Learner as a Social Agent

subheader deeperdive | Action-oriented Approach|Plurilingualism|Tech-mediated

Once teachers start seeing language users/learners as social agents, they increasingly reason in terms of actions and see the importance of providing learners with opportunities to act, rather than content to learn. They overcome the computer metaphor of input-output and rather embrace the idea of providing learners with affordances, i.e. opportunities to act. Translating this into practice can take many forms, but all imply a meaningful and real-life oriented use of the language. 

To have a more concrete idea of how the concept of user/learner as a social agent can inform classroom practice:

  1. First read page 1 of the following handout. On this page you can find a short reminder (in smaller font) of the core idea of the learner as a social agent and the list of some authentic activities that have been produced by teachers at various levels. You may go through all the activities or choose a couple of them according to your preference.
  2. Then watch part of this presentation that was part of a professional development web workshop* (minutes 7:22 – 15:00).
  3. Finally go through this ppt presentation that was part of a professional development web workshop*. In slides 2-11 you will find further input on the concept of learner as a social agent. In slides 12-18 are some examples connected with the ones in the previous handout.

Reflection questions 💭❓

  • What do you think is the added value of considering learners as social agents? What practical implications might this have?
  • Think about your class and context. Are any of the activities in the documents (second ppt and handout) reminiscent of what you are already doing in class? How can you adapt any of these activities to your context?

*both web workshops were offered by the Council of Europe within the CEFR Webinar Series from 2021 to 2023. The recordings and the full set of handouts, background readings and presentations can be downloaded from the news and events tab of the CEFR website.

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