Routine
Reflections on

Developing
Autonomy?
Andy Barfield
Chuo University
andyb@tamacc.chuo-u.ac.jp

In this chapter I try to explore theparallel development of teacher and learner autonomy throughfollowing onefirst-year student, C, over thespring semester. Thefoundation for this exploration isa collaborative dialogue with Cath Malone, where we talked together on emailaboutourprojects in
February and March. 1 usethis written reflection as an anchorfor examining myown assumptions
and habits aboutlearning and teaching. To understand C's development, I present detailed extracts
from herlearning diaries and end-of-semester portfolio, as wellas question closely how theycan beinterpreted in different ways. This inquiry leads me toconceptualizing thedevelopment ofautonomy
as a dynamic interplay between theroutine and the reflective. In addition, as much as we speak of
linguistic fluency, there seems to be a case for understanding teacher and learning autonomy asinterrelated bya principle of learning fluency.
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A u t o n o m y You Ask;

54"

Barf i e l d

I imagine this midnight moment's forest:
Something else is alive
Besides the clock's loneliness

And this blank page where my fingers move.
—Ted Hughes, The Thought Fox

Starting Points of Reference

The new academic year begins, and I am unsure how to start this research project. I feel tired
and excited, but it is tired more than excited. I get into a quandary on my PhD in April bytemporarily losing a sense of enjoyment for such research. It comes down to the quantitative
collocational studies that I had been writing up in March. Researcher's block from losing sightof my learners in my doctoral work: Who am I doing research for? Who should it benefit? How
can I involve my learners more in what I am doing?

Time continues to rush by, and it's difficult to step back and find a space for getting into thisproject. Clouded intuition. After several midnight moments in the forest of decontextualised
research, my fingers are moving towards a teaching diary (cf.,Appel, 1995; McDonough, 1994).
I decide to start writing this chapter and then repeatedly to re-write it, as a way to keep such adiary for this project. I notice, though, that I need to wait until things have settled into somekind of rhythm before I can find a specific direction.

Cath: "Noticing"—Students need to develop their language awareness to learn to notice
and analyse: Is there a parallel process for teachers developing teacher autonomy?
We need to find a still moment in our hectic schedule to reflect on fundamental

assumptions about what we do, & start to reallypay close attention. Again it brings
us back to demands of time: Learner autonomy and teacher autonomy take time todevelop simply. Real reflection is very time-consuming. Term time I find myself caught
up in a frenzy of activity that is definitely not conducive to "noticing." I'm too busy
doing stuff.

Focusing on One Class

The class is a first-year integrated skills group, with 23 students, where the focus of the course
is on developing academic literacy in English through researching,discussing, and presentingsocial,legal, political, and international issues. They have four other English classes a week,
and will continue to do so in the second year too, with two classes in the third. This integrated

Acknowledgements

My thanks go to my students in the Integrated Skills class and all of the Anthology group, andin particular: Cath Malone, my first collaborative partner, Mike Nix, my colleague and co-editor,

and Miyuki Usuki, my second collaborative partner I would also like to thank Neil Cowie.Tim
Murphey, Richard Smith, and Tin Tin Htun for their feedback on earlier drafts of this chapter
Above all, though, I would like to thank C for continuingto make me doubt.

— LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y55*

Routine Reflections

skills class meets once a week for 90 minutes. The first weeks of the course are geared towards
establishing initial awareness of learning goals and reflectivity, as well as some basic study skills
such as reading for information and making mind-map notes clearly so that they can be used
for discussion, giving short presentations, and using English increasingly activelyin class.

The aim is to guide the students towards using certain integrated skills purposively, and awayfrom their pre-university experiences of exam-based, non-communicative cramming. While
the opening stages of the course are tightly structured and largelyteacher-directed (cf., Dornyei& Murphey, 2003), one key part is helping the students take greater control of their learningby writing a weekly Learning Diary (Dam, 1995).The starting guidelines for the Learning
Diary are shown in Table 1 below. The example Learning Diaries A and B are composites basedon diaries from previous years, designed to raise awareness of the difference between being
generally descriptive or specificallydetailed in reflecting on one's learning (Little, 1991, p. 51).
The students structure their Learning Diaries according to these guidelines for the first fourweek cycle of the term. (See the Autonomy You Ask! website for further materials used in thisopening phase.)
Table 1 Weekly Learning Diary: Starting Guidelines
At the end of each lesson, or as soon as possible after each lesson, take about 15 minutes, by
yourself, to reflect on the lesson. Then write your learning diary in the Learning Diary spaceon the Learning Goals and Learning Diary paper. When you start your diary, do three things:(1)
try to connect your diary to your learning goals;(2)
try to be detailed in describing what you did;(3)
try to set yourself specific practical goals that you want to try next time.
Look at these example learning diaries. In what ways are Learning Diary A and B similar? In
what ways are they different?
Learning Diary A

