LOOKING INTO THE
DEVELOPMENT OF AUTONOMY IN LANGUAGE LEARNING - THREE PROFILES
Christine Nicolaides
e Vera Fernandes
Universidade Católica de Pelotas, Brazil
ABSTRACT: In the first semester of 2001, data from three participants were collected in order to investigate their beliefs and attitudes towards foreign language learning to give them support to develop autonomy. One way to introduce autonomous learning is through student/teacher reflection on these beliefs and attitudes.
KEYWORDS: beliefs; attitudes; autonomy; language learning.
1. Introduction
It has been two decades since autonomy was placed into the scenery of foreign
language teaching. We can find a variety of concepts about it, from the
ability to take charge of one`s own learning (Holec 1981, Dickinson 1987)
to 'the opportunity to become a person' (Kenny 1993:36). Whatever concept
chosen, transplanting it to the pedagogical act might be much more complex
that it seems at first glance. This happens basically due to cultural matters,
which include students? personality traits.
Concerned with this issue, in the first semester of 1998, a self-access
language center 'CAAL' was inaugurated. The Center has, as a main objective,
the exposure of students to a large amount of quality input, so that they
can develop their linguistic competence in English and Spanish through autonomous
learning.
A way to clarify our understanding about learning autonomy is enhancing
students' reflection over their set of conceptions about learning. Therefore
we started this study, developed at CAAL, which consists of the analysis
of the profiles of three learners from Universidade Católica de Pelotas,
future language teachers.
2. Methodology
This research is based on data collected among students of the UCPel Language
Course. For this paper, three participants were chosen. They are here identified
under the fictitious names of Clara, Ana and Julia who, at that time, were
attending the third semester of the Course being prepared to become language
teachers. Clara is going to major in Spanish while Ana and Julia are going
to major in English.
Data were collected during three meetings among participants and counselors
(researchers), in the first semester of 2001. These meetings had two goals;
the first one was to orientate the students in their project work at the
self-access center (CAAL). The second one was to examine and instigate learners'
awareness of their beliefs and attitudes related to their learning, aiming
at the introduction of autonomous learning. In the first meeting, the following
questions were asked: -
How do you like to work in the classroom?
What kind of material do you prefer to work with?
Who should lead the activities in the classroom?
How would you rather have your work evaluated?
How do you prefer to be corrected?
An important aspect to be examined when the aim is learner autonomy is the
learning style. This refers to the way the student prefers to learn. The
preferences, when pointed out, can help the learner to become more conscious
of his potential to learn. Szabó & Scharle (2000:18) propose a questionnaire,
one of the tests we use in the methodology of this research, which was applied
in the first counseling meeting and discussed with the students in the next
one.
A second document used to collect our data was a questionnaire, also proposed
by Szabó & Scharle (2000: 19) on responsible attitudes. This document
intends to get information on learner`s existing attitudes towards foreign
language learning and it was answered and commented during the second meeting.
It can also mean the beginning of the development of a new stage of responsible
behavior concerning the learning of the target language.
The third document, entitled Expectations and emergent beliefs of self-instructed
language learners, created by White (1999: 447), is specifically
related to beliefs. It is an exercise, in which students have to rank sentences,
prioritizing the factors they consider more important for their success
in learning a foreign language. We basically considered, for this analysis,
the two most important and the one least important factors according to
their ranking. This exercise was debated in the third meeting.
It is important to clarify that these three documents were not used to measure
students' beliefs nor to label their learning styles, but to help us motivate
them to reflect on their beliefs and attitudes towards learning, which is
the first step for autonomy development. In this sense, the tests served
as means to enrich the other data collected through the questions, previously
mentioned.
3. Results
As we have explained in the methodology section, it is our objective here
to design a profile of three participants concerning their development towards
autonomous learning in foreign language.
The first one to be examined is Clara. When asked who should lead the class
activities, she clearly expresses her belief that decisions about class
management should be taken both by teacher and students:
'it is good this thing - the teacher coordinating, putting order, but it
is good to let the student choose. Teacher and student should lead the activities
together.'
Another point that has called our attention is her awareness about her learning
style, which is, in our opinion, the first step to walk towards autonomy.
Referring to which material she prefers to work with, she favors videos
and music, showing clearly that she knows the way she learns better 'I like
to visualize. I learn better visualizing' she says.
Corroborating this aspect, we bring up her answer in White`s test, when
Clara ranks 'knowing how you learn best' as the second most important factor
to succeed in language learning.
