Doctoral Workshop 1D: Assessing self-regulated language-learning “ecologies” in advanced mature language learners

Over the last decades, ageing societies have been consuming knowledge with an increasing degree of connectivity, autonomy and velocity, while multiplying learning interfaces and structures, whether in formal or informal settings. Second language acquisition is no exception in this response to unprecedented social expectations, and behavioural and technological (r)evolutions (Lai, 2018). The area of self-directed language learning via alternative and adaptive sustainable patterns and in the context of an ageing learning population remains a promising yet relatively unexplored area. The doctoral project thus purports to fill in the existing gap in the age-related research agenda (Muñoz, 2019) on the elderly's autonomous cognitive engagement in foreign language learning and acquisition. In light of uneven learning behaviours due to differences in experiential backgrounds, the aim is to explore success stories of mature language learners' trajectories through one longitudinal case study, complemented with the use of narrative inquiry on a wider cohort of mature and highly proficient language learners of English. As such, the present research will explore the nature and the impact of variables at stake in the formation of self-made language learning "ecologies" at a later stage of life, and for senior language learners with a high sense of self-awareness and learning identity. The doctoral research project will attempt to offer an evaluation and critique of the following issues: 1/ Under which socio-cultural context and with which degree of self-awareness do autonomous adult learners make decisions about when to rely on technological resources and when to rely on "physical" resources with no or limited external intervention? How do they assess the affordances of such methods? 2/ How do autonomous adult language learners condition themselves and navigate through their different layers of learning "eco-spheres"? How do their learning beliefs interplay and influence a specific use? 3/ Under which conditions can elderly learners achieve and maintain an advanced level of automaticity? What are the predictors of their foreign language performance? 4/ What criteria do those learners use to assess the quality of their learning ecology? Do these criteria align with present research literature on second language acquisition on the one hand, and with self-regulated theoretical models of learning sustainability and its derivatives on the other hand? Identifying the remit of successful learning ecologies and ad-hoc tutoring will inevitably have to be rooted on personal biographies, hence the use of narrative inquiry. The goal is to identify any emerging patterns in the activation of stimuli and "self-made" environments for language learning among mature learners from mid- to late adulthood. The research will review constructive theoretical patterns from a mature learner-centric perspective. It locates the learner's experience outside of any environmental dependence, and in the wider spectrum of metacognition, heutagogy and geragogy (Gabrys-Barker, 2018). It is also expected that research will integrate questions from the emerging field of adult educational neuroscience in light of recent studies on brain's plasticity. While literature has often exclusively focused on age-related intellectual declines, neurodegeneration and storage decay (Gutchess, 2019), we aim to investigate further into how experiential change and maturity can empower adult learners to compensate and create learning "shortcuts". Examining the indicators of a quality learning ecology for mature and advanced language learners will hopefully provide impetus for ulterior and potentially more sophisticated investigation on the design of new technology-assisted and self-taught methods. Findings on those new learning ecosystems will hopefully inform educational designers, and optimize language education quality through better appreciation and anticipation on autonomous learners' learning experience. REFERENCES GABRYS-BARKER, D. (2018). Third Age Learners of Foreign Languages, Bristol, Multilingual Matters GUTCHESS A. (2019). Cognitive and Social Neuroscience of Aging, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press LAI, C. (2018). Autonomous language learning with technology, New York, Bloomsbury MUÑOZ C. (2019). "A New Look at 'Age': Young and Old L2 Learners", in The Cambridge Handbook of Language Learning, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press