Learner autonomy and learner training

Learner autonomy refers to “students taking responsibility for various aspects and stages of the learning process, including setting goals, determining content, selecting resources and techniques, as well as assessing progress” (Cotterall, 2000 in Illés, 2012). In other words, “the autonomous learner is a decision maker” (Chan, 2003 in Illés, 2012) with an active role in the learning process, and someone who can cope with the linguistic and contextual diversity of the use of English today.

Classroom time is limited for students to learn everything they need to become competent speakers in the real word (Harmer, 2007:394). Therefore, training learners to become autonomous is crucial, and students need to know that learning capacities are not fixed, but learnable. Key ingredients of good learning are (Claxton, 2008):

• Emotions: When we are emotionally engaged into a learning activity, this is more effective.
• Resilience: We need to be able to cope with and overcome any negative feelings, drawbacks, or obstacles that a learning activity might generate.
• Intuition and resourcefulness: We have an intuitive mind, which is activated by our experiences and prior knowledge. We “get the hang of things” and this helps us solve problems. Students need this initiative. They also need to know where to find the information they need and to look for alternatives when any given source does not provide the expected answer.
• Patterns: If we pay attention to patterns that emerge from any content we are learning, we advance in our learning. We can predict information; apply knowledge from the given or old information to the new one, and be creative. This facilitates learning, because students try new things (and new language) out. Trial and error are important when learning!
• Imitation: Have you heard of the ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) theory? If not, find about it and answer how it relates to imitation, which “is the biological key to the vast treasury of cultural learning” (Claxton, 2008:102). Can students learn from imitating you, their classmates or other speakers? If so, what can that learning consist of? Invite your learners not to be afraid of imitating and experimenting. Good students have courage and they interact and socialize with other learners.
• Inhibition: This refers to the ability to focus on what we have at hand and block surrounding background noises. It has to do with the concentration we sometimes need during a learning activity, and this concentration can facilitate imagination and creativity, which are also two powerful learning amplifiers.
• Questions: “People become more effective learners as they grow more ready, more willing and more able to ask good questions, explore, and research. Each of these three dimensions of curiosity has to be cultivated” (Claxton, 2008:109). Students should never be afraid to ask questions, and we need to encourage them to do so.
• Reflections: Pausing from time to time throughout the learning process is useful to reflect on what we have achieved, what problems we have encountered, and how we feel. This reflection allows us to evaluate our learning strategies and make any necessary adjustments to it. It helps us to become aware of our habits and look for other options.

Learner training

The big question is how you can train students to become autonomous learners. The ingredients listed above cannot be taught at once in a lecture you give to students at the beginning of the course. Moreover, the development of autonomy and language proficiency can be problematic, because language use is constantly changing and students are exposed to many varieties of the language and unique situations that are not necessarily studied, practiced or ‘rehearsed’ in the language classroom. Training then might “only partially prepare learners for the reality of international communication” (Illés, 2012). Nevertheless, it should be an integral part of language learning.

Following are a few options adapted from Harmer (2007) and Illés (2012). The objective is to implement little activities like these from time to time, in order to make students think about learning and then use the strategies identified when being by themselves. For example:

1.   Can do and other statements

Students self-evaluate by using this scale: sometimes; a little; not yet, but I can try.

Statements

1. I can dedicate time after class to study by myself.
2. I feel positive about self-directed learning.
3. I can work out difficulties faced during my learning.
4. I use my previous knowledge and strategies in my mother tongue to study and learn English.
5. I like to imitate expressions I hear from my teacher, classmates or people from TV or internet.
6. I can concentrate when I study/practice English by myself.
7. I like to text/call classmates or other people who speak English to practice with them.
8. If I don’t understand something, I take notes and ask my teacher or classmates the next lesson.

2.   Reflecting on lessons from the previous week

Students complete the following sentences about their lessons from last week.

1. The thing(s) I enjoyed the most was/were…
2. The thing(s) I learnt last week that I didn’t know before was/were…
3. The steps I followed to learn X last week were…
4. The thing(s) I’m going to do to remember what I learnt is/are…
5. The thing(s) I found most difficult in last week’s work was/were…
6. The question(s) I would like to ask about last week’s work is/are…

3.   Becoming aware of listening strategies

During listening tasks, students use the following headings to guide their listening and practice different strategies. They write the corresponding info after each listening. 

1. Listening for gist (Getting a general understanding on first listening)
2. Listening for specific detail (Trying to hear one or two specific pieces of information only)
3. Listening for all details (Listening for any relevant information in order to know what to do next)

4.   Note-taking

Teach and invite students to experience with different ways to take notes, so that they choose one after experiencing them: graphic organizers, point by point notes, and key words, among others.

5.   Writing journals

In addition to providing writing practice, journals give students the opportunity to express feelings, think about how they are learning, what they are learning, and this introspection may influence positively in their progress and future learning. Journals can also become a personal teacher-student dialogue where the teacher learns more about his/her student’s interests, needs, emotions, and possible difficulties in learning the language, and the student gets answers to questions, encouragement for the teacher and recommendations related to his/her learning process.

6.   Problem-solving activities and open-ended tasks

These challenging tasks can activate students’ capacity “to mobilize their linguistic and other resources” (Illés, 2012).

7.   Exposing students to different varieties of English

Apart from training their ear to listen to different accents, being exposed to language varieties might force students to develop interpretative skills, understand how such less known language varieties work and in the end, improve of students’ language skills.

8.   Self-access centers and other e-devices

Students can also practice the language through resources from self-access centers from the school or from apps and different software that can be downloaded into an electronic device such as the cell-phone or a tablet. Students can take advantage of different forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC) that are now part of everyday life. Of course, making informed choices about what computer-assisted technology and sources of information to use is important. With the current wide access to e-communication and information, “students have to become (…) autonomous agents who are capable of independent thinking and action” (Illés, 2012). 

9.   Other?

Think of other ways you could help students to develop learner autonomy. Include these in your synthesis.

Food for thought

Keep in mind students’ educational and cultural background when attempting to get them to become autonomous learners. We can share, implement, and discuss ideas to train them, but we have limits. At the end, we can encourage students, but not force them to do things that might not relate or agree with their background, styles, and preferences. Moreover, consider that this learner training will be a process and student autonomy cannot happen overnight.

Task

1.   What good learning ingredients (from Claxton, 2008) have you observed in your students?

2.    Choose a learner training technique to try out and take notes of how it works.

 

Adapted from:

Claxton. G. (2008) What’s the Point of School? Oxford: One World.

Harmer, J. (2007) The Practice of English Language Teaching. Essex: Pearson Longman.

Illès, E. (2012) Learner autonomy revisited. ELT Journal 66/4.

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