� MENU� PRINT VERSION� HELP & FAQS
We Donʼt Know Why Our
Students are Autonomous!
Eric M. SkierTokyo University of Pharmacyand Life Science

Stacey Vye
International University ofHealth and Welfare
The authors who teach in Japanese community
centers noticed they had been overlooking theinﬂuence of their more autonomous adult learners’
out-of-class experiences while studying English.
Moreover, there appears to be sparse research on
how autonomous language learners create theirown chances for learning unrelated to teacher
inﬂuence in the EFL classroom. By getting student
feedback from language learning histories (LLHs),

questionnaires, and teacher observations, theauthors gained valuable insights into such out-ofclass experiences. Most of the adult learners not only
highlighted time for studying English according toparticular stages in their lives, but also focusedon shameful or embarrassing situations that had
motivated them to actively pursue their Englishstudies. This, we feel, underlined a certain level ofmaturity on the learners’ part, which also strongly
supported their pursuit of English. As the authors
presented these ﬁndings at JALT Shizuoka 2003,attendees asked insightful questions about theteachers’ changes in perception of their respective
students that helped to add a layer to the originalstudy. Responses to a particular question will beaddressed in this paper.
日本のコミュニティー・センターの教員として、自律的な成人学習者の教室外での経験が英語学習に与えた影響を見落としてきた。
実際、EFL教室外の教師の影響を受けないところで,成人学習者がどうやって英語を学んできたかは,殆ど研究されていない。
そこで言語学習経
験報告、アンケート、また教師による観察を通して学習者からフィードバックを得ることで、成人学習者のクラス外での経験について有意義な見解が得られた。
学生の多くが特定の時期における英語学習の時間を強調しただけでなく、屈辱的経験やばつの悪い状況などが彼らの英語学習への意欲に刺激を与えたと指摘した。

これは言い換えれば、彼らの学習者としての成熟度を示し、学習意欲をより高めたということになる。JALT静岡2003での発表においては，この研究を一層深めるのに役立つ興味深い質疑があったので，その点もこの論文で考慮する．

JALT2003 AT SHIZUOKA 135 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGSSKIER & VYE – WE DON’T KNOW WHY OUR STUDENTS ARE AUTONOMOUS!

Introduction

Autonomy in our contexts

Basically in all of the hours of reading we did for our master’s
degrees, neither of us remembers reading much about motivation
or autonomy studies of highly motivated students who create theirown chances for learning unrelated to teacher inﬂuence in theclassroom. Instead, a signiﬁcant amount of what we read seemed
to focus on how teacher-researchers have attempted to motivate
or foster autonomy in students who had little interest in English.
Nevertheless we both teach adult learners that are in control of
their English learning, which appears to occur naturally without
much support from us. Eric’s mature students he affectionately
refers to as “Jijis & Babas” and Stacey’s inspirational students
she calls “Sempais” create opportunities to learn on their own
and collectively in groups. As such, we were naturally curious as
to whether our students had certain experiences that might haveinﬂuenced their drives to learn English.

Our students showed signs of what Breen and Mann (1997,p. 134) term “a desire to learn”, that autonomous language
learners appear to possess. We saw evidence these students areautonomous learners that have a desire for, and an authentic
relationship to, the language they are learning. On the other hand
it seemed to us that most research on learner motivation andautonomy has focused on students who lack the desire to learn,with an emphasis on how teachers can help to increase interest inthe subject through various techniques and strategies rather thanat the nature of motivation itself (e.g., Dornyei, 2001).

Using “Jijis, Babas & Sempais” as subjects we collaboratively
conducted a research project included in a publication for theJALT Learner Development special interest group (Skier & Vye,2003). And at our presentation at JALT2003 we focused on theﬁndings of that qualitative study examining our more autonomous
adult learners’ beliefs and external/internal motivators for studying
English. However, after contemplating on an insightful question
posed to us by an attendee at our presentation at JALT Shizuoka
2003, we realized through a reﬂective process that our relationshipwith our students has changed in different ways for both of us
during a six-month period as we analyzed the collected data,
particularly their LLHs. How our particular relationships with thestudents was affected had not been incorporated into our original
study and in retrospect this will be an added layer to our study thatwe’d like to discuss in this paper.

