{"id":5104,"date":"2013-02-15T21:51:20","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T21:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eltchat.org\/wordpress\/?p=5104"},"modified":"2013-02-15T21:51:20","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T21:51:20","slug":"learner-autonomy-is-it-important-if-is-it-why-is-it-and-how-can-we-promote-it-eltchat-summary-06022013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/2013\/02\/15\/learner-autonomy-is-it-important-if-is-it-why-is-it-and-how-can-we-promote-it-eltchat-summary-06022013\/","title":{"rendered":"Learner Autonomy: Is it important? If is it, why is it and how can we promote it? #ELTchat Summary 06\/02\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

ELTchat, Wed. 6 February 2013, 12.00<\/b><\/p>\n

Learner Autonomy: Is it important? If is it, why is it and how can we promote it; should we?<\/b><\/h1>\n

I’ve punctuated the title a bit, in ways that Twitter discourages. This becomes important in the light of comments in light of one of the comments near the end of this post;\u00a0it wouldn’t be fair to say we’d missed something that wasn’t advertised (not in a finite question, at least).<\/p>\n

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Free Royalty Image from Morguile.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Definitions<\/b><\/h1>\n

We got off to a flying start, with definitions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
NikkiFortova<\/td>\nThe way I understand it is the learner’s ability to take responsibilty for their learning inside and our he class<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
elawasell<\/td>\nLearner Autonomy – being able to study on your own, have a say about the direction of learning, responsibility for own learning<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

These two hit the spot, to the extent that after questioning whether they said the same thing (which it was agreed they did) Shaun said<\/p>\n\n\n\n
shaunwilden<\/td>\n@elawassell @NikkiFortova Job done then see you next week \ud83d\ude42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Later on, we found that we needed to refine these deinitions a bit with respect to age and culture. There was less unanimity here, but we agreed on this point:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
cerirhiannon<\/td>\nI would say that for a lot of Ss it’s also learning not to lean on the teacher?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Age<\/b><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cerirhiannon<\/td>\nautonomy for VYLs can include introducing simple choices . eg which colour they want to use<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Marisa_C<\/td>\n@cerirhiannon possibly but very YLs need T much more and can only take baby steps in autonomy<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
NikkiFortova<\/td>\n@cerirhiannon Totally \ud83d\ude42 Untying the apron strings, so to speak<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Culture<\/b><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cerirhiannon<\/td>\nat risk of creating a tangent – some cultures do not value student autonomy \/ independent direction – they expect the T to lead<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BobK99<\/td>\n@cerirhiannon #eltchat Not a tangent. V imp. Hard to foster autonomy in Ls conditioned NOT to be auton. Diff expecta’ns of what learning IS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cerirhiannon<\/td>\nRT @NikkiFortova: age is a factor. Older Ss want Tchr to be the sage on the stage, .. #eltchat& > yup age can be a cultural factor too \ud83d\ude09<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Methods\/Tips\/Tricks<\/b><\/h1>\n

We then got on to the How:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Shaunwilden<\/td>\n…\u00a0How do you do it?<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
elawassell<\/td>\n@Shaunwilden where to begin?! I encourage the use of the dictionaries, on-lineOALD<\/a>\u00a0is a great tool<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
elawassell<\/td>\nI try to help my Ss to find materials to read in English – Even if it is facebook or twitter. Graded readers, books – dep on level<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cerirhiannon<\/td>\nask ss questions – about what they’re learning, how, what they want, what works for them<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
NikkiFortova<\/td>\n@cerirhiannon so the questions are like learner training – important in fostering autonomy<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
elawassell<\/td>\n@cerirhiannon Oh yes – Needs analysis is very important! That’s where I always start with my Ss- I teach 1-1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cerirhiannon<\/td>\n… we can encourage ss to think about qs they want to ask too<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
NikkiFortova<\/td>\n@cerirhiannon Oooh asking them to think of questions is really good. I’ll try that this afternoon \ud83d\ude42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cerirhiannon<\/td>\nRT @Shaunwilden: @NikkiFortova Dont they need guidance to be able to think of their own? > definitely .. that’s where T comes in<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cerirhiannon<\/td>\nRT @Shaunwilden: @NikkiFortova guidance ? #eltchat > discussing case studies – other people’s questions can be a good starting point maybe<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cerirhiannon<\/td>\nRT @Shaunwilden: @NikkiFortova what sort of qs might they come up with > so many! can be simple e.g. where can I find videos?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
NikkiFortova<\/td>\nRT @cerirhiannon: qs could be anything! e.g. what do I want to be able to do in English? why am I studying English? how much …<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
elawassell<\/td>\nWe can encourage Ls to take part in Meet -ups – to practise the language with other learners.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
AlexandraKouk<\/td>\nRT @cerirhiannon: we can help ss with autonomy outside the classroom by helping them track and share what they do via e.g. studylogs<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

