This document discusses learner autonomy in language learning. It begins by defining learner autonomy as students taking responsibility for their own learning rather than being passive receivers of knowledge. It then discusses the importance of developing learner autonomy so students can continue learning independently after formal education. Characteristics of autonomous learners are described as understanding learning goals and taking initiative. Different levels of autonomy are outlined from awareness to creating their own learning. The relationship between motivation and autonomy is explored, with intrinsic motivation seen as important for autonomy. Cultural differences in perceptions of autonomy are also noted. The document then lists some research questions and hypotheses for a study on learner autonomy before outlining limitations and the methodology used.
This presentation tries to answer some of the most common questions about the concept of Learner Autonomy: what is it, why is it important, and how do I develop it?
The presentation is aimed mainly at teachers.
Presentation at JALT 2014 Conference, Tsukuba, Japan. Some tentative ideas on the implications of neuroscience research for autonomy in language learning
This presentation was given on Methodology Day on 21 February 2014 by Alina Brooks.
"Perhaps the most often-quoted proverb among teachers is "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink". However, perhaps our duty as a teacher is not just to "give" material to the students, but also to teach them to learn? By developing the students' learning skills and strategies and by giving them options we empower and motivate the students."
This is about the challenges faced by teacher in the scenario of onslaught by digital environment. One needs to tackle it by being sensitive to the needs of the hour and also by properly embracing the technology.
Student Engagement and Learning Needs: helping your students learn in the cla...Emma Kennedy
This presentation is designed to help university teachers create an effective classroom environment for all learners, catering to different learning styles and keeping students engaged and enthusiastic.
Different Learning Styles and related theories are discussed in great detail in this PPT. You can download the PPT to read more information presented in the Slide Notes.
You can even take a Free Quiz based on Honey Mumford's theory to know your own Learning Style: https://www.eln.co.uk/blog/honey-mumford-learner-types-1986-questionnaire-online
We hope you find this information useful.
Improving Self-directed Learning through the use of Learning Objects and Per...macevi36953
2014- “Improving Self-directed Learning through the use of Learning Objects and Personal Learning Environments” en el XXXVI ASOCOPI Conference/IIIregional ASOCOPI workshops: Rethinking our Professional Practice.
This presentation tries to answer some of the most common questions about the concept of Learner Autonomy: what is it, why is it important, and how do I develop it?
The presentation is aimed mainly at teachers.
Presentation at JALT 2014 Conference, Tsukuba, Japan. Some tentative ideas on the implications of neuroscience research for autonomy in language learning
This presentation was given on Methodology Day on 21 February 2014 by Alina Brooks.
"Perhaps the most often-quoted proverb among teachers is "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink". However, perhaps our duty as a teacher is not just to "give" material to the students, but also to teach them to learn? By developing the students' learning skills and strategies and by giving them options we empower and motivate the students."
This is about the challenges faced by teacher in the scenario of onslaught by digital environment. One needs to tackle it by being sensitive to the needs of the hour and also by properly embracing the technology.
Student Engagement and Learning Needs: helping your students learn in the cla...Emma Kennedy
This presentation is designed to help university teachers create an effective classroom environment for all learners, catering to different learning styles and keeping students engaged and enthusiastic.
Different Learning Styles and related theories are discussed in great detail in this PPT. You can download the PPT to read more information presented in the Slide Notes.
You can even take a Free Quiz based on Honey Mumford's theory to know your own Learning Style: https://www.eln.co.uk/blog/honey-mumford-learner-types-1986-questionnaire-online
We hope you find this information useful.
Improving Self-directed Learning through the use of Learning Objects and Per...macevi36953
2014- “Improving Self-directed Learning through the use of Learning Objects and Personal Learning Environments” en el XXXVI ASOCOPI Conference/IIIregional ASOCOPI workshops: Rethinking our Professional Practice.
Supporting Learner Autonomy in the FL classrooms at the Secondary Level in Ba...inventionjournals
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI) is an international journal intended for professionals and researchers in all fields of Humanities and Social Science. IJHSSI publishes research articles and reviews within the whole field Humanities and Social Science, new teaching methods, assessment, validation and the impact of new technologies and it will continue to provide information on the latest trends and developments in this ever-expanding subject. The publications of papers are selected through double peer reviewed to ensure originality, relevance, and readability. The articles published in our journal can be accessed online.
