TDIP 242

Group 6
5.5 LEARNER AUTONOMY
 Members
1. Trần Hoàng
2. Phạm Thùy Trang
3. Trần Khiết Nhu
4. Phùng Gia Ân
5. Nguyễn Thu Hương
6. Bùi Thị Huỳnh Như
 CONTENTS
5.5.1 Learner training/strategy training
5.5.2 Autonomy tasks
5.5.3 Open learning, self-access centres and student ‘helpers’
5.5.4 Provoking student choice
5.5.5 Outside the classroom
5.5.6 Homework
5.5.7 All in the mind
 5.5.1 Learner training/strategy training
Our views:
Writer’s views: We agree with the idea of conducting learner autonomy method
In New Zealand, autonomy strategy is used in private due to its advantages; but there are some difficulties that a
language schools for reading or vocabulary lessons. teacher may meet in the real class because of the multilevel
Require SS to get the meaning of study, what they like or existence in Vietnamese education background, including:
don't like Internal motivation: it’s not easy to help students understand the
Apply using language not only in class but the real world meaning/purpose/benefits of learning English. Some students may
peer support less focus on English as they are more into other subjects.
reflection is important Class size: the average number of students in one class is often
Learner training more than 40 which may put teachers in a difficult situation when
write learner journey => control study in an effective there are so many individual goals or opinions such as when giving
way. However, in the beginning, there may be some instruction, guidance or feedback for writing learner journey.
initial confusion and lack of motivation Conventional learning method: Vietnamese students are familiar
there are many strategies that one can choose (What with teacher-centered approach. With this method, teachers
may work for one learner may not be effective for transfer knowledge to students so learners may seem to gain the
another) => motivation and enjoyment. lessons in an inactive way. Thus, students and even some teachers
for example: there are many ways of note taking in may be against to the idea of autonomy learning as it requires
class that learners can choose from (pic 5 page 99) more effort.
Set goals: T can help SS build a study plan (can use In conclusion, to make this method become successful in our
SMART) which should be measurable for later country, Ministry of Education and Training should introduce a
evaluation. procedure for each level of education. I notice that the new 2018
this method can be successful for class with very few curriculum is now focusing on the competency development; still,
number of SS. If the class size is large, T should set a it needs more research and practice to meet the final goals.
goal for the whole class – or at least discuss this.
5.5.2 Autonomy tasks
One way of allowing students to rely on their own resources and learning potential – and on each
other – is by setting tasks which ask them to take responsibility for their own learning.

Writer’s views Our views

1. Gregory Friedman: his Japanese students have Students who personally research the words'
to set up their own “lexical resources" => instead of meaning can gain a broaden understanding upon
being given vocabulary, or looking it up in the vocabularies, which helps them deeply
comprehend the words in variable contexts.
dictionaries, they use web searching to find
However, when sharing with other classmates, they
examples of words they were interested in and may fail to make their friends understand the
which they could then share with their colleagues. exact meaning of the words, but only the
meanings based on subjective opinions.
5.5.2 Autonomy tasks
One way of allowing students to rely on their own resources and learning potential – and on each
other – is by setting tasks which ask them to take responsibility for their own learning.

Writer’s views Our views

2. Caroline Vickers and Estela Ene: their By being applied in this task, students can clarify
advanced students have to compare their own use the using of the grammatical point in real life
of the hypothetical past conditional with examples contexts. There might be differences between
using past conditional in real life and in a text. I
of its use in an authentic text.
think gaining the differences can help students use
English more efficiently.
5.5.2 Autonomy tasks
One way of allowing students to rely on their own resources and learning potential – and on each
other – is by setting tasks which ask them to take responsibility for their own learning.

Writer’s views Our views

3. Chris Stillwell et al: their students transcribe Students can constantly follow their progress by
their own speech to notice how well they were noting what they include in their speech and also
doing and to make necessary alterations. how they deliver their speech. By that, students can
be aware of what faults they need to improve
and what advantages they need to keep and
upgrade.
However, this application in class might be
time-consuming and when it comes to larger-size
classes, teachers might found difficulties while
guiding students to take notes and supervising
their works.
5.5.2 Autonomy tasks
One way of allowing students to rely on their own resources and learning potential – and on each
other – is by setting tasks which ask them to take responsibility for their own learning.

Writer’s views Our views

4. Atanu Bhattacharya and Kiran Chauhan: their This kind of task can motivates the engagement
Indian students write blogs (see 11.3), which ‘made from students when let them freely do what they
the students more autonomous since they had to are interested in, and make students be
responsible of the success of their own products.
create and edit their own blogs to make them
However, the freedom of this activity might
attractive enough for others to visit. prevent teachers from ensuring the suitability
of students' creativity.
5.5.2 Autonomy tasks
One way of allowing students to rely on their own resources and learning potential – and on each
other – is by setting tasks which ask them to take responsibility for their own learning.