General Reflections<\/b><\/h1>\n

The first of these tweets set the tone:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
madridESL<\/td>\nLearner autonomy is huge. We can’t just force vocabulary and grammar into people’s heads. They have to make the effort themselves.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BobK99<\/td>\nMT @madridESL: #eltchat… They have to make the effort themselves. > Indeed \ud83d\ude09 Most true of ALL lang teaching? ( the word, not the assoc.)
\nafterthought: and perhaps true of ALL learning, not just lang.<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cerirhiannon<\/td>\nautonomy can be a mindset for T (i facilitate, I don’t do) and for the S (I don’t expect my T to do everything for me)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
NikkiFortova<\/td>\nmaybe a silly question, but are things like cooperative tasks, pair check &amp; handing feedback over to learners all part of autonomy?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shaunwilden<\/td>\n@NikkiFortova @cerirhiannon\u00a0 Dont they need some guidance to be able to think of their own?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cerirhiannon<\/td>\nRT @Shaunwilden: @NikkiFortova Dont they need guidance to be able to think of their own? #eltchat > definitely .. that’s where T comes in<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

What We Didn’t Cover<\/b><\/h1>\n

There was a nicely-judged prompt towards the end:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
cerirhiannon<\/td>\n2:41 PM<\/td>\n\u00a0RT @BobK99:#eltchat Hard to foster autonomy in Ll conditioned NOT to be auton.&gt; which i guess is where “should we?” comes in?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

So we had over a quarter of an hour to discuss this point (the last point on the ‘agenda’). I think the mood throughout was that we\u00a0should<\/i>\u00a0foster LearnerAutonomy, but we didn’t discuss it in so many words. The nearest we came to it was in this exchange:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
AlexandraKouk<\/td>\nSo what are the advantanges of fostering LA?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shaunwilden<\/td>\n@AlexandraKouk Less work for the teacher? \ud83d\ude42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BobK99<\/td>\nRT @Shaunwilden: @AlexandraKouk Less work for the teacher? \ud83d\ude42 #eltchat > Not JUST a joke tho; if I can take a back seat, I’ve done a gd job<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shaunwilden<\/td>\n@BobK99 Yes agreed<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

So this was a reason for doing it, and implicit in my comment was the belief that a good teacher\u00a0should<\/i>\u00a0do it.<\/p>\n

But I don’t think we fully addressed this point. I think that teachers generally believe they should foster learner autonomy, but we didn’t make explicit (the buzz-word\u00a0du jour<\/i>\u00a0when I did my PGCE was ‘surface’) our reasons for believing this.<\/p>\n

Links<\/b><\/h1>\n\n\n\n\n
Shaunwilden<\/td>\nRT @AlexandraKouk: Here’s a graph of possible LA componentshttp:\/\/t.co\/TsEGuxro<\/a>\u00a0#eltchat Thats a useful char<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
AlexandraKouk<\/td>\n…according 2 ths article Learner autonomy & second\/foreign language learninghttp:\/\/t.co\/DCEhmG74<\/a>, higher motivation<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

A number of other links were posted, but apparently by people with no interest in the discussion<\/p>\n

L’Envoi<\/b><\/h1>\n

Many thanks to the moderators for keeping us on track, and to Ceri (whom I’ve found myself quoting so often that she’d be forgiven for thinking I was a\u00a0stalker<\/i>)! Thanks also to providers of other insightful tweets that haven’t’ made the cut’ \u0096 but I’ve already missed Scotland\/Italy, and I’m blowed if I’m missing France\/Wales too<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the summariser<\/b><\/p>\n

Bob Knowles<\/a>\u00a0is a semi-retired teacher and producer of\u00a0teaching resources<\/a>. Bob has been a moderator of the\u00a0UsingEnglish<\/a>\u00a0forums for over six years. He was nominated for an ELTon in 2012 with aDictionary of Vowels and Vowel Sounds<\/i>, which forms the basis for\u00a0When Vowels Get Together<\/a>\u00a0– a work-in-progress. For updates on this progress \u0096 interspersed with bits of whimsy about language, philology, ELT, choral singing, music … (‘unconsidered trifles’) \u0096 read Bob’s blog,\u00a0Harmless Drudgery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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ELTchat, Wed. 6 February 2013, 12.00 Learner Autonomy: Is it important? If is it, why is it and how can we promote it; should we? I’ve punctuated the title a bit, in ways that Twitter discourages. This becomes important in the light of comments in light of one of the comments near the end of…
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