The aims of this study are firstly to find out whether tasks that are designed based on the students’ learning style specification are compatible with students’ language achievements, and secondly to find out factors that might affect the language achievements and the learning styles. The research was undertaken in 6 private tertiary educations involving first year students who learn English as a compulsory subject at these institutions. A 40-item questionnaire adapted from Yufrizal (2007) was distrubuted to 380 students resulting students with four learning styles: communicative, concrete, authority oriented and analytic. One group repeated measures design was carried out in this research. The students are taught and tested in four different assignment adjusted to their learning styles. The results show that there is a congruency between students’ learning style and their designed tasks. Students with communicative learning style were more dominant in conversation and students with analytic learning style were more dominant in tasks that required language analytical skill. Furthermore, gender seemed to be an important factor that contribute to the students’ language achievement and learning styles.
Impact of Autonomous Learning on the Achievement Level of Students of Ixth GradeIJARIIT
The word autonomy was derived from ancient Greek words autonomia and nomos which means "self" and "law"
respectively, hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's own law is a concept found in moral,
political, and bioethical philosophy”. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, uncoerced
decision. In moral and political philosophy, autonomy is often used as the basis for determining moral responsibility
and accountability for one's actions. One of the best known philosophical theories of autonomy was developed by Kant. In
medicine, respect for the autonomy of patients is an important goal, though it can conflict with a competing ethical principle,
namely beneficence. Autonomy is also used to refer to the self-government of the people. This paper is an attempt to
understand how this concept of autonomy actually works with students, how the students’ performance is influenced with the
concept of autonomy.
5. Seating Arrangements in Classroom
Jeremy Harmer:
The Round Table in the British and
French legends about King Arthur was
specially designed so that there would
not be arguments about who was more
important than who –and that included
the king himself when they were in a
meeting.
So it is in classrooms !!!!
With all the people in the room sitting
in a circle, there is a far greater feeling
of equality than when the teacher stays
out at the front.
Traditional
orderly rows
Cooperative
separate tables
horseshoes
6.
7. Learner Autonomy
▪ With the advent of Communicative Language Teaching and
its emphasis on the learning process, the role of learners as
active participants in the process of their learning was
highlighted. In this regard, learners were not considered as
empty vessels to be filled with knowledge, but as active
constructors of Knowledge. (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989;
Richards & Rodgers, 2001).
▪ Perhaps the most quoted definition of autonomy is by Holec
(1981, p. 3; cited in Little, 2007), who simply defines learner
autonomy as “the ability to take charge of one’s own
learning”.
▪ Scharle and Szabo (2000) define autonomy as the learner’s
freedom and ability to manage one’s own affairs, which
requires making decisions and acting independently of the
teacher.
9. Little (2007, p.26) defines Learner Autonomy as: ‘the product of an interactive
process in which the teacher gradually enlarges the scope of her learners’ autonomy
by gradually allowing them more control of the process and content of their learning.
Autonomy in language learning and autonomy in language use are two sides of the
same coin.’
According to Littlewood (1999), definitions of autonomy have varied, but they have
usually included these central features:
1. Students should take responsibility for their own learning. This is both
because all learning can in any case only be carried out by the
students themselves and because they need to develop the ability to
continue learning after the end of their formal education.
2. Taking responsibility involves learners in taking ownership (partial or
total) of many processes which have traditionally belonged to the
teacher, such as deciding on learning objectives, selecting learning
methods and evaluating progress.
10. The Importance of Learner Autonomy
• Considering this paradigm shift in language teaching the importance of learner
autonomy, which expects students to assume a greater responsibility for their own
learning, will be in the foreground.
• The influencing goal of teaching is to produce learners who can act and think more
independently, i.e. more autonomously, and a strategy for developing autonomy is the
main target of language teaching (Littlewood, 1996).
• Scharle & Szabo (2000) believe that learner autonomy is a positive relationship
between present and future learning:
Responsible learners are more likely to
Achieve their learning targets
By achieving their learning goals they are more likely to
Maintain a positive attitude toward learning
11. Characteristics of Autonomous Learners
• we do not think of responsible learners as role models (or teacher’s
pets), but as learners who accept the idea that their own efforts are
crucial to progress in learning, and behave accordingly.
• Autonomous learners’ characteristics by Little (1995)
understanding the purpose of their learning program
accepting responsibility for their learning
sharing in the setting of learning goals, taking initiatives in planning
and executing learning activities
reviewing their learning and evaluating its effectiveness regularly
12. Levels of autonomy by Nunan (1997)
1. Awareness: Learner awareness about the pedagogical goals
and content of the materials, identifying strategy
implications of pedagogical tasks, their preferred learning
styles and strategies.
