Part 2: Inquiry into language learners

Guest writer
Chitose Asaoka
Dokkyo University
casaoka@dokkyo.ac.jp

About Chitose

I work in the English Department of Foreign Language Faculty at Dokkyo University, Japan,
where I teach English and TEFL methodology courses. My recent research interests include
teacher education and the discourse of education policy change.
mx m\s,± ^nmm^mm^m-T:^mtmmm^mmmzi-x^mxxh^To mm&w, m^mnzmi5:(Dim(Dx-7tbxh^toThe profession has come a long way toward understanding that language learning produces
more desirable effects when learner autonomy is actively pursued. Now the challenge for
language teachers is to develop learner autonomy in more effective ways and to figure out whatkind of roles teachers and students should play in developing this learner autonomy. The firstsix papers in MAYA examine teachers' and learners' beliefs about autonomous learning andexplore waysof building a more collaborative learning environment and making learners moreaware that they are responsible for their own learning, both inside and outside the classroom.

Ellen Head reports on a study using an open-ended survey to investigate university students'
views on learner autonomy and certain recent changes in Japan's education system. Looking
back over the history of educational reforms in Japan, Head expresses the concern that there
is a gap between the top-down suggestions made by the Ministry of Education, seeminglyencouraging learner autonomy by implementing yutori-kyoiku (education without cramming)for example, and the realities of the classrooms and "the stakeholders at grassroots - teachersand students." Based on the survey she conducted with university students of English, Headconcluded that many of the participants have built a positive self-image of being autonomous,
though their beliefs of autonomy appear to be strongly influenced by their teachers' beliefs andteaching methods; additionally, their beliefs seem to be critical of Japan's present educationalsituation, which does not necessarily encourage them to become autonomous.
While Head examines the learners' beliefs about learner autonomy and the educational system,
the next five papers focused on collaborative learning tasks and environments in the classroom.
95*More A u t o n o m y You Aski96•Asaoka

First, Matthew Apple presents the results ofhis research, examining how learners develop
autonomy through in-class strategy training inalistening class, and keeping an extensive listening
portfolio. The qualitative data ofstudents' reflection essays and in-depth interviews, which weredrawn from 13 weeks of classroom discourse, show how learners benefited from strategy training,particularly in goal-setting. For many ofthe participants, choosing and altering goals andstrategies on their own to suit their interests and abilities was challenging, but rewarding. Thosewhowere successful in setting and altering goals and strategies became more responsible for
theirown learning andsought more opportunities to engage in English learning, from inside tooutside the classroom, as well as from controlled to lesscontrolled and more independent tasks.

Etsuko Shimo demonstrates how collaborative shadowingactivities can be the first step toward

creating an interactive and collaborative learning environment. Shimo explains that collaborative
shadowing iseasily conducted in classrooms and canfoster active interaction among students.
Learnerscan also benefit from shadowingin that they are immersed in the repetition of the same
information,leadingto increased comprehension levels. Thus,learnersbecome more relaxed,
confident, and eagerto learn the language. Byprovidingsmall scaffoldings of shadowing activities
for learners, teachers can create a more interactive learning environment, eventually leading tocollaborative and autonomous learning.

Even assessment can be used as a tool to promote learner autonomy. Yoko Wakui presents aframework that integrates self- and peer-assessment in developing students' presentation skills
and their learner autonomy. Universitystudents are asked to plan by deciding on the topicsof their presentations or partners with whom to work, and they assess their performances
afterwards: their own and that of their peers. Wakui suggests that both self- and peer-assessmentsallow students to raise their awareness of how important it is to be a responsible learner and tobuild rapport among learners themselves.
Mark Surma and Miyuki Usuki also demonstrate how to improve students' oral presentation
skills while reducing their stage fright. Fourteen postgraduate students with different nationalities
participated in this semester-long course. The weekly program was conducted in order to build
up their English proficiency, starting with various factors related to public speaking, such as
giving feedback, overcoming stage fright, or using non-verbal strategies, and progressing to giving
presentations. The participants were also asked to reflect on their learning each week in writing.
Their reflections reveal that as the course progressed, the students' level of nervousness aboutpublic speaking decreased while the degree of their collaboration in working together increased.
In the sixth study, Marlen Elliot Harrison presents an approach to student-centered testing.
While Wakui used the techniques of self- and peer-evaluation in order to improve learners'
presentation skills, Harrison developed an approach of using a test creation process as a motivatorfor students to learn. Byhaving students design and create their own tests in groups, Harrison
indicates that teachers and students can negotiate power relations in terms of who assesseswhom,and students can take more responsibility for their own learning. Harrison also found that thisapproach resulted in a decrease in students' performance anxiety, similar to what Surma andUsuki concluded in their study.
As Kohonen points out (1992), autonomy is developed by interacting with others, and notby doing things without the help of or interaction with others, because autonomy includes the"notion of interdependence, that is being responsiblefor one's own conduct in the social context:
being able to cooperate with others and solve conflicts in constructive ways" (p.19). Thus, learnerautonomy can be best promoted in groups that provide rapport, feedback, confidence, andlearning opportunities to one another as the studies in these six chapters indicate.

—LDSIG

2006

Anthology —