Writer’s views Our views

Valerie Sartor: the students had to choose a topic This kind of task allows students to adopt to
that interested them and then put together a different approaches of English learning which
portfolio of texts within different genres (web might boost their interest in studying the
language.
articles, plays, from poetry to rap,...) When they
However, Vietnamese learners who haven't had
had finished, they presented their topics to the many opportunities to expose to many other
class in whatever way suited them => ‘not only kinds of genres, they might spend many efforts
gained higher levels of English literacy, but also and much time when delivering the task. And, the
learnt to take responsibility for their own learning teachers might find challenges in the evaluation
and to explore a variety of texts and media’ process where there are standards not belonging
to their expertise.
5.5.3: Open learning, self-access centers and student ‘helpers’
Open learning: OUR VIEWS:
Benefit: bring motivations to Ss as they
Students are given a number of tasks
(collections of exercises, activities, in have the feeling of self-control
any order SS like) to choose from and
Difficulty: hard to conduct for most Vn
they can evaluate their own success
in these tasks classes

SS are free to move around, change - Class size

places when they are doing the tasks - Hard for teacher to control if each Ss
= ‘open learning’ is following his own working pace
Teachers only help when necessary. - Might affect other classes if they have
free access to other areas in school.
- Risks of safety
- Need help from other teachers/staff to
supervise the students.
5.5.3: Open learning, self-access centers and student ‘helpers’

Self-access center: places Ss can go to OUR VIEWS:

study on their own (~ institutionalized
It might become similar to a
open learning) → provide motivation when
typical library, only provides loads
working on their own in a special place
of materials, which is the current
Important considerations: phenomenon of VNese
- Physical environment: need to be self-access center.
suitable for studying
- Have system for classifying materials:
signposted materials, pathway for Ss
to follow after each activity
- Have teacher/ coach to give Ss advice
5.5.3: Open learning, self-access centers and student ‘helpers’

Student ‘helper’: student help desk OUR VIEWS:

where students give advice to others - Ss who play the role of ‘helper’
- Let Ss challenge themselves by feel more responsible
consulting their peers - May not bring many benefits as
- Reduce misbehaviors expected to the students who are
- Ss feel more comfortable, more seeking for consulting, as their
confident to speak up about their
difficulties adviser might not have enough
knowledge and experience to
provide correct guidance.
5.5.4 Provoking student choice

- If students are always doing what, and only what, they are told to do, there is very little
chance for them to become truly autonomous.
→ True autonomy involves student agency, allowing them to make decisions and
take responsibility for their learning.

- Students should have more freedom to explore beyond the curriculum and make
choices about texts and classroom activities.

- Teachers can encourage autonomy by involving students in syllabus decisions, which

can be challenging in institutional contexts but beneficial, especially in one-to-one
settings.
 OUR VIEWS
BENEFITS: Student autonomy in the classroom can be highly
beneficial for several reasons:

● Increased Engagement: When students have the freedom

to choose what they want to read or study, they are more
likely to be interested and engaged in the material.
● Personalized Learning: Autonomy allows students to tailor
their education to their interests and strengths, making
learning more relevant and effective.
● Development of Critical Thinking: Allowing students to
evaluate the syllabus and determine what is most useful
encourages them to think critically about their education
and develop decision-making skills.
● Responsibility and Independence: Giving students the
freedom to make choices fosters a sense of responsibility
and independence, preparing them for future academic and
professional challenges.
 OUR VIEWS
CHALLENGES:

● Need for Guidance: Some students may require more guidance

to make informed decisions about their learning path and to
ensure they meet essential educational standards.
● Balance of Curriculum: Ensuring that students still cover the
necessary foundational knowledge and skills while allowing for
personal choice can be challenging.
● Pressure on teachers: Teachers have to constantly make
changes to the contents of the lesson. If teachers don’t make
any adjustments according to students’ feedback, they will feel
demotivated to contribute opinions later on.
● Inappropriate in some educational settings: Students at my
school often lack the ability to assess the usefulness of a task.
Additionally, some misbehaved students might try to eliminate
everything if given the authority to make decisions about the
syllabus. Therefore, teachers should grant students limited
autonomy in this area.
5.5.5 Outside the classroom
- Show students how to continue working and studying on their own by suggesting a
number of techniques.
- Suggest that students find out more information about the topic on the internet or
through any other source.
Replaying or planning conversations in our head

➡ example:
● have a conversation ‘in one’s heads’ and try to work out how they can say things.
● can sit on a bus and imagine what they would say if they were talking to a taxi driver as
they went along the same route.

