Education, Science, Technology, Innovation and Life
Open Access
Sign In

Review of Research on Learner Agency in the Past Decade: Current Situation and Prospects

Download as PDF

DOI: 10.23977/curtm.2024.070205 | Downloads: 4 | Views: 148

Author(s)

Li Yumei 1

Affiliation(s)

1 School of English, Xi'an International Studies University, Xi'an, China

Corresponding Author

Li Yumei

ABSTRACT

Learner agency has been a hot topic in the field of foreign language teaching in recent years, and the manifestation of learner agency is crucial to foreign language learning. This article begins with the connotation of learner agency and analyzes the characteristics of learner agency research in the past decade (2014-2023) from the perspectives of research subject, research method, theoretical perspective, and research content. It is found that the countries and populations of foreign research subjects are more extensive, qualitative research methods are predominant, and research theory mainly revolve around three major theoretical perspectives: sociocultural theory, ecological perspective, and complexity theory. In terms of research content, existing studies mainly focus on the manifestation and influencing factors of learner agency, the relationship between learner agency and identity, and learner agency in relation to information technology. Finally, this study looks ahead to the future development of learner agency, aiming to provide insights for the localization of learner agency research in China.

KEYWORDS

Agency; Learner agency; Empirical research; Foreign language learning

CITE THIS PAPER

Li Yumei, Review of Research on Learner Agency in the Past Decade: Current Situation and Prospects. Curriculum and Teaching Methodology (2024) Vol. 7: 30-34. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/curtm.2024.070205.

REFERENCES

[1] Ahearn, L. M. (2001). Language and Agency. Annual Review of Anthropology, 30(1), 109–137. 
[2] Anderson, R. C., Graham, M., Kennedy, P., Nelson, N., Stoolmiller, M., Baker, S. K., & Fien, H. (2019). Student agency at the crux: Mitigating disengagement in middle and high school. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 56, 205–217. 
[3] Ahn, T. youn. (2016). Learner agency and the use of affordances in language-exchange interactions. Language and Intercultural Communication, 16(2), 164–181. 
[4] Knight, J., Barbera, E., & Appel, C. (2017). A framework for learner agency in online spoken interaction tasks. ReCALL, 29(3), 276–293.
[5] Kang, D.-M. (2017). The multifaceted ecology of language play in an elementary school EFL classroom. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 20(1), 84–101.
[6] Park, E. S., & Lee, H. (2021). "I want to keep my North Korean accent": Agency and identity in a North Korean defector's transnational experience of learning English. TESOL Quarterly, 56(1). 
[7] Diao, W., & Liu, H.-Y. (2020). Starting College, Quitting Foreign Language: The Case of Learners of Chinese Language during Secondary-Postsecondary Transition. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 1–15. 
[8] Vaughn, M. (2018). Making sense of student agency in the early grades. Phi Delta Kappan, 99(7), 62–66. 
[9] Dahlström, H. (2019). Digital writing tools from the student perspective: Access, affordances, and agency. Education and Information Technologies, 24, 1563-1581. 

All published work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright © 2016 - 2031 Clausius Scientific Press Inc. All Rights Reserved.