Computer-Assisted Autonomous Linguistic Learning: A Novel Approach to Second Language Expertise

Abstract

The invention of the microchip and access to digital devices has altered the way people perceive education and how it is supposed to be practiced. New generations of students, who are the digital natives of today, are more than ready to be educated through the advancements offered by digital learning environments. Language learning is not an exception to these fast-paced technological improvements, and the use of technological devices is slowly altering the way students practice and learn languages. With the advancement of available digital devices, computer-assisted learning has become a reality for today’s learners. Within the context of this research study, an accomplished learner’s think-aloud process and autoethnography function as data to internalize how a learner can transform from a language learner to a language expert through autonomous computer-assisted language learning strategies. This ethnographic study attempts to reveal the keen language learning attitude and self-invented digital learning techniques of an autonomous learner of multiple foreign languages. Thus, it explores and exemplifies the possibility of independent and autonomous language learning without the need for formal education.