After our little birthday party, we welcomed Felicity Kjisik from Helsinki who was going to talk about “Kaleidoscope, an interactive electronic tool for reflection on language learning”.  Before coming to Aberdeen I had just read the (now sadly out of print) book about the ALMS project in Finland called “From here to Autonomy”. ALMS stands for Autonomous Learning Modules and the book describes the set up of the program, the process of promoting autonomy and Helsinki University Language Centre and also personal stories of teachers and learners.  I was so pleased to learn from Felicity that they are still continuing with their good work over in Helsinki and continuing their research.



After giving some background to the ALMS project, Felicity talked about the results of collaborative action research into the role of autobiography and reflection in fostering learning. These results led to the development of a tool called Kaleidoscope. Kaleidoscope is an online tool which encourages learners to think about different aspects of their learning (needs, current skills, motivation, personality and learning history). The learners type (or print and write if they prefer) statements that describe themselves which forms a profile.  The profiles are sent to the student and to Felicity and her colleagues.  Analysis of the profiles suggests that the process of compiling a profile helped students to reflect on how they might be more successful language learners. If you want to read more about ALMS and Kaleidoscope and even submit a language learning profile to add to the data, go to: http://www.helsinki.fi/kksc/alms/