Roles learners believe they have in the development of their language learning – autonomy included?

Abstract

Through data generated in an ethnographic research project, which studies language learners (future English teachers), it was possible to observe that learners voice the importance of being in control of their own learning. Nevertheless, in the academic context, it seems they have an imaginary territory, where they can or cannot exercise autonomy. In the classroom, they agree that the one who owns the knowledge (teacher) should be in charge of class management, which includes the determination of content, duration of the activities etc. From the learners’ perspective, besides being the one who knowsthe content, the teacher is the one that knows the best way to learn too. Outside the classroom, though, the situation changes: they feel freer to act according to their own learning beliefs and empowered to make their own decisions. All these data have been collected during a whole school year, at Catholic University of Pelotas – Brazil, when the researcher tried to construct an emic view with her participants using a range of research methods.

One-on-One Language Teaching and Learning

“…Reluctance by learners to take advantage of opportunities for autonomy within a classroom setting is also reported by Nicolaides (2008) in a study carried out at a Brazilian university. She noted, following learners' reports and her own classroom observations, that "where space is provided for them so that they can have an active role in their own learning, it is not taken up" (p. 152).…”

The Promotion of Learner Autonomy in Thailand Tertiary Education: Lecturers' Perspectives and Practices

“…Students felt their freedom to follow their own beliefs and make their own decision was limited within the classroom. Using student teachers as participants, both Sert's (2006) and Nicolaides'(2008) studies imply that these student teachers will probably not adopt tools to promote autonomous learning amongst their future students as they themselves have been shaped by traditional ways of teaching.…”

“…Several studies have shown the influence of teachers' learning experience on their current teaching behaviors (e.g. Borg, 2003, Nicolaides, 2008Sert, 2006). The teachers who had been shaped by traditional ways of learning are likely to behave in a similar way in their own classrooms.…”

“…The ways that their lecturers had treated them gradually instilled the feeling that they needed to take care of their own learning. This indicates the influence that teachers' classroom practice played on the development of the autonomy of student (Sert, 2006;Nicolaides, 2008). The likelihood that teachers would assist their students to be autonomous depended a lot on whether they had been assisted to be so by their previous teachers.…”

“…Lecturers' fear of losing power and lecturers' fear of losing their high status in class may inhibit teachers from assisting their students to be autonomous (Nicolaides, 2008;Sert 2006). However, findings from my study indicate that power and status are not the concerns for Thai lecturers.…”