Digital Tool Use and Self-Regulated Strategies in a Bilingual Online Learning Environment

Abstract

This chapter details the investigation into how Year 9 students experience and negotiate a technology-enhanced learning environment in their bilingual classroom. The study investigated how their translanguaging practices (using both German and English to communicate in bilingual education settings) contribute to the self-regulation of their learning in a scientific open inquiry process. Data for this study were collected via voice recordings, a student-designed questionnaire, and focus group interviews with 22 Year 9 students who studied 18 Biology lessons during 6 weeks and over 2 consecutive years. The study revealed that students’ self-regulatory practices during open inquiry processes developed in specific ways through the exposure to a bilingual classroom setting, for example, by being exposed to unknown terms in German which led students to search for translations and then on to further self-initiated and self-regulated research to find explanations online. Students favored the teacher prepared German language biology content in guided customized simulations using computer software than their own self-initiated practices. The tool use also appeared to be reliant on students’ prior disposition to using such a tool. Thus, the results of this study have implications for the future customization of online learning spaces for high school students and educators in bilingual settings as well as in other fields.