We became interested in the area that Phil Benson (Benson,2001, 2002b; Head, 2003) is focusing some of his researchon: out-of-class learning – where learners make efforts tolearn a language outside the classroom by their own initiativeand create their own chances for learning unrelated to teacher
inﬂuence in the classroom. The “Jijis, Babas, & Sempais”
were learning autonomously by using the English available tothem outside of class, and sharing these resources and ideas
for improving English with their classmates. More speciﬁcallythe “Jijis & Babas” were in control of their studies in terms ofHolec’s (1981, p. 3) deﬁnition of “the ability to take charge ofone’s learning” (Also Benson, 2001). In addition, from what wehave observed with these students, the issue of the “capacity
to take control of one’s learning” raised by Little (1991, p. 3)
seemed to be key.
Reading the Murphey and Jacobs (2000) article on criticalcollaborative autonomy, made us think of the “Sempais.”
This process can be observed when learners work on guided
cooperative learning with their peers to create a support

JALT2003 AT SHIZUOKA 136 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGSSKIER & VYE – WE DON’T KNOW WHY OUR STUDENTS ARE AUTONOMOUS!

system which leads to individual critical voices developing
autonomously at an accelerated rate. In addition, the “Sempais”
understood that they were responsible for improving theirEnglish skills as they also often took advantage of sharing
various English resources available to them.

• “同じ年齢の人達でとてもいい友達ができ楽しく勉
強できます”“I made really good friends with people of thesame age so I enjoy my lessons.”• “同じ世代なのでクラス授業を休んだ時など親切に授業内容を教えてくる。”

Survey procedure
First, we decided to adapt an open-ended questionnaire
example cited in Burns (1999) as it would allow for moredetailed descriptions of learner perceptions and unpredicted
information. Then, we agreed to use LLHs that Murphey(1997,1998b) created with his English learners to develop
comprehensible language materials and near peer role models.
As such, we asked the “Jijis, Babas, & Sempais” to provide all
written feedback in their native language of Japanese to reduce
possible misunderstandings and increase the chance that useful
information was not omitted due to language limitations. And
ﬁnally, there were our observations of the students.

“My classmates are of the same generation sowhen I’m absent from class they kindly tell me thecontent of the lesson.”
Although each participant expressed individual reasons forwhy they were motivated to study English, about one thirdof the women described interruptions in time where they
stopped studying because they were busy with marriage andchildrearing. A ‘Sempai’ and a ‘Baba’ shared their thoughts on
the phenomena respectively:• “専業主婦として生活。英語とは縁がなくなる。”“Upon becoming a housewife I had no time forEnglish.”Results• “…一方で、子育てと仕事の両立に忙殺さ、私の英語は、どんどん遠いちきました。”

We found two very clear threads in the student data: time andshame, but felt that there had to be more to explain why thestudents were so motivated and termed that “maturity.” With theconcept of time, a majority of the “Jijis & Babas” reported they
positively beneﬁted by studying with people of the same age groupand they enjoyed the experience. Two of Eric’s students expressedenjoying spending time with others of a similar generation:“Running around like crazy trying to raise kids
and work, my English slowly but surely died.”
Time appeared to be a factor for our students’ studies not onlyin terms of age/generations and class make-up, but also whether
they have time to spend on studying English. A few “Jijis &Babas” also mentioned one more aspect relative to time, that of‘holding back the hands of time’—if you will:• “老化防止。”“(I am studying English) to stave off old age.”

JALT2003 AT SHIZUOKA 137 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGSSKIER & VYE – WE DON’T KNOW WHY OUR STUDENTS ARE AUTONOMOUS!

