Fostering autonomy from within the classroom: The teacher's responsibility

Crabbe, David

doi:10.1016/0346-251x(93)90056-m

Cited by 89 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Benson, 1996;Benson & Toogood, 2002;Benson & Voller, 1997;Crabbe, 1993;Dickinson, 1992;Lamb & Reinders, 2008). The diverse interpretations of this term and its rather generic application, however, make it difficult to foster and assess in the classroom.To address this, the present study, using data collected from three ESL writing classrooms in Hong Kong, explored the construct of learner autonomy in the area of writing.…”

Section: Measuring and Nurturing Learner Autonomymentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Construct of Learner Autonomy in Writing: The Roles of Motivation and the Teacher

Yeung¹

2016

ELT

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Learner autonomy is widely recognized as a desirable educational goal in second language contexts. However, the lack of domain-specificity in research related to learner autonomy, compounded with the diverse views on its connotations, makes it difficult to either nurture or measure. This paper reports on a study that explored the construct of learner autonomy in the area of writing using quantitative data collected in the naturalistic settings of three secondary school classrooms in Hong Kong. In this study, learner autonomy was proposed as a construct consisting of autonomous attitudes including motivation, self-confidence and independence from the teacher, and autonomous skills embracing strategy use and metacognitive knowledge. A questionnaire was designed accordingly to measure changes in the participants after a writing programme that adopted the process writing approach, the potential of which in fostering traits of learner autonomy had been demonstrated in previous studies and was further explored in this study. Findings gathered through factor analysis on the questionnaire data, followed by a paired-sample t-test to investigate changes in the participants after the writing programme, suggest that a degree of independence from the teacher may possibly be a prerequisite for autonomy development in terms of writing skills, while motivation may have a more important role to play in its subsequent development.

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Section: Measuring and Nurturing Learner Autonomymentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Construct of Learner Autonomy in Writing: The Roles of Motivation and the Teacher

Yeung¹

2016

ELT

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“…In general, this study found that most participants were in favor of EIS activities during the semester and almost all of them continued the activities in various forms and degrees after they finished the semester. The participants in this study showed some qualities of autonomous learners in that, as pinpointed by Crabbe (1993), they were able to make use of some learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom. In addition, like the students in Yanren's (2007) study, the EIS activities chosen by the participants in this study were those that they personally enjoyed, such as reading and watching movies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…As explained by Crabbe (1993), autonomous learners learn in their minds, regardless of the place. He added that the success of language learning relies on how well students could make the best use of various learning opportunities both within and outside the classroom.…”

Section: English Independent Study (Eis)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting English Independent Study for EFL University Students in Indonesia

Inayati¹

2015

LEiA

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This paper aims to investigate the implementation of English Independent Study (EIS) activities in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) educational contexts. In this study, 32 pre-intermediate to upper-intermediate participants attending a course named Basic Skill Course at an Indonesian university were introduced to the concept of and strategies for pursuing EIS. This investigation focused on analyzing the students' choice and perceptions of EIS activities and the continuity of the initiative. The findings show that students are more inclined to do receptive skill activities as opposed to those of productive skills for their EIS, students generally perceive EIS activities positively, and almost all students continued EIS activities on their own after they finished the semester. Some insights on how teachers could optimize students' motivation to do EIS activities are offered, such as providing extensive resources for independent study and devising various schemes to promote such activities among students.One of the key aspects of globalization is the use of international languages as the means of communication among people from various countries. As one of the international languages formally recognized by the United Nations, English has gained increased acceptance as the primary means of international communication, indicated by the high number of nations which feature English as the main international language in their educational curricula (Crystal, 2003). Therefore, nurturing English skills among people in countries where English is considered a foreign language is essential. However, what often happens in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts such as Indonesia and many other Southeast Asian and even Asian countries is that the teaching of English in school is not sufficient for students to speak English as well as expected (Soliman, 2014), and students' English proficiency often remains limited (Renandya, 2007). One way to address such problems is by introducing and supporting the habit of English Independent Study (EIS).EIS offers a solution for the limited time and resources of English learning in the formal educational system by allowing and encouraging students to find authentic resources and integrate English learning into their daily activities. Studies have shown that independent learning is one of the key components of successful language learning (Wong & Nunan, 2011;Yanren, 2007) and that students expect some independent learning strategies to be taught in classes (Luk, 2012). However, studies about nurturing independent study and its continuous impact have, to the author's knowledge, never been conducted. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate efforts to introduce and foster such practice to two groups of Indonesian undergraduate students majoring in the English language. The purpose of the scheme was to promote continuous learning of English independent from the presence of the traditional

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“…It is very flexible, very much studentcentred, and actively aims to form a bridge between formal learning and the students' personal lives (cf. Crabbe, 1993). The use of new technologies holds the promise of flexibility and accessibility but these do not seem to be widely tapped even by the 10 most intensive providers of technology of the 45 centres investigated worldwide.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%