2. Involvement: is the intermediate stage between simple
awareness and subsequent stage in which learners become
involved in modifying materials. They involve in making
choices from a range of goals, selection of content and a
variety of tasks.
3. Intervention: learners involve in modifying and adapting goals,
content and learning tasks.
4. Creation: (penultimate stage) they create their own goals,
content, and tasks (partly developed to student-generated).
5. Transcendence: learner become truly autonomous in utilizing
what they have learned in formal learning context in
everyday life
13. Motivation & Autonomy
• Ushioda (2010) believed that there is a strong relationship between motivation
and autonomy.
• Scharle and Szabo (2000) pointed, we need to encourage intrinsic motivation, the
source of which is some inner drive or interest of the learner. Intrinsically
motivated learners are more able to identify the goals of learning and that makes
them more willing to take responsibility for the outcome. In turn, a larger scope for
student self-determination and autonomy generates intrinsic motivation.
• Spratt et al ,and Littlewood as well, considered motivation as a key factor that
influences the extent to which learners are ready to learn autonomously and that
teachers therefore might try to ensure motivation before they ‘train’ students to
become autonomous (Spratt, 2002).
14. Autonomy and Culture
▪ Pennycook (1997) believed that autonomy and the autonomous individual are purely a
construct of Western cultures and that the notion has limited applicability to other
cultural contexts.
▪ Chan et al. (2002) supported this view by indicating that in Asian cultures students
perceived the teacher as a dominant figure, and their preference was for the teacher to
take responsibility for their learning.
▪ Hart in 2002 raised this question that whether autonomy is an appropriate approach in
non- Western contexts where it has been observed that students might have had fewer
opportunities for collaborative and other learner-centered approaches.
16. Research Hypotheses
H0 : There is no significant relationship between teachers’ and
learners’ perceptions regarding responsibility.
H0 : There is no significant difference between learners and
teachers perceptions regarding learners’ ability.
H0 : There is no significant difference between learners and
teachers perceptions regarding learners’ activities.
H0 : there is no significant difference between learners’
perceptions of autonomy and their level of motivation.
17. Preliminary Limitation of the Study
A. First, learner autonomy is an internal construct, so it is
difficult to isolate and study it by means of objective
instruments. One potential problem with research when
participants rate themselves might be the extent to which
individuals objectively rate themselves; some participant
may inflate or underestimate their autonomy.
B. Second, socio-cultural factors and educational background
of the participant are not controlled.
C. Third, regarding the age factor, this study is limited to
young adult and adult students as participants.
18. Methodology
Participants
1. 14 Iranian EFL Teachers
2. 98 English Language Learners
Data Collections
1. Learner Autonomy Questionnaire
2. Interview
Data Analysis
1. Interview: Thematic Analysis is used in order for the themes to emerge
from data
2. Questionnaire: analyzed with SPSS 20
• Autonomy and Motivation: One Way Anova
• Section One: Chi Square (Mann Whitney U Test)
• Section Two: Independent Sample t-test
• Section Three: Independent Sample t-test
19. Learner Autonomy Questionnaire
by Chan, Spratt and Humphreys (2002)
Ability and Responsibility operate in 5 main areas. (Holec: 1981)
1) Determining objectives
2) Defining contents and progressions
3) Selecting methods and techniques to be
used
4) Monitoring the procedure of acquisition
5) Evaluating what has happened
21. Preliminary Data Analysis
Quantitative Data
▪ Skewness and Normality Test were
both checked
▪ Independent sample t-test was run
for comparing the means
▪ Comparing the means, learners’
perceptions of their abilities is
significantly higher than those of
teachers which means that teachers
have got less positive attitude about
learners ability regarding
autonomous learning than learners
themselves.
▪
Qualitative Data
▪ Most of the teachers believed that
students cannot hold the responsibilities
themselves because they are not trained
enough for taking the control.
▪ The majority of learners preferred their
teachers to take the responsibilities
since they are not aware of their own
needs and their teachers know the best.
▪ For both teachers and learners it was the
teacher who is responsible for evaluating
learning progress.
22. Next Steps in Ongoing Research
1) Analyzing qualitative data as well as quantitative data
thoroughly
2) Finalizing results and discussing it in detail
3) Framing the conclusion based on existing literature on
learner autonomy
4) Publishing the final research report