Fostering Language Learner Autonomy Through Interdependence: The Power of Wikis

Abstract

The present study reports on a collaborative writing project initiated and completed by 18 Iranian English language learners enrolled in an online writing course. Using a wiki as the core element of the project, the aim of the course was fostering learner autonomy in online settings based on the collaborative autonomous language learning framework proposed by Kessler and Bikowski (2010). The outcome of collaborative writing project was a text created in a wiki, which was manually analyzed from the very beginning of writing to the final revisions and reflections to find autonomous alterations made by student writers. The findings of the study revealed student-writers' autonomous contributions in the form of alterations to the text which were accomplished interdependently with peers through alterations such as commenting as an instance of scaffolding to reach a shared goal. Other types of autonomous alterations such as adding new information; deleting existing information; correction of information; clarification; synthesis; and reflection were observed in the final product. Frequent occurrence of peer correction with regard to content and form was a discriminating finding of the current study. Also, despite the initial goal which was completion of the project exclusively by learners, teacher intervention was witnessed throughout the process. To study the role of teacher in depth, a semi-structured interview about the roles of a teacher in a collaborative autonomous learning was conducted. The data from the interview went through a manual thematic analysis to find the themes related to the learners' perceptions of teacher's roles. The findings revealed a need for a teacher as a facilitator and resource, which highlighted students' demands for motivation and content knowledge from teacher in an autonomous contribution to completing a collaborative project.

Learner Autonomy in L2 Writing: The Role of Academic Self-Concept and Academic Achievement

“…Personal construct theory [53] embraces the notion of self-concept, and it is deemed to have a twofold relation with autonomy while they both support the promotion of each other [54,55]. us, the predicting power of ASC with respect to its subcomponents (academic confidence and effort) portrayed that academic confidence correlated more strongly with LA in writing than did academic effort.…”

Teachers’ Roles on English Language Teaching for Promoting Learner-Centered Language Learning: A Theoretical Review

“…As asserted by Sistyawan et al (2022), teachers are not purely conveyors of information; they are facilitators who guide students through the language learning process. This involves not only delivering lessons but also engaging in interactive and student-centered teaching methodologies (Emiliasari, Prasetyo, & Syarifah, 2019;Almubarokah & Arifani, 2021;Sadaghian & Marandi, 2021). In addition, the evolving nature of technology in education has also redefined the teacher's role.…”

Autonomous learning and the use of digital technologies in online English classrooms in higher education

“…It included content training, choosing activities, online activities, and utilizing ICT tools. Studies in Iranian and Indonesian university contexts have revealed that the technology tools helped encourage learners to be autonomous with support from the teacher to guide learners to various materials and psychosocial encouragement to motivate learners simultaneously (Sadaghian & Marandi, 2021;Yusnimar, 2019). Therefore, autonomous learning enhanced students' performance in listening and speaking, increased students' learning outcomes in reading and writing, and received positive feedback from the EFL learners (Choi & Lee, 2020;Pratiwi et al, 2016;Zulaihah & Harida, 2017).…”

“…(Ahmed et al, 2020;. Furthermore, digital technology is viewed as one of the most powerful tools to promote autonomous learning as it supports teachers to be the facilitator in class (Ling et al, 2020;Sadaghian & Marandi, 2021). Learners should take responsibility for their learning, take an active role in the learning context and methods, and evaluate their progress (Choi & Lee, 2020).…”