Albin: “self-taught” in English, uses English for studying

Before the course, Albin had spent a week in an English-speaking country. His average exposure to English included listening to English 1–2 hours a day. He knew English-speakers and used English to communicate with them once a week. He read English texts every day and texts with vocabulary related to his own field / to music once a week. Interestingly, he had never taken English courses at school; thus, as a learner of English he described himself simply as “self-taught”. He estimated that his listening comprehension was intermediate and his comprehension of music vocabulary from speech “good”. While he estimated that his reading comprehension of texts with vocabulary related to music / his field was “very good”, he considered his ability to use such vocabulary in his own speech “poor”. The best way for Albin to learn English was through books and movies, in other words by reading and listening. In his case, the reason for the participation in English instruction rather than Finnish one was probably less a matter of actual free choice and decision than with the Finnish-speakers; he stated that he did not speak Finnish very well. Before the course he wrote that he was looking forward to learning English. As to his expectations of learning English, he stated as follows:

I take English language more as a medium to acquire skills in playing free accompaniment.

(Extract 44, PCQ)

For Albin, learning English did not seem to be an aim as such. Apparently already accustomed to managing in a foreign country in a non-native language, that is, English, and using it also in his studies, he considered English simply a medium through which the learning of content occurred.

Learning of the English language

In Log 1, freely describing his learning regarding English, Albin, not very surprisingly, considering his background as a foreign student used to using English, thought he had hardly learned anything new:

Although I think the teacher has an excellent English, I feel there were not many new things I have learned in this regard. (Extract 45, Log 1)

Despite the model, the teacher’s English, which he considered excellent, Albin could not point to any learning. Nevertheless, he felt he had improved in a specific area, as Extract 46 illustrates:

I think I have improved in recognising chord designations faster. This is due to the repeated and frequent use of these terms on the lesson. (Extract 46, Log 1)

He had become faster in recognizing chord symbols, because they were frequently used during the lessons. However, at the same time this was an area where he had had some problems: sometimes it was difficult for him to understand and use chord symbols

“promptly” in spoken English. Albin thought he had learned no new words but activated about 1–5 words such as triad from teacher-talk. Albin’s brief and blunt description of his learning of English in Log 2 was very revealing:

I think I have not learned anything new since my last log entry. (Extract 47, Log 2)

Albin had learned nothing new as regards English after the previous log entry. His statement was quite understandable and believable, as he already was very confident and fluent in his English and accustomed to managing and studying in a foreign language, English. Finally in Log 3, when asked to list what he had learned in order of importance, he wrote as follows:

I have learned some new chord designations (diminished, half-diminished) and refreshed some words I had known before, but which were in my passive vocabulary (for instance “triad”,

“chord progression”) (Extract 48, Log 3)

First, he had learned some new words for chord symbols (diminished, half-diminished).

Second, he had activated or “refreshed” some words from his passive vocabulary (triad, chord progression). According to his estimation, he had learned or rather activated 3–5 words, all from teacher-talk. He listed these words as examples of his learning: triad, chord progression, and handout. Thus, Albin’s language learning consisted of a minor improvement in vocabulary learning.

Factors in language learning and how they were viewed

Most factors seemed quite insignificant for Albin’s learning of English, with only two being more clearly positively significant, as is illustrated by Table 16 below. As we have seen, as a learner Albin was, and must have viewed himself as, an already competent and accustomed user of English for studying. Without formal English studies, self-taught as a learner of English and now, as a foreigner, using mostly English for communicating with people, he obviously considered English no exceptional, but rather a normal language, a regular medium by which the learning of content happened, also during the VS course. His self-confidence in his English skills showed not only in that he did not answer all the points in the logs, e.g. the one inquiring how he (e.g. his motivation, activity) influenced his learning of English, but also in his words, according to which the English-medium VS course did “not significantly” support his other English language studies or internationalization competence. Furthermore, in Log 2 he did not name any area in which he would have liked to still develop his language skills.

Even though he did not expect to learn much as regards English, he, however, wrote that he was satisfied with what he had learned. He also, quite understandably, mentioned that he preferred English-medium teaching, if such were available, as English was the language he mostly communicated in. He considered English language skills “very important” as part of his studies / his professional competence.

Table 16. Factors influencing Albin’s content learning and his view (+ / 0 / -) of various aspects

The group apparently did not have influence on Albin’s language skills, to judge from the fact that he made no comment about the group. The teacher was a slight positive influence for Albin, according to whom the teacher helped him “simply by speaking proper English”. Albin learned 3–5 words from teacher-talk. As to the influence of the vocabulary handouts on his language learning, Albin wrote as follows:

It was useful to read them through but they didn´t have much significance in my learning of English/Finnish. (Extract 49, Log 3)

Factor Aspect viewed as

Learner already competent, accustomed to studying in English +

Group no comment 0

Teaching / teacher helped by speaking proper English; some words +

Vocabularies useful to read, not much significance 0 / (+)

English material reading proper English always educational 0 / (+)

Course contents no comment 0

Useful, yet not of much significance, the vocabulary handouts probably mainly helped Albin to revise and activate some passive vocabulary. He had independently used them, but only once for approximately 10 minutes. Nevertheless, he wrote that he could not think of “anything more effective than to give vocabulary handouts to students”, when asked how the course could be improved to enhance his learning of English. Regarding the English material (teaching material, emails), Albin commented only emails as follows:

Reading e-mails written in proper English is always an educating and comfortable thing to do.

(Extract 50, Log 2)

In his polite manner, he viewed reading properly written emails generally as positive, or educational; possibly they had some beneficial influence on his reading and writing skills. As to whether the course contents had an influence on his language learning, he made no comment. In sum, for Albin, who was already competent in English, external factors hardly influenced his language learning; the teacher was the most significant one.