The 49th Benkyoukai, October 20, 2004
Since when does teaching belong only to teachers?: Exploring learner autonomy in the foreign language classroom
Kyoko Saegusa
University of Colorado-Boulder
Background and Introduction
First, I would like to explain a little about myself and how I got interested in learner autonomy in the foreign language learning context.
I started thinking about the inner workings of the learner seriously when I began my training in TESOL in 1975. My formal training in TESOL made me aware of what kind of a learner I had been since I was a child.
I have been what people would call a very independent individual who is not affected much by what others say or think about me. I went through fairly liberal schooling (1950’s-1960’s) because of the time. My first grade teacher once had me peer-teach a classmate who had trouble with arithmetic while the teacher taught another topic the rest of the class. My 5th and 6th grade elementary school teacher was a devoted teachers’ union member. He’d sub for the home ec teacher and teach us how to cook. The vice principal was a true believer in democratic education; he’d hoist the UN flag instead of the national flag on the UN Day and had me teach a unit in his roomaji class. My high school, junior and senior combined, had a 6 year curriculum on many of the subjects, and students were allowed to take a 4 to 6 year sequence in select subjects. I got a strong sense that teachers treated students as individuals who were capable of making decisions for themselves. The school was known for “good” English education. In my very first English class, no Japanese was spoken. It was all done using the Direct Method. Instead of becoming confused or intimidated, I was fascinated.
In the TESOL methodology class I was introduced to three so-called unorthodox, innovative methods: the Silent Way1, Suggestopedia2, and Community Language Learning/Counseling-Learning3. The three methods are usually bunched together for several reasons. First, the originators are all “outsiders.” Caleb Gattegno is a mathematician/psychologist; Georgi Lozanov is a psychoanalyst, and Charles Curran is a psychologist/counselor. They are all concerned with the inner workings of the learner, which dictates what the teacher must do. “Teachers” have to step aside and let learning happen. The focus is on learning and learners, not teaching. These three methods seem to make sense to me and suit my style.
When I began teaching in institutions, that is in US colleges, I was of course concerned with the WHAT of teaching, but got quickly interested in the WHAT and HOW of learning. I began implementing specific procedures, projects, and activities that foster learner independence. Some of these work better than others, some work with some students and not with others. The results or effects may or may not show on the kind of evaluation we conventionally conduct in classrooms.
In this paper I would like to do two things: 1. outline what learner autonomy means in the foreign language classroom and 2. list and explain some of the things I do in my classes to foster learner autonomy among learners.
1 The Silent Way was originated by Caleb Gattegno, whose contribution goes far beyond the realm of foreign language education.
http://members.aol.com/edusol99/
2 More on Georgi Lozanov and Suggestopedia at http://www.suggestopedia.com/
3 There are a lot of brief descriptions on Counseling Learning/Community Language Learning and other language teaching methods on the Internet. Here is one such site: http://www.englishraven.com/method_community.html
Part I: What is Learner Autonomy?
Main References
Since Leni Dam and David Little say it all, I am going to borrow their phraseology heavily in Part I of my paper.
Leni Dam and David Little, JALT98 Special Guest Speakers:
Learner Autonomy: What and Why?
Where does learner autonomy come from?
1. Learner autonomy recognizes that every learner is an intellectual, sentient being with a unique personal history and personal needs.
2. Learner autonomy grows out of the individual learner’s acceptance of responsibility for his or her own learning.
3. The learner must take at least some of the initiatives that give shape and direction to the learning process, and must share in monitoring progress and evaluating the extent to which learning targets are achieved.
4. The concept is nothing new. Jean-Jacques Rousseau is said to have given seven main attributes that characterized autonomous learners:
1) Autonomous learners have insights into their learning styles and strategies
2) Take an active approach to the learning task at hand
3) Are willing to take risks, i.e., to communicate in the target language at all costs
4) Are good guessers
5) Attend to form as well as to content, that is, place importance on accuracy as well as appropriateness
6) Develop the target language into a separate reference system and are willing to revise and reject hypotheses and rules that do not apply
7) Have a tolerant and outgoing approach to the target language.
Who is an autonomous learner?
1. An autonomous learner strives to be
▪ Free from control (of the teacher).
▪ Free from constraints (of the curriculum).
▪ Free to choose not to learn.
▪ Free from self--her/his “baggage,” and limitations.
2. Autonomy in a general behavioral sense is one of the obligatory outcomes of developmental and experiential learning – the child only succeeds in first language acquisition when s/he becomes an autonomous user of the mother tongue.
