The digital ecologies of Korean college students: An exploration of digital self-directed learning

Abstract

The wealth of readily available online digital English language learning resources presents vast opportunities for students to engage in self-directed language learning. The extent to which such resources are known to students, however, let alone how they are being utilized, typically remains largely unknown to teachers. In order to design a curriculum that maximizes student learning opportunities by guiding them towards online digital resources that afford self-directed learning, it is essential for teachers to first develop an intimate understanding of the students’ relationships with such resources. This may include awareness, patterns of use, and the variables that constrain them from using the resources more extensively. To accomplish this objective, the Self-Directed Digital Study Instrument (SDDSI) was developed and implemented to survey 197 Korean college students. While the results of this study are indicative of a reality in which digital resources are being underused, they also point towards an area of great potential for pedagogical change in Korean post-secondary English learning education. In contrast to the traditional pedagogical model, the results suggest that self-directed learning or even self-determined learning models, facilitated via various digital resources, can present students with opportunities for more deeply engaging, individualized, and self-directed approaches to language learning.