• “現在は半分は脳のトレーニング…”“Presently, half (of my reason for studying
English) is ‘brain training’.”
We were surprised to ﬁnd there were common threads ofshame, disappointment, and embarrassment at being unable
to communicate in English. Some were too personal to be
included, but here are three examples:• “この１０年程、毎年１回は海外とのcollaborationです。
英語圏の人ばっかりではありませんが、共通語はやはり英語です。
事務てきなやりとりからお互いの意見交換まで通訳を通して間接的に行うより自分で伝えられたらもっとよい仕事ができたのにと後悔したことがたくさんあす。
”“For the past decade or so, every year I
collaborate with people from overseas. Thepeople are not all from English-speaking regions,but we use English as a common language.
Paperwork as well as the sharing of opinions
is all done indirectly through interpreters. I
think I could do a better job (if my English wasbetter) and so I often regret my inability tocommunicate.”• (This person replied to the questionnaire inEnglish) “At dinner parties I had so much I
wanted to ask and as the host I wanted everyone
to speak, but as I couldn’t communicate, there
was often silence and I felt responsible for that.”• “大学の工学部の研究所に秘書として務めた私は、半導体の論文や研究所の紹介のパンフレットを英訳したりしていましたがポーランドの研究者と国際電話で話さなければならなかった時やハワイの空港にいる大学の先生に連絡を取りたい時など。
自分の英会話の能力のなさに打ちひしがれる (Felt overwhelmed) 事もありました。読み書きは何とかなったものの、聞いて話すという訓練はとても足りないと思いました。”“In my university engineering department’s
research facilities I worked as a secretary totranslate semi-conductor reports and the facility
pamphlet in English. There was a time when I
had to speak on the phone to a Polish researcher
or I contacted a professor at an airport in Hawaii.
I felt overwhelmed by my lack of ability tocommunicate in English. I was able to read andwrite in English, but I thought I didn’t haveenough training in listening and speaking.”
Responses to a question raised by an attendee: Eric
After presenting our paper, one of the attendees asked
whether or not, in light of all that was shared in the LLHs, ourrelationship with our respective students had changed or not.
For some reason, even while continuing to teach the “Jijis &Babas” on a weekly basis, I hadn’t given it much thought. So,
I couldn’t really respond. However, in the weeks following
JALT2003, after giving the question more time and even doing
a little soul-searching, I think I have an answer. But before I
give my response, I need to ﬁrst explain what my relationship/role was in the ﬁrst place, i.e. before answering the question.
Prior to the project and decision to collect data through LLHs,
my role with students has always been slightly precarious.
Students are free to stay or leave at anytime. When a student
comes to the community center, there is a catalog listing allof the classes and the teachers provide mini-biographies.

JALT2003 AT SHIZUOKA 138 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGSSKIER & VYE – WE DON’T KNOW WHY OUR STUDENTS ARE AUTONOMOUS!

Prospective students are allowed to watch a class once to help
them decide whether to enter, and then do as they see ﬁt. If theenrollment for any reason drops under a certain number, I am
out of a job. With this in the back of my mind at all times (anda substantial mortgage to pay off over the next 34 years) I makean effort to include students in all of the decision-making in
the classes; for example, whether to have a text or not, and if
so which text. Then there is the teaching method. I will present
them with a number of options and leave it to them to decide
what they are most comfortable with. For example, one class
may prefer dictation and a focus on grammar, while anotherwants free conversation. Either way, I do not judge and insteadﬁnd ways to accommodate the learning styles and characterof each class. Another issue I have also been keen to follow is
how each student gets along (or doesn’t) with the others. The
group dynamics at work are very important in my mind, andso if one class prefers pair work while another doesn’t, I do
not push students to do something they don’t want to do. But,
as we mentioned in our paper (Skier & Vye, 2003), the “Jijis& Babas” are very much social clubs and time spent together
among the students out-of-class is generally two to three hours
per week. So, before carrying out our research on the “Jijis &Babas”, my relationship with them was based on knowledge
I gathered from our classroom experiences. I didn’t know
the students’ personal histories that inﬂuenced their language
learning. I was conscious of the classroom history, but that wasall. It is almost like we existed on a desert island or in a vacuumfor 70 minutes a week. Since, I hadn’t asked or raised the issue;
students generally mentioned little about their experiences withEnglish out of class.
Now, after having read the LLHs and reﬂected on whether or
not there have been any changes in our relationship, I can’t help