3. Even the most teacher-dependent learners practice a wide range of autonomous behavior outside the classroom.
4. Learner autonomy is NOT isolation, but independence.
5. Learner autonomy strengthens the individual’s sense of identity.
6. Learner autonomy enhances the individual’s awareness of interdependence, that we necessarily depend on others even as we exercise our independence.
What is a classroom?
1. A classroom is a space where formal learning takes place as a matter of explicit or conscious intention.
2. A classroom is a space where teachers and learners can collaborate to construct knowledge.
3. A classroom is a environment where teachers and learners have the opportunity to become a learning community.
4. In a foreign language classroom, the target language itself is one of the principal tools with which the collaborative process is shaped.
How does learning take place within the learner?
In recent years research has advanced in the area of the study of memory. To learn more about the neurological aspect of learning, Earl W. Stevick’s Memory, Meaning & Method: A View of Language Teaching, Second Ed., Heinle & Heinle, 1996, is a good resource.
In this paper I would like to focus on the psychological/existential and social /interactive aspect of learning.
1. Learning is a bidirectional process.
2. Learning is also a messy and indeterminate process.
3. The learner has to have the right to make and be respected for making the “wrong decisions.”
4. Learners begin to accept responsibility for their own learning, but only within the limits imposed by what they already know and what they already have become.
5. Learning is anchored in the achieved identity of the individual learner and the interactive processes by which learners collaboratively construct their shared learning space.
What is the role of the teacher?
1. The teacher is more a counselor than a purveyor of certain knowledge. The teacher facilitates learning. The teacher is a resource person but is by no means the only source of information.
2. The classroom teacher has to design her/his class to optimize the chance for learning to happen. The teacher shouldn’t be on the center stage. The stage should be empty to receive students.
3. The teacher must commit her/himself to provide the learners with the opportunity to experiment, make hypotheses, and improvise in their attempt to master the language and along with it, to learn how to learn in their own individual way.
4. At times, the teacher is just a traffic controller and a scribe—someone whose job is to simply record and keep track of things. The teacher has to resign to being a “lurker” to giving space for learning to take place.
5. The teacher has to be everywhere and nowhere. The teacher’s presence holds the class together (everywhere), but at the same time the teacher’s authority and superiority to students shouldn’t be felt (nowhere).
6. The teacher herself/himself has to be ready and willing to be or to become an autonomous individual.
What difficulties should the teacher anticipate when trying to implement learner autonomy?
1. The biggest problem is to realize how difficult it is to bring learners to make decisions and to accept responsibility for these decisions.
The kind of schooling and socialization people receive in our society condition them to be less independent from and more dependent on outer authority. Undoing or re-conditioning students takes a great amount of energy and commitment on the part of the teacher.
2. The teacher has to cope with the feeling of having to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
The teacher has to learn to have presence in her/his classroom. The presence, which is energy, has to be as neutral as possible, so that the students who are “enveloped” in it feel free and safe to experiment with their own ideas. A successful teacher becomes invisible to students.
3. It is hard to let go of your traditional teacher role, in which the teacher is the one who “knows best.”
The teacher has to search inward as to why s/he has become a teacher, and why s/he wants to teach. The teacher has to be prepared to be outdone by students. In fact, the teacher should always anticipate and look forward to the day when students no longer need her/him.
4. This approach generates more work for the teacher: Compiling student-generated learning materials, being accessible via phone, e-mail, in-person for individual consultation 24 hours a day.
Part II: What I Do in My Classes
Below is a list of activities and procedures that I utilize as needed in my classes. The procedure/forms marked with an asterisk (*) are available in the attachment. Please feel free to download and experiment with them. Documents marked by two asterisks (**) are available upon request. Please contact me at: saegusa@colorado.edu.
Awareness raising and community building
I use several formal and informal strategy and awareness building devices throughout the semester, most intensively at an early stage of each semester. The purpose is to direct students’ attention to reflective and introspective learning , help students become aware of what kind of learners they are, what the best strategies are, and help students become freer of their “baggage.”
▪ *Student Profile Questionnaire is conducted on Day One of each semester to foster a sense of learning community.
▪ Rebecca Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), Version for Speakers Learning a New Languages, Strategy Inventory for Language Learning Version 5.1, 1989, is done individually and then students work in groups to discuss their findings.
▪ Madeline E. Ehrman’s Motivation and Strategies Questionnaire (MSQ), Understanding Second Language Learning Difficulties, SAGE Publications, 1996, is filled out by students and collected. The results are analyized by the instructor for her/his own reference.
