Group Info
Open Languages Research Group is the largest Research Group in the Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technologies, with a range of activities which share theoretical and methodological approaches and focus on foreign and second language learning and teaching in a range of contexts. The name Open Languages encapsulates key themes. If second and foreign language learning is the core focus, then independent learning and the application of new technologies are two principal strands which reflect the importance of learning context, while the inclusion of cultures captures the significance of both the target cultures and the educational cultures of the learner and teacher.
Research activity takes place in five main areas:
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Technology-Enhanced Language Learning (TELL)
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Language learning
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Language teaching
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Intercultural competence
- Education policy and practice
Contact us:
Dr Ursula Stickler
Department of Languages
FELS
Stuart Hall Building, Level 1
The Open University
Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
United Kingdom
Research
Research activity takes place in five main areas:
Technology-Enhanced language learning (TELL)
More than half of Open Languages’ members have an interest in TELL, and in particular computer-mediated communication (CMC). The group has carried out groundbreaking work on audiographic conferencing. Other research projects – which are funded both externally and internally – examine virtual learning environments, telecollaboration, tandem learning, mobile learning and podcasts. Areas that are being investigated include learner experience (e.g. motivation and affect), task design, learning strategies, learner corpora, tutor training, mediation and multimodality.
Language learning
As in generic education, the focus of language learning research is increasingly on learners, their experiences of learning, how they learn and how the learning can be enhanced. Open Languages works in currently under-researched areas, including distance learning, target languages (TLs) other than English, and the issues regarding non-standard students. Access to the largest cohorts in the UK, to three TLs, and to both face-to-face and online tuition permits research designs unavailable to other groups. Key themes are learning strategies, motivation, affect (e.g. anxiety) and spoken language.
Language teaching
Open Languages research into language teachers focuses on their roles and responsibilities, both generic and specifically with regard to the unique facets of language teaching (pronunciation, learning strategies, managing affect, feedback on accuracy and fluency, assessment).
Interculturalism
Members of Open Languages are researching the area of interculturalism – the practices that learners of diverse national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, educational and occupational backgrounds engage in when learning together in face-to-face, distance and online settings. Research includes defining the domain of 'interculturalism', and the development, as well as assessment, of intercultural competence – attitudes, behaviours and skills necessary to operate in different linguistic and cultural contexts of communication.
Education policy and practice
Open Languages has been involved in research into the provision of language learning in primary schools (e.g. baseline study, study of primary languages) as well as researching Ab-initio language learning in KS5, motivation and reasons for study in KS4. Another area of research is the interface between language and identity in the particular case of Gaelic-medium education in Scotland. Two Systematic Reviews (strategy training in language learning and audiographic conferencing) informing educational practitioners, as well as research into study abroad and student mobility also form part of Open Languages' research.
Members
Cluster Director
Convenor
Members
- Mrs Helga Adams
- Ms Lina Adinolfi
- Lluisa Astruc
- Dr Inma Alvarez
- Ms Carolyn Batstone
- Mr Uwe Baumann
- Ms Tita Beaven
- Professor Jim Coleman
- Mrs Anna Comas-Quinn
- Valérie Demouy
- Ms Annette Duensing
- Mrs Annie Eardley
- Dr Maria Fernandez-Toro
- Mrs Concha Furnborough
- Dr Matilde Gallardo
- Mrs Cecilia Garrido
- Dr Regine Hampel
- Ms Felicity Harper
- Ms Xavière Hassan
- Mrs Mirjam Hauck
- Sarah Heiser
- Dr Qian Kan
- Susan Kotschi
- Professor Marie-Noëlle Lamy
- Dr Ursula Lanvers
- Dr Tim Lewis
- Ms Raquel Mardomingo
- Ms Margaret Nicolson
- Dr Françoise Parent-Ugochukwu
- Dr María-Luisa Pérez-Cavana
- Dr Helen Peters
- Ms Christine Pleines
- Mrs Anna Proudfoot
- Mr Fernando Rosell-Aguilar
- Dr Klaus-Dieter Rossade
- Mr Peter Smith
- Mrs Margaret Southgate
- Sylvia Warnecke
Full-Time Research Students
- Ms Beatriz de los Arcos
- Esmerelda Lopes Rosa
Grants
DOTS: Developing Online Teaching Skills
Uschi Stickler, Tita Beaven and Regine Hampel, with experts from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya/Barcelona (Spain), Volkshochschule Hannover (Germany), University of Zagreb (Croatia) and the University of Ottawa (Canada)
ECML (European Centre for Modern Languages), €18,000, 2008–2011
MULCE: Building a model for cross-disciplinary use of multimodal corpora of learners' online interactions
Marie-Noëlle Lamy, with the Universities of Franche-Comté and Paris VI (France) and Pavia (Italy).
