Fluctuations in Learners’ Willingness to Communicate During Communicative Task Performance: Conditions and Tendencies

A person’s willingness to communicate (WTC), believed to stem from a combination of proximal and distal variables comprising psychological, linguistic, educational and communicative dimensions of language, appears to be a significant predictor of success in language learning. The ability to communicate is both a means and end of language education, since, on the one hand, being able to express the intended meanings in the target language is generally perceived as the main purpose of any language course and, on the other, linguistic development proceeds in the course of language use. However, MacIntyre (2007, p. 564) observes that some learners, despite extensive study, may never become successful L2 speakers. The inability or unwillingness to sustain contacts with more competent language users may influence the way learners are evaluated in various social contexts. Establishing social networks as a result of frequent communication with target language users is believed to foster linguistic development. WTC, initially considered a stable personality trait and then a result of context-dependent influences, has recently been viewed as a dynamic phenomenon changing its intensity within one communicative event (MacIntyre and Legatto, 2011; MacIntyre et al., 2011). The study whose results are reported here attempts to tap into factors that shape one’s willingness to speak during a communicative task. The measures employed to collect the data - selfratings and surveys - allow looking at the issue from a number of perspectives

Uncertainty, learning design, and interdisciplinarity: systems and design thinking in the school classroom

This paper explores aspects of learning design for design thinking within a small (circa 100) remote rural secondary (12-18 year old) school in the Highlands of Scotland. It introduces action research school teachers and final year (17-18 year old) pupils which explored how “real world” learning experiences can be brought into the classroom. It does so by joining two areas that are often treated as distinct practices. These are, the use of system theory and community development approaches to identify and map complex issues (Bell and Morse 2012), and the use of ideas from co-design to include non designers in the design process (Sanders and Westerlund 2011). The paper takes a grounded approach to the application of these ideas, simply asking “do they work”, and then “what”, “how” and “why”. In exploring those questions the paper tries to be open and transparent about learning design as a messy, uncertain and emergent proces

Reflecting on Open Educational Practices in Scotland

This paper reflects on the work of Open Educational Practices Scotland (OEPS) a Scottish Funding Councils (SFC) programme to promote the development and use of free and open online educational resources within the informal and formal education sectors in Scotland. Hosted by the Open University (OU) in Scotland (OUiS) it leverages OU experience of Open Educational Resources (OER) in relation to the OUiS long history of working in partnership. OEPS joins two distinct but overlapping open traditions. Work on OER on the affordances of free and open online content, considerations of licence, platform functionality and the designing digital learning objects in for and through Open Educational Practices (OEP). With approaches from older traditions of open education, based on education as a common good and narratives on equity and social justice. For OEPS the merging of these discourses is based on a decade of OUiS work engaging in a series of diverse partnerships with employers, formal and informal education providers to support those diverse needs. The paper introduces examples of what this means in for and through practice. Exploring work we have done with Parkinsons UK to develop a series of OER focused on neglected area of curriculum Then looks at the work have done with the Scottish Union Learn (SUL) to promote use of free and open resources by learners in the workplace. Through these examples we explore possibilities of partnerships to bring new voices into the academy, to create supportive structures based on shared values and trust to support uncertain learners. It is our sense this approach allow the benefits of openness to be shared in a just and equitable manner. It then reflects on the issues that arise when you work in-between two senses of open

Antitrust Injunctions: A Flexible Private Remedy

The cost and time required by a treble damage action have traditionally acted as a strong brake to private antitrust enforcement. The author urges consideration by a potential litigant faced with this problem of the advantages of seeking injunctive relief, rather than treble damages; and he points out the special utility of the preliminary injunction. He also proposes some controversial and important possible uses of prior government action in preliminary injunction proceedings