Still related
to Clara`s profile is the result of her learning style test, which classifies
her as a communicative learner. We see this as something that may help the
learner to become more autonomous, as a communicative learner tends to look
for chances to practice the language, this way exposing himself to more
significant language input. In this case, Clara searches for opportunities
to practice the language, either watching and listening to Spanish speakers
or watching TV or listening to conversations in the foreign language. Her
statement about working in groups also reinforces this idea:
'I prefer to work in groups, four or five people, because there is an exchange
of
ideas; this way, it is easier to organize the ideas.'
She even adds, while evaluating the semester, in the third meeting, that
she considers the lack of interaction among her classmates as the weakest
negative aspect of her classroom. This shows the importance she gives to
opportunities of using the target language. On the other hand, she points
out her increased participation in class as a positive aspect, although
she explicitly emphasizes it would have been better if the group were homogeneous
in terms of language competence.
'Because this way it will be more motivating, there will be more motivation
for them. For us that don't know much there will be more freedom to express
ourselves'.
This feeling towards the more competent colleagues makes her uneasy:
'Because sometimes, when we make mistakes, they unwillingly laugh, you know,
this causes embarrassment and we end up, you know, refraining from doing,
from asking things, this is foolish, it`s elementary.'
This seems to imply lack of autonomy, considering that instead of using
the `superior' knowledge of some classmates as a challenge to be accepted,
or as a model to be followed or even as a resource to be used, she blames
the educational system for not solving the 'problem'. In her opinion, the
system should put students of different levels into different groups. As
we can see, the student does not assume her share of responsibility in the
learning process: it is easier to put this burden on someone else`s shoulders.
Another example, which stresses this point, is taken from Scharle and Szabó`s
questionnaire on responsible attitudes, where she states that she completely
agrees that her performance in Spanish is due to her former teachers.
This idea is supported by Scharle and Szabó (2000; 3), who advocate that,
in order to foster learner autonomy, it is necessary to develop a sense
of responsibility. By responsible learners they mean:
'Learners who accept the idea that their own efforts are crucial to progress
in learning, and behave accordingly - Responsible learners do not have to
be especially keen on team work, but they are willing to cooperate with
the teacher and others in the learning group for everyone`s benefit.'
Concerning evaluation, although Clara has a clear idea that it should not
be done based on one instrument only (e.g. final exams), she still clings
to the belief that the teacher is responsible for doing it. Again, as a
learner, she presents passive behavior. Let us observe another part of her
speech during a counseling meeting:
'evaluation has to be frequent, everyday. He should be observed (by the
teacher) on his production in the classroom. How he is performing the activities,
if he has any difficulties'
A last observation should be made about Clara`s profile - the way she conceives
correction in the target language:
'I like to be corrected. I want to learn. How am I going to learn if I'm
not corrected on the spot?'
She feels at ease with correction made by the teacher, and sees it as an
essential part of the learning process. Nevertheless, once more, she delegates
this duty to someone else - the teacher.
The second
participant in the study is Ana. Differently from Clara, Ana prefers working
in pairs:
'In pairs, I guess, not alone, because then the bell hasn't rung yet. I
am not that competent, because in my class there are many who are more competent,
that know more, and sometimes I kind of fly - in the classroom, I think,
individually or in pairs is better'
This leads to the fact that she thinks she needs the partner as a support
to her incompetence in the target language, or as a crutch to make her feel
more integrated in the classroom- learning environment, not as a source
of input. This is reinforced, later on, when the counselor asks her
whether she ever speaks up about everyday classroom matters. She says:
'No, I have never tried, I think that there (in the classroom) I don't have
much authority to speak. I think there are others with more authority.'
As we can see, the feeling of her incompetence in comparison to her colleagues
affects her so much that it makes her think she is not entitled to the same
rights concerning classroom matters.
Analyzing Ana`s preference regarding learning materials to work with, we
see her as someone very tied up to the traditional educational system. That
is, she likes grammar rules and fill-in-the-blanks exercises and she dislikes
working with texts and comprehension exercises. In our opinion, this jeopardizes
the process of autonomy development in as much as it leads the student only
to learn about the language and not to use it; consequently, this refrains
him from making a better use of metacognitive strategies.
About evaluation Ana thinks, as does Clara, that the teacher should perform
it and it should be frequent. This is coherent with the result of her questionnaire
on learning styles, which shows her tendency to be authority oriented. During
the second meeting, when the counselor discusses the learning style she
seems to fit in, she says:
'I didn't even know I was like that. I like pre-determined dates to hand
in the assignments?tests, for example. When it is set, I think it should
be set, because you even study a lot to a test, and when you get there,
there is not a test.'
In the same interview, when questioned whether the teacher should determine
what, when and how much should be studied for a test, she adds:
'Yes. I think it is easier for us. As we always prefer the easiest way?the
teacher is something like a chief - he`s going to teach you, he`s going
to give you one, I'm not saying he?s going to give you orders, but he`s
going to tell you what to do, what to study.'
