Informal and non-formal learning opportunities have become more and more important in recent years, due to increasingly multilingual societies (Duarte & Gogolin, 2013) and digital language learning opportunities such as online platforms or social networks (Alm et al., 2023; Dressman & Sadler, 2020; Richards, 2015). Learners can thus improve their language competences independently of or in addition to formal language learning.
How can educational institutions respond to these developments? In my contribution, I will introduce a concept for the integration of informal and non-formal learning opportunities into the programme of the Language Centre of the University of Salzburg. The impetus for this concept was the feedback from participants in informal supplementary services, including results from the research on a non-formal language course in a local museum. In response to the changing needs of many of our learners, the additional services offered at the PLUS Language Centre were systematically reorganised. Learners taking a course at the Language Centre can now choose from a range of opportunities and thus develop and organise their own personal learning environments (Attwell, 2007; Laakkonen & Taalas, 2015; Reinders, 2014) according to their individual interests, thus combining formal, non-formal and informal learning opportunities. In addition, we have introduced a specific course in which the organization of their personal learning environment is accompanied by language advising (Kato & Mynard, 2016; Morrison & Navarro, 2014; Mynard & Shelton-Strong, 2022). I will also present the empirical research planned to investigate learners' personal learning environments at the Language Centre.

Authors:
Margareta Strasser, Paris Lodron University Sazburg, Austria

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Margareta Strasser is a University Postdoctoral Fellow or Instructor at Paris Lodron University Sazburg (PLUS) in Austria

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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