Modernising the NHS: prevention and the reduction of health inequalities

No abstract available

Expanding the theoretical base for the dynamics of willingness to communicate

The dynamics underlying willingness to communicate in a second or third language (L2 for short), operating in real time, are affected by a number of intra- and inter-personal processes. L2 communication is a remarkably fluid process, especially considering the wide range of skill levels observed among L2 learners and speakers. Learners often find themselves in a position that requires the use of uncertain L2 skills, be it inside or outside the classroom context. Beyond issues of competencies, which are themselves complex, using an L2 also evokes cultural, political, social, identity, motivational, emotional, pedagogical, and other issues that learners must navigate on-the-fly. The focus of this article will be on the remarkably rapid integration of factors, such as the ones just named whenever a language learner chooses to be a language speaker, that is, when the moment for authentic communication arrives. Communicative events are especially important in understanding the psychology of the L2 learner. Our research group has developed the idiodynamic method to allow examination of an individual’s experience of events on a timescale of a few minutes. Results are describing complex interactions and rapid changes in the psychological conditions that accompany both approaching and avoiding L2 communication. The research takes a new approach to familiar concepts such as motivation, language competence, learning strategies, and so on. By examining willingness to communicate as a dynamic process, new types of research questions and answers are emerging, generating new theory, research methods, and pedagogical approaches applicable both within language classrooms and beyond

Open Education as Disruption: Lessons for Open and Distance Learning from Open Educational Practice

This paper reflects on what Open and Distance Learning providers might learn from the Open Educational Resources/Practices (OER/OEP) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). It is based on experiences working on OER and OEP first at the OU in Scotland (OUiS) and more recently under the auspices of the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) funded Open Educational Practices Scotland (OEPS) programme hosted by OUiS. The paper by exploring the disruptive potential of MOOCs and OER within Higher Education. While it acknowledges lessons for HE it argues the focus on access and scale has obscured other lessons ODL might learn from opening up educational practices. Much of our work has centred on OEP and partnership with organisations outside the formal education sector. As such it has taken the possibilities offered by openness as an invitation to look at the relationship between the formal and the informal. The paper traces OEPS journey as it explores less apparent but no less important lessons around designing and creating open content through partnership in a way that is cost effective and context relevant

Towards Open Educational Practice

Significant claims are made for the potential of Open Educational Resources (OER) to widen access to higher education. Most recently, the very large numbers of individuals enrolling on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has dominated discussion in universities and beyond. Advocates such as D’Antoni (2013) have written persuasively of how OER can potentially open up access to education and redefine the boundaries between institutions and society. However, the evidence from the first wave of MOOCs suggests that the participants are primarily individuals with prior experience of higher education. While this indeed widens access, there is no evidence that it is widening participation from those distanced from education (Lane et al, 2014). Indeed there is limited evidence of significant impact on widening participation by OERs (Falconer et.al, 2013). The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement, however, has longer and deeper roots (Lane, 2012: 140), roots that are about more than licensing and has engaged in educational practices that break down barriers to education. This paper explores recent examples from Scotland of partnership-based approaches to the development, design and delivery of OERs. Drawing on this experience and ideas from the academic literature on educational technology, pedagogy and widening participation, we draw some provisional conclusions on an approach that combines key elements from all these fields. In particular we note that openness is not simply a matter of barriers to access related to licenses or technological aspects, but are inherently cultural, social and situational. We conclude that while the OER movements early focus on licenses and technology was useful, widening participation requires a shift in emphasis, a shift that accounts for peoples, places and the practices of open educatio

Opening up Spaces to Support Rural Business in Scotland

The Open University has a commitment to releasing core curriculum openly, while we have always edited for “the open” tailoring has been minor. Rural Entrepreneurship in Scotland is a different model. It is based on material to develop your business idea from across our academic programme. However, the material has been revised significantly to place it in a rural Scottish context. Setting up a business or social enterprise is a complex and personal undertaking. It is about more than knowing the right steps, it is about applying that knowledge in context. The module materials are designed around “real” case studies developed with key stakeholders within rural Scotland. One of the benefits of releasing curriculum in this way is the ability to evaluate how it works in the world and adapt it accordingly. For example, we are using the analytics to track topics of particular interest and looking at how we can enhance and improve those components. One of the benefits of low cost reversioning content for less populated curriculum areas is the ability to invest resources in supporting and understanding how resources are used in practice. Through these workshops with rural entrepreneurs we are able to assess how open education operates in practice for practice. We have learnt from working in the open, our analytics suggest the finance component is of crucial, while our outreach work suggests we need to develop a new component on generating entrepreneurial ideas