✅ improve their communication skill, and the ability to create conversation, this
method is suitable for young learners.
❌ Not really tempting for many others who don’t like talking to themselves and
use other type of entertainment in their freetime.
Lexical database
Daniel Barber and Duncan Foord suggest:
● Using the songs you like, listen to them a couple of times, write down words
and expressions you think you hear, find the lyrics and listen and follow, or
try to translate them.
● Watch hours and hours of YouTube videos and English language TV
programmes, take part in online games and find English language speakers
to interact with both on and offline.

➡ suitable for the learners who lack the strong self-motivation of the truly self-directed
learner.
➡ more effective if we give time for our students to bring what they have learnt to our
lessons and/or if we have a special time for them to bring and share vocabulary they have
come across.
✅ create a better motivation for students
❌ we can’t control what kind of media they acquire and if these resources serve
educational purposes (no sexual content, no discrimination or gender bias, ect)
Data-driven adaptive learning
- Learning platforms and apps
- The software, with complete neutrality, can identify how often the students
access the site or practise certain words.

➡ possibility arises that students can indeed learn outside classrooms and take
responsibility for their own learning outside the lesson.

E.g.: apply talent management in schools, duolingo,…

✅ students who have strong sense of responsibility tend to keep the log in
streak and practice everyday.

❌ but many of them have also failed to continue because

self-motivation
5.5.6 Homework: outside-the-class activity
Teachers’ perspectives: Homework is good idea because it gives the students a chance to do more study and practice than the limited hours of
face-to-face classwork provide. → We think that homework can best take its role and bring effectiveness when being used with clear aims. At some
points, personally I think homework is necessary when doing lesson revision, exam reviews). And it can be seen as an additional way to evaluate the
students' performance and learning abilities.

Others disagree with this idea because

1. “Homework was seen as a → Our view: This is so true for us as teachers at school. When being asked, tell one thing that you don’t like about your
punishment and, worse still, school, the most common answer from the students is “homework” as students don't get the idea of how homework
was very boring”. (Prodromou will benefit their studies and skills. Teacher also find it difficult to persuade the students to take homework as something
positive for their improvement.
and Clandfield 2007: 88)

2. Homework is definitely → Our view: We think homework could be a problem when it is given in subjective way by the teachers. (the huge
problematic. amount of homework within a short amount of time, no homework marking or correction; homework that is unrelated to
the lessons or topics being learnt in class, ect).
Interesting fact: Homework can be favoured or not by parents. (Some asks for more homework, some asks for less)

3. It is frequently not enjoyed → Our view: This is a fact explained above. And from the teacher's perspective, it takes time to design the tasks, control
by either the students or the the progress of the students, check and correct the answers for students (sometimes every single student) or even
teachers who have to mark and remind students to complete their homework before and after the due dates.
grade it.

4. Homework compliance in the → Our view: We think this is a time-consuming task to do as the teachers have to check and manage students'
experience of most teachers. progress. And sometimes, it may trigger the objection/disapproval from students and parents. (Students may face some
punishment for not completing the homework on time, ect)
5.5.6 Homework (CNT)
Before having students do any homework, teachers should take these four
considerations

1. Select engaging homework tasks: find enjoyable things for students to do.

→ Students can make something interesting: a timetable, news reports, data collection
for a topic. But make sure these activities are not complicated and are assigned with
clear instructions, outcomes within a sufficient amount of time.

2. Quality not quantity: Teacher should consider the amount of homework with
targeted content, time to complete the homework or draw up a realistic timetable so
that our students are not swamped by constant homework demands.

3. Compliance measures: Students are asked to keep a homework record

→ Extra work for the teachers. Some homework can be assigned through some online
learning platforms → set the due date. It can be in form of a game, so students can have
fun, but have a chance to revise the knowledge.

4. Different responses: Homework is a problem for the teachers. It takes time to mark,
comment, check if students have completed everything on time.
5.5.7 All in the mind
‘Bloom’s taxonomy’ (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill and Krathwohl 1956).

→ closely associated with the concept of critical thinking.

Three of these processes may be called ‘lower-order thinking skills’ (LOTS) → answer What? and the three other processes
are ‘higher-order thinking skills’ (HOTS) → answer Why?

What is important for student development (in any subject) is to get the students to think critically about what they are doing
and experiencing.

Pros: Critical thinking skill is important in the modern world, it is more student-centered. Students should be encouraged to
use critical thinking skills while they're learning a lesson.

Cons:

● Low-level students can struggle to complete tasks asking for their ideas presentations and explanations. (create,
evaluate, analyse)
● High-level student may possibly struggle to brainstorm and organising their ideas.
● It is difficult for the teachers to control multiple activities in one lesson in a mixed-level class.
● It takes time for the teachers to explain the aim, instructions, outcomes of the task and keep track of the students'
progress.
→ Break down the steps, give clear instructions and follow up the student’s progress (have the check points for progress and
feedback/comments (peer sand teachers)
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