The statements strongly reveal her necessity to be led by the teacher, both
when she deals with date organization and content to be learned: the teacher
is the one to set the date for the test and the one to say what should be
studied for it. It shows, in our view, lack of autonomy and, again, a refusal
in taking her share of the responsibility for her learning.
Talking about correction, Ana states that she does not like to be corrected
by the teacher; although for different reasons from Clara (the only way
to learn is through teacher`s correction). Ana argues that she dislikes
teacher correction due to the fact that she feels she does not fit in the
group. As we mentioned before, she sees herself as less competent than her
colleagues and, therefore, without a voice in the classroom. This, obviously,
makes autonomous learning even harder to occur since she refuses the opportunity
to exercise her right to learn.
Julia is the
third learner we observed. In the aspect of managing the work in the classroom,
Julia favors pair work:
'I prefer pair work, because, you know, when one doesn't know, the other
does. So one helps the other and individually the doubt remains or you have
to ask the teacher, right - Or sometimes, if the teacher is not in class.
I always prefer to study in pairs'.
Differently from Ana, but similarly, in a way, to Clara, Julia is prone
to working with a partner, searching for support and information exchange.
It is not the case that she feels inferior to her colleagues; she admits
her limitations and is willing to solve them with someone else`s partnership.
This kind of attitude might be very positive, once it develops self-confidence
and the capacity to work on one`s own. It also decentralizes the class from
the teacher and involves the student more in the learning process.
The test about learning styles showed Julia as a concrete learner, which
means that she likes to learn through games, pictures, movies and videos.
This characteristic also appears in her first meeting with the counselor:
'I like visual material - the kind with more explanation - I don?t know:
posters, songs and videotapes. Concrete things - I like to organize, to
write - everything I have to learn I write because ...'
Somewhat like Clara, Julia also appears to be conscious of her best way
to learn. As we previously mentioned, this is another factor that might
help her develop autonomous learning.
Something else that Clara and Julia share is the opinion that teachers and
students should negotiate about the pedagogical act.
'I think it should be teamwork - teacher and student. The student should
agree with what the teacher`s doing and dialogue.'
A view the three participants have in common is test frequency and the different
instruments that should be part of the evaluation. They all say the teacher
should constantly evaluate the students through several models of tests,
although Julia brings up a different perspective when she declares that
self-evaluation should be part of the process. This peculiarity is another
important step towards autonomy direction.
When commenting teacher`s correction, Julia says she does not like it unless
it is indirectly made. The reason for this is her acknowledged shyness.
We consider this as a possible obstacle to reach autonomy, taking into account
that a shy person probably does not look for opportunities to practice the
language, since she is not usually willing to take risks.
'I accept correction, but not that kind - stop everything, you said it wrongly.
Right? I think it should be indirect, explain it. Then I accept. I'm
very, you know, I'm very timid. I think that if I'm corrected I...'
Even though, at first glance, shyness is a drawback for Julia?s autonomy,
being self-motivated and persistent seems to help her overcome difficulties.
These two features are pointed out as her priorities in the questionnaire
on responsible attitudes. This assumption is also confirmed by her words
in her second counseling meeting, when she says:
'At the beginning they (my family) didn't want me to come here, but they
got used to the idea, even as to my coming here, they think that maybe because
the kind of life they led, maybe they had this - they were brought up this
way - that we couldn't leave the family. I rebelled.'
Examining the speech extract above, we perceive Julia`s changed attitude
during the course of her academic life. It reveals that she could break
through her shyness and strong family beliefs on account of her motivation
and persistence.
4. Conclusion
As it can be observed from the data we exposed, no pre-made formula exists
to foster autonomy. Moreover, there is no ideal student profile that will
end up in the development of autonomy. What can be seen in this study is
that features present in every one of them can either facilitate or inhibit
the process of autonomy. For this reason we have been trying, during all
these years, through the contact with the students at CAAL, to induce the
reflection over their own behaviors towards the learning of the target language.
A question though remains - whether we can influence learners - beliefs
and attitudes so that we can contribute to their improvement in the process
of autonomous learning.
REFERÊNCIAS
BIBLIOGRÁFICAS
DICKINSON, Leslie. Self-instruction in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1987.
HOLEC, Henri. Autonomy in Foreign Language Learning. Oxford: Pergamon, 1981.
KENNY, B. For More Autonomy. In: System Vol. 24 No 4. Great Britain. Pergamon:
1993.
SCHARLE, Ágota & SZABÓ, Anita. Learner Autonomy -
A guide to developing learner responsibility. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2000.
WHITE, Cynthia. Expectations and emergent beliefs of self-instructed language
learners. In: System Vol. 27 No 1. Great Britain. Pergamon: 1999.