The role of digital voice recorders in promoting learner autonomy

The National Teacher Research Panel was set up about 15 years ago by CUREE supported by a group of national education agencies most of which no longer exist. It had three main goals:

  • To ensure that all research in education takes account of the teacher perspective
  • To ensure a higher profile for research and evidence informed practice in government, academic and practitioner communities
  • To increase the number of teachers engaged in and with the full spectrum of research activity.

Over the several years of its existence, the Panel, supported by its expert advisers in CUREE, has helped and encouraged dozens of teachers and school leaders to do high quality but practical research. The Panel also helped them report their findings succinctly, in plain English and focused on relevance to other practitioners. This is one such example of that work.

Author: 
Lewandowski, Marcin
Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of using digital voice recorders with beginner ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) learners, to answer the following questions: To what extent does the use of a digital recorder enhance learners language learning experience? To what extent does it lead to improved language performance? To what extent are beginner learners of English (E1/E2) capable of scaffolding each other and is this effective?