Learner Autonomy in EFL Studies in Vietnam: A Discussion from Sociocultural Perspective

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="margin: auto auto 4pt; line-height: 12pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: ??;">Learner autonomy has been identified as a complicated capacity that potentially has a great impact on personal growth and achievement. Different mediated attributes associated with situational, psychological, cultural and political aspects of this construct have been developed and examined to facilitate the promotion of this educational goal. Taking this into account, this paper adopts socio-cultural perspective to localize the situation of EFL learning in higher education in Vietnam. Personal reflections and part of the data generated from a large-scale project are extracted to illustrate a dilemma of the context where learner autonomy can be either fostered or hindered deliberately within various community constraints. The paper finishes with a discussion on the implementation of local learner autonomy promoting practices and puts forward some directions for further research.</span></span></p

Motivating Activities in Test Preparation Writing Classes: A Case Study in Vietnam

“…Students may also feel proud of themselves because of the new, useful, and interesting tasks they discover. This conforms to the constructivist view of motivation (Brown, 2000) in Vietnamese contexts, because in Vietnamese culture, students value their teachers as masters (Dang, 2010) and they mostly respond in a positive and respectful way to those whose teaching is interesting. This cultural value in English language teaching is also accepted by almost all of the writing teachers in the survey (see Appendix B), where nine out of ten agreed that students' confidence in their teachers' ability was important in creating a positive atmosphere in class.…”

EFL Learners’ Satisfaction with the Online Learning Program, Tell Me More

“…Independent learning occurs when learners control the process related to their learning activity (Dang, 2010). Prahtibha (2017) and Kizil (2017) affirmed that the use of computers for language learning does not only make learning ubiquitous but also it encourages self regulated learning and increases students' motivation, satisfaction and language proficiency better than classroom study.…”

Impacts of Learning Management System on Learner Autonomy in EFL Learning

“…Given the development history of over four decades and the notoriously complicated nature of this construct (Little, 2003), learner autonomy has been diversely interpreted in different contexts (Dang, 2010). Various versions of learner autonomy such as personal autonomy (Young, 1986), divergence and convergence (Ribe, 2003), weak and strong (Smith, 2003), and narrow and broad (Kumaravadivelu, 2003) have been proposed and discussed; however, it has been significantly argued in contemporary literature that this multifaceted capacity needs to be localized and addressed in particular social contexts (Smith & Ushioda, 2009).…”

“…Therefore, both students' CMC activity participation and their construction of learner autonomy capacity can be nurtured and explained with supports from their revolutionary potentials and communal practices (Sawchuk, Duarte, & Elhammoumi, 2006). This linkage and argument have allowed the current study to employ SCT in its investigation and interpretation (c.f., Dang, 2010). The local socio-cultural values were particularly drawn on to understand students' online behaviors.…”