Strategic language learning [[electronic resource] ] : the roles of agency and context / / Xuesong (Andy) Gao

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910780964403321
• Autore: Gao Xuesong
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Bristol ; ; Buffalo, : Multilingual Matters, c2010
• ISBN: 1-84769-391-1; 1-282-65708-9; 9786612657085; 1-84769-245-1
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (191 p.)
• Collana: Second language acquisition ; ; 49
• Disciplina: 420.71/151
• Soggetti: English language - Study and teaching (Higher) - Chinese speakers; English language - Study and teaching (Higher) - China; Second language acquisition - Methodology; English language - Acquisition - Methodology
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Contents -- Figures and Tables -- Acknowledgements -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Towards a Sociocultural Perspective on Strategic Learning -- Chapter 3. Mainland Chinese Students’ Migration to Hong Kong -- Chapter 4. On the Chinese Mainland -- Chapter 5. Learning English in Hong Kong -- Chapter 6. Four Case Studies -- Chapter 7. Agency and Context in Strategic Learning -- Appendix 1: Interview Guide for the Arriving Mainland Chinese Undergraduates -- Appendix 2: The Exit Interview Guide for Mainland Chinese Undergraduates -- References -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: This monograph reports on a longitudinal inquiry into mainland Chinese undergraduates’ language learning experiences in an English medium university in a multilingual setting with a focus on their strategic language learning efforts. This book examines the issue as to what extent language learners’ strategic learning efforts depend on their ‘choice’, if ‘the element of choice’ is the defining characteristic of language learners’ strategic learning behaviour. The inquiry, using a qualitative and ethnographic research approach, reveals dynamic ; interaction between learners’ agency and contextual conditions underlying the participants’ strategic learning process. Such understanding informs pedagogical efforts to foster individual learners’ capacity for strategic learning and their capacities in opening up and sustaining a social learning space for exercising their strategic learning capacity or utilizing their strategic learning knowledge.