Agence nationale de la Recherche, €42,000 (OU share €6,855), 2007-2010
Medienpass: Medienkompetenz für Sprachenlehrer als Blended Learning Kurs
Regine Hampel and Mirjam Hauck
Leonardo da Vinci, total €352,655 (OU share €16,965), 2007-2009
Primary Languages Learning at KS2: a longitudinal study
Institutions involved: OU (lead institution), Southampton University, Canterbury Christ Church University; Management group: Carrie Cable (OU), Dr Barbara Heins (OU), Professor Teresa Cremin (OU), Professor Rosamund Mitchell (Southampton), Dr Patricia Driscoll (CCCU); Research fellow: Dr Sue Sing (OU)
DCSF, £619,431, 2006-2009
TRIDEM
Tim Lewis, Elodie Vialleton and Annie Eardley, with Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh and Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon
British Academy Small Grant, £7350, 2006–2008
LITERALIA: Learning in Tandem to Encourage Reciprocal Autonomous Learning in Adults
Uschi Stickler, with VHS Ostkreis Hannover and bzw Wolfsburg, Germany, CTP Pontedera, Italy, WSBiF Bielsko Biala, Poland Sokrates/Grundtvig, approx. €80,000 (OU share €15,000), 2006–2008
Changing attitudes towards language and cultural learning among KS3 and KS4 students in Kent
Matilde Gallardo (project coordinator, The Open University in the South East), with Aimhigher Kent & Medway Office, University of Kent, Medway Children and Family Services. Aimhigher, £30,461, 2006-2008
Outcomes: Changing attitudes towards language and cultural learning among KS3 and KS4 students in Kent. A report on the work of the Aimhigher Kent and Medway Languages Project 2006-08 to increase motivation and achievement in languages; conference papers; learning resources packs for schools and colleges; project website http://www.languagesgroupproject.org
BAAL/CUP seminar: Spoken Online Learning Events: The need for a new paradigm in languages research and practice
Jim Coleman and Regine Hampel BAAL/Cambridge University Press (£950) British Academy, British Conference Grant, £1741, 2007
Interacting and collaborating online: Using electronic tools to foster language learning
Regine Hampel and Uschi Stickler British Academy Small Grant, £2877, 2007
ODIL: Online interactive learning
Marie-Noëlle Lamy, Tim Lewis and Elodie Vialleton, with the Universities of Franche-Comté, Grenoble and Le Mans, and the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Lyon, France Ministère de la Recherche, €77,000 (OU share €6,800), 2005-2007
New online learning spaces: Task design and implementation for a synchronous audiographic online learning environment
Regine Hampel Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, £3,770, 2005-2006
Synchronous Audiographic Conferencing in language learning – a systematic review of available research
Pete Smith and Xavière Hassan, with Doug Hauger and Gail Nye DfES/EPPI, £17,500, 2004–2005
Synchronous audiographic conferencing for distance language learning
Jim Coleman, Regine Hampel, Mirjam Hauck and Lesley Shield, with Uschi Felix, Monash/Australia Australian Research Council, AU$ 17,000, 2003-2006 British Academy, £4,083, 2005
ICOGAD: Online interactive learning
Marie-Noëlle Lamy, with the Universities of Franche-Comté and Nancy, France. Ministère de la Recherche. €40,000 (OU share €5,000), 2001-2002