Читать книгу New Perspectives on Older Language Learners - Miriam Neigert - Страница 8

Industrialized nations, such as Germany in the context of this study, have witnessed a demographic shift leading to an ageing society. More and more people grow older and remain relatively healthy and active for longer, while at the same time birth rates remain at a low level. This has its impacts on the structure of our life course and also on the economy in that people will be able and possibly required to work longer throughout their lives. Simultaneously, “perforated” working lives have become more common in industrialized countries resulting in more frequent professional changes. These societal and economic shifts require people to adapt to new circumstances and ultimately to be willing to keep learning throughout their lives – the keyword here being “lifelong learning” (Jarvis 2009a; Komp & Aartsen 2013).

Yet, while this has become a widely debated issue in politics and the economy, it appears that the role of age and ageing in educational research is only slowly being recognized as a pressing issue (Hammond 2005; Jovic & McMullin 2011; Kolland & Klingenberg 2011: 19; Käpplinger 2014). In other words, older language learners and their needs have been the ‘elephant in the classroom’, which will be addressed in the course of this study (Ramírez-Gómez 2016; Berndt 2003; Doff 2005; Raasch 2005). If we are to address the growing demand for lifelong learning, researchers and educational practitioners need a better understanding of learning in adulthood, and, more specifically, in later adulthood. As mentioned above, research – including foreign language research – has treated adulthood as a uniform construct and for the most part conducted empirical studies with younger adults (see chapter 3). However, it does not take long for teachers to notice differences between a language learner who is 28 years of age and a language learner who is 68 years of age and retired – both being adult learners. Thus, I hope to redirect the focus of foreign language research to older language learners and add to a growing field of “foreign language geragogy” (Berndt 2003; Ramírez-Gómez 2016). With this, my study contributes to the research on lifelong learning by looking at people who – quite literally – have chosen to keep learning their whole life, even beyond their working life. The aforementioned vhs centres (see chapter 4) are the hub for lifelong learning in Germany as they are the main – and in some areas the only – provider of continuing education. Vhs centres in Germany attract many of the older learners who are interested in starting to learn or brushing up on their English. This makes this learning context a suitable starting point for carrying out my research on how the young-old learn languages.

To better understand older learners, I decided to investigate their language learner self-concept and its temporal facets (Dörnyei 2005; Mercer 2011; Mercer & Williams 2014). As this study will exemplify, using a mixed method research design which combines quantitative and qualitative data enables researchers in the field to explore the complexities of language learner self (see chapters 4 to 7). It is hoped that the results of this study will inspire other foreign language researchers to pursue this direction of research. For institutions such as the vhs centres in Germany, it is important for them to find out how to attract and retain older learners to their course programmes. This study provides a foundation for future decision-making by these institutions. My research aims to provide instructors who are working with older learners with a better understanding of why and how young-old language learners approach learning English in- and outside the classroom.