but take into account the fact that there are other inﬂuences
than mine that students are exposed to. Many of the students
mentioned the inﬂuence of family on their studies. One student
said that she was the only one in her family who couldn’t
speak English, and this fact continues to motivate her in herstudies. On numerous occasions students have attempted touse language they have picked up from TV or radio, only tohave me explain that the language was inappropriate for themto use due to differences in gender, age, or social status. In away, I ﬁnd myself wondering about my value as a teacher tosuch autonomous language learners. Then, I see that for all that
motivates as well as discourages the students, I am there ascounselor, guide, and general support. I am the one they cometo when they can’t ﬁgure out why they weren’t understood,or why they couldn’t understand someone else. Whether it isintroducing them to the role of linguistics: semantics, discourse
analysis, language and power, or context, or just sharing asecond/third opinion on topics ranging from culture to politics,
I was told in the LLHs that I am an integral part of their studies.
I guess I am both a guide and counselor on top of which I alsostrive to provide a non-judgmental environment for students toerr and to learn from their errors. The LLHs have helped me
become more aware of the place I occupy in their studies andfor that I am appreciative.
Responses to a question raised by an attendee: Stacey
To answer the question, had my relationship changed with the“Sempais” during this study? Yes, my relationship changed,
however in a different way than Eric’s. I feel that using LLHs
in research requires degrees of sharing and trust between theresearcher and the subjects (Burns, p.136, 1999). This trust isnecessary because subjects can reveal a lot about themselves,
which can allow the teacher to become closer to students. I heldJALT2003 AT SHIZUOKA 139 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGSSKIER & VYE – WE DON’T KNOW WHY OUR STUDENTS ARE AUTONOMOUS!

classes with the “Sempais” for 12 years, and for over a decade
we have shared many experiences, language learning practices,and key milestone events in our lives. Visualize if you can, 12years with the same group of students. Most likely you would
be able to consider your students friends, as I do.

out-of-class experiences are just as, if not more so, important as
what occurs in the classroom—a lesson for one and all trying tofoster an autonomous language-learning environment.

I have also worked with them on various research projects
during the length of my studies for my master’s degree in
TESOL, and I learned relatively little new information fromthe “Sempais” in their LLHs and questionnaires. And because
I could no longer have our classes due to a change in myemployment conditions, my relationship with them changedduring the study. Doing research for this project and being incontact with their writings without being able to see them on aweekly basis perpetuated the process of missing them intensely.
So I’ve really made a point of keeping in contact with them andmeeting together about every three months in hopes of meetingon a more regular basis. I don’t know if I would have missed
them as much had I not worked on this research project, but I
have realized that teachers have a more social role with students
than I previously thought.

Benson, P. (2001). Teaching and researching autonomy inlanguage learning. London: Longman.
Benson, P. (2002b, November). Learner development: Role ofout-of-class learning. Paper presented at the annual JALT
Conference, Shizuoka, Japan.
Breen, M., & Mann, S. (1997). Shooting arrows at the sun:
Perspectives on a pedagogy for autonomy. In P. Benson &P. Voller (Eds.), Autonomy & independence in language
learning (pp.132-149). London: Longman.
Burns, A. (1999). Collaborative action research for English
language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.
Dornyei, Z. (2001).Teaching and researching motivation.
London: Longman.
Head, E. (2003). Phil Benson: Teachers and learners’ differing
perspectives on learner autonomy. Learning Learning, 10(1), 24-26.
Holec, H. (1981). Autonomy in foreign language learning.
Oxford: Pergamon.
Little, D. (1991). Learner autonomy.1: Deﬁnitions, issues andproblems. Dublin: Authentik.
Murphey, T. (1997). Language learning histories. Nagoya:South Mountain Press.
Murphey, T. (1998b). Language hungry students’ language
learning histories 2. Nagoya: South Mountain Press.

Conclusions
We are not sure if “unique” is too strong a word, but we believe
we have been privileged to have the opportunity to be in contact
with such autonomous learners. And then to have them open
up to us, and share so much of themselves, has been an added
bonus. Looking at the LLHs and other data of this study, we
realized that what occurred between student and teacher inthe classroom was a small part of a bigger picture of what
motivates students to begin their studies, continue them, andimprove their communication skills. The implication being thatReferences

JALT2003 AT SHIZUOKA 140 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGSSKIER & VYE – WE DON’T KNOW WHY OUR STUDENTS ARE AUTONOMOUS!

Murphey, T., & Jacobs, G. (2000). Encouraging criticalcollaborative autonomy. JALT Journal, 22, 228-244.
Skier, E. & Vye, S. (2003) One reality of autonomous language
learning in Japan. In A.Barﬁeld & M. Nix (Eds.), Autonomy
you ask! (pp.27-40). Learner Development Special Interest
Group of JALT.

JALT2003 AT SHIZUOKA 141 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS