Informal Learning and Institution-wide Language Provision

“Theoretically wise and practically powerful, this book is about how to take full advantage of advances in technology and the learner autonomy they afford, rather than simply adapt to or deny them. It issues a clarion call to language educators and administrators interested in building on recent advances in language learning via the informal avenues of digital communications.” --Mark Dressman, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US, Professor and Chair of English at Khalifa University, UAE

“This important and original book challenges us to rethink the design and delivery of the language learning opportunities universities provide for their students. Drawing on Complex Dynamic Systems Theory, Self-Determination Theory and her own empirical explorations of informal online language learning, Denyze Toffoli paints a portrait of today’s university language learner that is novel, unexpected and urgent.” --David Little, Fellow and AssociateProfessor Emeritus at Trinity College, Ireland

This book takes a fresh look at both context and the language learner in an attempt to shed light on the holistic and ever-changing system of the contemporary L2 speaker’s language development. Drawing on complex dynamic systems theory as a means to more fully understand the holistic nature of contemporary language learning, the author attempts to bridge the longstanding gap between formal language provision in Higher Education institutions, and more informal language acquisition achieved through activities such as listening to music, watching films and television, and playing games. Based on a theoretical understanding of the interplay between these contexts, contents and practices, the author offers suggestions concerning the shape of language centres in higher education and the role of teachers in readying the contemporary language learner for autonomous lifelong and lifewide language development. This book will be of particular interest to language teachers, teacher trainers, and higher education administrators. 

• Institution-wide Language Provision (IWLP)
• self-instruction
• learning technology
• language didactics
• Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)
• language acquisition
• informal language exposure
• Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL)
• language development models
• empirical perspectives
• learning and instruction

“In her highly readable book, Denyze Toffoli successfully captures and communicates the new era of foreign language learning in Higher Education, showing us through a thorough analysis of current research and her own fascinating case studies how learners and teachers can adapt to the rich affordances now available online so as to reimagine informal, formal, independent and supported language learning.” (Robert Vanderplank, University of Oxford, UK)

“Theoretically wise and practically powerful, this book is about how to take full advantage of advances in technology and the learner autonomy they afford, rather than simply adapt to or deny them. It issues a clarion call to language educators and administrators interested in building on recent advances in language learning via the informal avenues of digital communications.” (Mark Dressman, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US, Professor and Chair of English at Khalifa University, UAE)

“This important and original book challenges us to rethink the design and delivery of the language learning opportunities universities provide for their students. Drawing on Complex Dynamic Systems Theory, Self-Determination Theory and her own empirical explorations of informal online language learning, Denyze Toffoli paints a portrait of today’s university language learner that is novel, unexpected and urgent.” (David Little, Fellow and Associate Professor Emeritus at Trinity College, Ireland)

“Denyze Toffoli's book offers an innovative and stimulating approach to language learning at a time when informal and formal practice must be seen as complementary elements of a complex dynamic system. The approach is humanistic and focuses on the trajectory of the contemporary learner, described as a responsible and autonomous agent of his/her learning in a globalized and connected learning environment, to which higher education language centres belong.” (Annick Rivens Mompean, Professor of Language Didactics at the Centre for Languages of the University of Lille, France, and President of RANACLES, the French Network of Language Centres in Higher Education)

• LanSAD, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France

  Denyze Toffoli

Denyze Toffoli is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France. She was previously head of the Department of Languages for Specialists of Other Disciplines (LanSAD) at the University of Strasbourg, serving some 15,000 users in 10 different language centres.

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