Assessing Learner Autonomy: Development and Validation of a Localized Scale

Author(s):  
Lilan Lin ◽  
Hayo Reinders
2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (12) ◽  
pp. 37-45
Author(s):  
Thao Tran Quoc ◽  
Dai Vo Quoc

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study exploring students’ perspectives on the factors boosting learner autonomy (LA) development. This study involved 393 English-majored students from a Ho Chi Minh City based higher education institution in answering open-ended questionnaires. The content analysis approach was used to analyze the qualitative data. The findings revealed that three major factors, viz. teacher-related factors, school-related factors and parental factors were believed to positively affect students’ LA emergence. However, research participants reckoned that teacher-related factors had a major role in boosting students’ LA development while school-related factors and parental factors played contributing roles in shaping students’ LA.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Jinjin Lu ◽  
Yingliang Liu

<p>Enhancing students’ learning autonomy has been emphasized in the current round of English curriculum reforms by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in China. The initial aim of the new guidelines was developed to enhance students’ English proficiency to better fulfil their basic education (Nine-year compulsory education). However, up until now, very little is known about the quality of students’ basic education and their learner autonomy development. This paper uses the English language subject as a case to examine the relationship between the different locations of students’ attendance of their basic education and their learner autonomy development at university level. The result shows that secondary schools’ locations play a more important role in students’ learner autonomy development at university. A ‘Have A Go’ model is proposed to improve students’ transition between high schools and universities in the English language learning process.</p>


Author(s):  
Michelle Tamala

This introduction sets the scene for the volume that explores some of the theoretical, empirical, and practical considerations when supporting educators and learners in promoting language learner autonomy. The author gives an overview of the chapters and notes that the findings pay special attention to the ‘social turn’ in researching language learner autonomy development and second language acquisition, and focus on the social, interactive and co-dependent nature of the concept.


2020 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 03007
Author(s):  
Oksana Pershukova ◽  
Nina Nikolska ◽  
Oksana Vasiukovych

The study aims to find out whether it is possible to foster students’ learner autonomy in the context of ESP language learning in non-linguistic universities by using a special approach. The experiment was carried out at National Aviation University in Ukraine with two groups of first-year students of electronics (experimental and control) in 2018-2019. Testings to determine students’ level of communicative competence in English and surveys to identify students’ level of learner autonomy development were conducted in September and May of the same year of education. The control group did not receive any special training, while in the experimental group were created special learning conditions. With the purpose to prepare students to accept responsibility for their learning, they were given the opportunities to choose educational materials; to set goals of their learning; to reflect the process and evaluate the results of learning, etc. Modern technologies were widely used as well as scaffolding (if necessary). According to the results of the experiment, it was stated that only a part of the most active students used the created conditions and gained experience in autonomous learning. The conclusion was made about creating such an environment. It is a challenge that is appropriate to realize to give an autonomous learning experience to aspiring students.


10.47908/8 ◽  
2020 ◽  

This volume explores some of the theoretical, empirical, and practical considerations when supporting educators and learners in promoting language learner autonomy. ​Through six detailed chapters, we look at different aspects of learner autonomy that support both students and educators as they become more autonomous in their practise. The authors pay special attention to the ‘social turn’ in researching language learner autonomy development and second language acquisition, and focus on the social, interactive and co-dependent nature of the concept. The breadth of research presented provides a more holistic view of learner autonomy, and how many aspects of teaching and learning are connected to this. The volume concludes with a research agenda which draws on the social factors and agency that are likely to be the subject of further work in the coming years. This research agenda aims to inform and inspire the research field, and revisit certain methods, metaphors and terms we have used within the field for decades. ​


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marine Yeung

<p>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.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 588
Author(s):  
Haiyan Liu ◽  
Wenqian Qi

Learner’s role in learning a foreign language has been paid more and more attention in the recent years and learner autonomy is widely recognized as an educational goal. How to integrate teaching with developing learner autonomy has become a hot topic in the educational reform. However, few researches have been made in China’s specific class context. The extension learning achievement presentation (ELAP) activity conducted in two of China’s universities is such an exploratory practice. Based on the theory of learner autonomy and the characteristics of university students, the ELAP is designed to make an integration of students’ learning both in and out class so as to promote the simultaneous development of autonomous learning and language use abilities. The combination of classroom teaching with students’ out class learning enables the foreign language learning to become a process of learner autonomy development. In the process of sharing each other’s achievements, the students deepen their understanding of the knowledge learned and widen their horizon. The result of quantitative and qualitative data analysis reveals that the ELAP has greatly stimulated the students’ enthusiasm in learning. They have undertaken reflective learning, made a better understanding of their learning methods and process, and raised their autonomous learning awareness and ability. And the teachers’ orientation in helping shift the students’ learning concept and methods has been proved to be the major affecting factor to success or failure of the ELAP and the cultivation of students’ autonomous learning ability.


Author(s):  
Ward Peeters

In this chapter, the author reflects on the ideas in this volume, that have explored some of the theoretical foundations, philosophical underpinnings, practical applications as well as evaluations of learner autonomy and learner autonomy spaces. In the editors’ view, the findings that are presented throughout the chapters exemplify the ‘social turn’ in researching learner autonomy development and second language acquisition, in which the social, interactive and co-dependent nature of the concept has increasingly come to the foreground (cf. Little, Dam, & Legenhausen, 2017; Peeters & Ludwig, 2017; Toohey & Norton, 2003). This social turn also forms the backbone of the research agenda that is presented in this section, with questions about the context of learning, the different frames in which autonomy can develop and how we define ‘value’ in learning. By making suggestions for how to start answering these questions, this chapter aims to outline a pathway for future research in the field of learner autonomy.


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