Jade Blue has published a useful article on learner management on the Cambridge blog.
She says, “When I was a student back in secondary school, I found that I didn’t enjoy a lot of my lessons. Largely, this wasn’t due to the teacher or the subjects I was taught, but rather my fellow students, who I often didn’t feel any affinity with. Schools can be challenging environments, with complex and competitive social dynamics to navigate, and our willingness to engage in learning is strongly affected by social relations within the group.
Whether in primary, secondary or adult learning, social relatedness is an important impact factor in learner engagement. To participate successfully in the language classroom, learners need to feel comfortable interacting with others, trying out new language, and giving and receiving peer feedback. According to Self-Determination theory, people share a universal, innate need for social relatedness – a sense of being connected with others (Ryan & Deci, 2017). Learners are more likely to be engaged in learning when this psychological need for relatedness is met through their interactions. In the current global pandemic this need is perhaps more palpable than ever before. Even where learners are still able to study in face to face environments, most language learners have little or no access to social interactions in the target language outside the classroom.”