Letting go of control to the learners: the role of the Internet in promoting a more autonomous view of learning in an academic translation course

Abstract

SummaryThis study investigates how an Internet information search based programme in an academic course can encourage learners who have a traditional view of learning to take more responsibility for their own learning. The study took place with 90 third-year English-speaking translation students whose native language is Turkish in a course specializing in written translation of nancial and economic terms at a university in Turkey. The study aimed to design and evaluate a programme to promote a change in students' attitudes from a traditional, recitationbased view of learning to a more autonomous view of learning. The programme was implemented to encourage students to use the Internet in order to select, analyse, evaluate and apply relevant information to enhance the accuracy of their translations. The search and application of the Internet-based information aimed to encourage students to think and re ect critically on their learning, so that they could question their teacher-dependent learning habits. The evaluation of the programme was carried out with reference to pre-and post-course questionnaires, post-course interviews and information recorded weekly in a diary by the teacher as researcher. The results indicate that the programme had a signi cant impact on students, in that it promoted a change in the view of learning towards more autonomy. After applying Internet-based information searches to their written translation tasks, the majority of the students accepted that the translation process required more personal responsibility from the learner, and furthermore, they viewed learning more meaningfully.

An Investigation of Learner Autonomy in Turkish EFL Context

“…Namely, teachers are resistant to support the involment of learners in teaching and learning activities as follows: decisions on the quantity of homework tasks (9C; 36.8 %), type of homework tasks (9B; 27.3%), selecting textbook (3A; 35,8 %), decisions on what is to be learned from textbook (10A; 32.6 %), decision about time of the lesson (4A; 30.5 %) and place of the lesson (4B; 24.2 %), decision about record-keeping of marks gained (8B; 28.5 %). This finding of current research is consistent with previous studies (Camilleri, 1997;Yumuk, 2002;Özdere, 2005;Balç ıkanlı, 2010). All have reached the conclusion that most of student teachers did not appear to welcome learner involvement in decisions related to items stated previously above.…”

“…Namely, ELT teachers extremely appreciated the value of learner autonomy in general. This finding of current study is also consistent with the previous researches: Yumuk, 2002;Özdere, 2005;Al-Shaqsi, 2009;Balçıkanlı, 2010;Borg and Al-Busaidi, 2012;Al Asmari, 2013;Duong and Seepho, 2014;Er, 2014;Salimi and Ansari, 2015. EFL prospective teachers seem to be ready to give more responsibility to the learners in their own learning process. Teachers generally agreed on the idea that the learners take control for their own learning in certain aspects of learner autonomy, whilst in some other aspects they call for teacher's support and guidance.…”

Learner Autonomy In Language Learning: Student Teachers’ Beliefs

“…As to student teachers' views about how to encourage learner autonomy, they came up with the portfolio assessment, outside tasks, and journals. Referring to their previous learning experiences, student teachers are of the opinion that Turkish students are not ready to take responsibility for their own learning due to the educational system in which they are involved (Yumuk, 2002;Özdere, 2005;Sert, 2006). Despite the fact that they have not yet started teaching English in real environments, they are more or less aware of the possible hindrances to the development of learner autonomy in language classrooms.…”

The Relationship Between Autonomy Perception and Classroom Behaviors of English Language Learners

“…For instance, Yumuk (2002) studied with 90 university students who attended English translation lessons. In her study, the students were encouraged to use the Internet to improve their translation skills.…”