▪ A few weeks into the semester, *Study Habits and Learning Strategies Check List is handed out.
▪ Instead or in addition to conventional end-of-the-semester course evaluation by students we conduct the Classroom Learning Interview Process (CLIP) http://www.colorado.edu/ftep/services/clip.html or Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID) http://www.ntlf.com/html/pi/9705/sgid.htm around mid-term, typically after the first major exam. CLIP and SGID require an outside facilitator. When an outside facilitator is not available, one can still administer *mid-semester reflective evaluation by students and the teacher can compile
*mid-semester reports.
▪ Students are required to turn in end-of-semester reflective paragraphs on each category of activities and assignments.
Overt strategy learning
▪ Before we start doing systematic reading skills development, **Before you delve in… is handed out.
▪ On designated days students are introduced to and apply learning strategies in specific language skills. Pages from Yukiko Abe Hatasa, Strategy Instruction for Japanese Students, http://www.carla.umn.edu/lctl/materials/japanese/index.html is systematically used on these days.
▪ Kanji learning strategies are introduced and practiced on designated days. Strategies such as listed in Chieko Kano, Intermediate Kanji Book, Vol. 1, Bonjinsha, 1993, are used on these days.
Autonomy building assignments are designed to foster:
▫ Self-direction (choice and decision – “self-determination”)
▫ Self-monitoring progress
▫ Self-evaluation
§ Students are asked to turn in an initial contract, proposals/lesson plans for student-directed presentations, progress reports on semester-long self-directed and self-paced projects, and keep track of their own grades and progress using the grade self-checklist. The following forms are included at the end of this paper.
*Term project proposal (Form)
*Progress report (Form)
*Grade self-checklist (Form)
*Peer evaluation criteria (Form)
*Peer presentation (teaching project) planning guide and requirements
*Peer presentation proposal (Form)
*Peer tutorial session log (Form)
§ Kanji in our curriculum is handled in two ways. There is the formal introduction of Kanji and Kanji learning strategies by the instructor and materials prepared by the instructor, and there is a self-directed Kanji project (**Kanji project requirements) to be carried out by individual students.
§ Depending on the ability and integrity of the class, students are asked to introduce new grammar and create their own tests.
§ Students are strongly encouraged to participate in out-of-the-class activities such as:
▫ Outreach activities, Internship
▫ Teaching elementary pupils
▫ Organizing exhibits and contests
▫ Escorting Japanese guests
▫ Running a student organization
§ Students are also encouraged, sometimes required, to work with peers and native speakers:
▫ Peer tutorial (tutoring or being tutored)
▫ Conversation partnership
▫ E-pal exchange
In-class language instruction
So what do I do as the teacher? I try to “teach” less, to get out of the way of learning, but make sure students are on the right track. To fulfill my role as a teacher I use various techniques and procedures. I have students do:
§ Exercise sharing
Formative exercise samples spring 2004 – 2120
**Classroom expressions lists 1010, 2110
§ Peer review presentations
** Semi-summative exercise sharing samples spring 2004 – 2120 and various vintages
§ Creating quizzes and exams for the class
** Summer 2000 - 2110
§ Grammar introduction by students
** Summer 2000 - 2110 (logs by the teacher)
§ Grammar discussion by the teacher and class. The teacher is available to summarize, facilitate, and clarify, but not to initiate and dictate - bidirectional instruction routinely.
§ Routine small group and paired work where peer and self correction, collaborative and cooperative learning are encouraged. Many of the activities are in the form of simulated and realistic interviews and surveys.
§ An entire hour is dedicated to error analysis on each major exam. At the time the students receive back their exams, the instructor hands out a comprehensive list of all the errors that were found on the exams for the class. Students identify the error and figure out where the errors come from and how to rectify them.
** 2110-2120 samples
§ The Silent Way activities
§ Counseling Learning/Community Language Learning activities
§ On-line, interactive, and self-paced exercises using on-line resources such as http://www.sabotenweb.com/bookmarks/language.html .
§ Last but not least, Pep Talk
▫ Encourage students to become effective lifelong learners.
▫ Explain the nature of language acquisition using metaphors, analogies, stories.
▫ Show your understanding and awareness of what’s happening within the learner as s/he slowly forms a new self in the language s/he is learning. (It’s a scary, uncertain feeling.)
▫ Use contrastive analysis between the language the students are learning and their dominant language(s) to show similarities and differences between the two.