Volume 29 Number 1, 2025 Empowering learners through negotiated curriculum: Exploring its impact on WTC in a synchronous online language learning environment

Empowering learners through negotiated curriculum: Exploring its impact on WTC in a synchronous online language learning environment

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Oct. 20, 2025, 8:29 p.m.
access-status:
open.access
bitstream:
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bitstream_txt:
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collection:
Volume 29 Number 1, 2025
contributor.author:
Huang, Huan Li, Michael
date.accessioned:
2025-10-15T02:11:52Z
date.available:
2025-10-15T02:11:52Z
date.copyright:
2025
date.issued:
2025-10-20
description.abstract:
While learner-centered approaches in language education increasingly emphasize co-constructing content and learning processes, most research has focused on conventional classroom settings. This study explores how a negotiated curriculum shapes learners’ Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in the specific context of synchronous one-on-one online Chinese language tutorials between adult learners and native-speaker tutors. Grounded in the Synchronous Chinese Online Language Teaching (SCOLT) framework and informed by Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST), the study employs a mixed-methods design. A major methodological contribution lies in its fine-grained analysis of moment-to-moment WTC dynamics using the idiodynamic method, triangulated with stimulated recall interviews, learner reflection journals, and session-based WTC scales. Findings show that WTC co-evolved with features of the negotiated curriculum—such as rapport building, real-time topic negotiation, and collaborative learner involvement in task design and informal assessment—alongside learners’ emotional investment and emerging agency. The one-on-one synchronous format enabled personalized negotiation and reciprocal tutor–learner interaction, which significantly influenced communicative readiness. Challenges included residual teacher-centered practices, difficulties in interpreting learner needs, and limited learner preparedness for co-construction. While contextually bound, the study contributes to a more situated theoretical understanding of WTC as an emergent, interaction-sensitive construct and offers practical insights for curriculum design and tutor development in similarly personalized online environments.
endingpage:
26
format.extent:
26
identifier.citation:
Huang, H., & Li, M. (2025). Empowering learners through negotiated curriculum: Exploring its impact on WTC in a synchronous online language learning environment. Language Learning & Technology, 29(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.64152/10125/73657
identifier.doi:
https://doi.org/10.64152/10125/73657
identifier.issn:
1094-3501
identifier.uri:
https://hdl.handle.net/10125/73657
language:
eng
number:
1
publicationname:
Language Learning & Technology
publisher:
University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center Center for Language & Technology
rights.license:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
rights.uri:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
site_url:
/item/10125-73657/
startingpage:
1
subject:
negotiated curriculum, Willingness to Communicate (WTC), synchronous online Chinese learning, one-on-one tutorials
title:
Empowering learners through negotiated curriculum: Exploring its impact on WTC in a synchronous online language learning environment
type:
Article Text
volume:
29