this project was to reveal the interrelationship between the learners' networking behaviors, their second-language development, and affective changes in a large-scale online English collaborative learning program for university students of nursing. The data used for analysis were those of the Japanese participants. The pre-post writing tests revealed that the fluency and complexity were increased and the motivation questionnaire revealed that their "anxiety" was decreased and that their "international awareness" was increased. It was found that those changes are in a small-sized correlation with the learners’ networking and posting behaviors. The study also indicated that the posting activities itself could be more correlated with affective change in the learners' mindset that with their cognitive changes (i.e. learner language). These results could be utilized when developing a collaborative learning program of this type.

Free Research Field

英語教育学