The Capability Approach and Online Language Study for Adult Migrants to the U.S.A.
The Capability Approach (CA) is a framework that can be used to evaluate the well-being of individuals and the arrangement of societies in terms of the freedom that people have to do and to be what they desire to do or be. Using responses to a learner satisfaction survey, this presentation evaluates the effectiveness of an online system that offers workplace-based language training for recent migrants to the U.S.A. through the lens of a technology-augmented CA. This presentation will give a brief overview of the CA framework and its applicability to CALL. Then it will present data showing how the technology (both software and hardware) interacted with employment practices, language proficiency, course design and the wider socio-technological context around the creation of the training course as conversion factors that influenced learners’ abilities to convert the course into valued capabilities. Learner responses also showed how the technology influenced whether learners were able to develop their language skills in ways that were meaningful for them, by enabling them to succeed in education, employment, or social settings, and how it enabled them to share such capabilities with others in their networks, such as family or friends.