I read two very interesting articles about raising learner autonomy so that I could write this article. The articles are: Learner Autonomy: Bird-in-the-hand or bord-in-the-bush? (By Samuel P-H Sheu) and What is learner autonomy and how can it be fostered? (By Dimitrios Thanasoulas).
Learner autonomy, as the name says, depends much more on the teacher than on the student, but the teachers play an important role on this process. As Holmes and Ramos say: “In order to assume greater control over their own learning, it is important to help them to become aware of and identify the strategies that they already use or could potentially use.”
Samuel P-H Sheu suggests that teachers use different kinds of activities in order to motivate students and they feel like looking for more so that they can develop their autonomy. But by saying so, he also said that teachers from regular schools and language schools cannot be so flexible due to the fact that they have a schedule, and they have to cover all the content in the schedule within a determined period.
All in all, I think that we, teachers, no matter who we teach, should motivate our students to be autonomous. Even if we teach in regular schools or language schools, it is sometimes possible to bring some different activities, raise their curiosity or simply show them the way so that they become autonomous learners.
Hi Marina,
ResponderExcluirYou did a good job summarizing the articles here. I second the writers when they mention the difficulties we have to face to help learners be autonomous when there is so much to be covered - the schedules and the deadlines! However, I agree we can always add something new and appealing to our students. Technology does come in handy here as you can create extra activities students can work on at their own pace and learning will not be confined to the
classroom.
Best,
Gilmar