We practiced listening and note-taking atfirst and made a 5-minutepresentation to organize
and understand our own topics. My short presentation aboutwomen's rights was better than lastweek. I spoke more fluentlyand in more detail. I got nervous before thepresentation lastweek,
butIfelt relaxed for the5-minutepresentation this week. Why I was more successful is thatI
researched more details and understood the topic well. I want toresearch women's rights more
and organize mypresentation. I want to improve howI read and make notes in my notebook.
(96 words)

Learning Diary B

We practiced listening and note-taking and made a 5-minutepresentation to help understandour topics. Because I am Japanese, I can't speak English well. I got nervous before thepresentation last week, and thisweek, and I thought that I am no good at English. I need to
studygrammarmore so that I don't make any mistakes. My dream is to speak English fluently
without mistakes, butI am nogoodat English. If I don't understand whatsomeone says, I can't
speak. I can'tcontinue the conversation. I did mypresentation today. (94 words)
Which Learning Diary is detailed, practical, positive and pro-active? Which one isn't?

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Barfi e l dUnderlying Assumptions about Learning Diaries

Andy: For a long time I've had students keep learning diaries, and a coupleof years ago
I did some action research on first-year writers who were finding it hard to get into
academic writing. Their pace of development was slower than that of other students,and from what I could tell it was mainly a question of their styleof reflection. They
could narrate what they did (once they had rememberedwhat they had done!), but theeffort in simplyrecalling clearly what they had done delayed / subvertedtheir abilityto'transform' their knowledge of their learning (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987).

Cath: What do you mean by "ability to 'transform' their knowledge of their learning"?

Andy: To generalize and theorise from it so that they can identify more and more
specific actions and feelings about learning. It is as if'successful' students could recall
and transform (i.e., be 'meta' self-critical about what they had done, what they hadlearned and what they do in the future), but many students could recall and narrate
but not make that next step towards changed action. The learning diary is then maybe
reinforcing, in some cases, their under-achievement...
Cath: Some interesting parallels with my own experience of students who can observe
but then seem to stall and can't / don't take the next step of analysing more deeply

What emerges is that both Cath and I share some concerns that learning diaries, a key
means of helping students reflect on their learning, can inadvertently trap students into
underachieving. I tend to construe this trapped way of thinking as 'descriptive-affectivenegatively evaluative' i.e., a learner may articulate their thinking as T did X, I felt bad about X
because I cannot / am not Z. I also believethat one corollary to such a way of thinking is thatlearning decisions and actions based on such negative evaluations tend to become general andremote, outside the here and now.

Focusing on One Student

To move into the Anthology project, my first decision is to look back more closelyat the first
several weeks by making photocopies of the whole group's learning diaries. Initially focusing on
two students, I narrow the focus to one student, C (female), who, English-proficiency-wise, isright in the middle of the group. C's two sets of learning goals and diaries for April 24th and May
1st are presented below.They givesome sense of her learning in the early weeks of the course.
My Learning Goals for Today April 24™ 2003

/ want not to beshyand want tospeak and listen actively. I'm afraid of making mistakes
in English, so I couldn't speak actively. Not being shy is very important for me to touch
English. I try to explainwhat I really want to tellhim or her.
My Learning Diary for Today April 24™ 2003

We practiced listening and note-taking and made a 5-minutepresentation to explain in
English what we want to know. Mypresentation aboutmy language learning history was— LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y57*

Routine R e f l e c t i o n s

notsogood because of mysmall vocabulary. I couldn't present the topic with accuracy.
In order to conquer this, I wantto touch English as many times as 1can. I'm ashamed
to make mistakes, so I want to speak to myclassmates of my own motion and enrich my
vocabulary. I want to gain experience bypractice.
My Learning Goals for Today May ist 2003

I want tospeak English actively and listen myfriends speaking carefully and nodding. I
think it is importantfor us toshow whether I understand or don't understand what she or
he says. IfI don't understand what heorshesays, I say"Ibeg yourpardon?" or "What doyou mean?"
My Learning Diary for Today May 1st 2003

We practiced reading quickly, note-taking and how to explainSARS. My presentation was
not so good because I didn't know the important words aboutSARS and it was difficult
for me to explain SARS with accuracy. I want to examine words infashine, for example,
SARS, Wars, or environment problems. I will look up words in English-English dictionary
in order to enrich my English vocabulary. I also want to communicate with manypeople in
English. I think it isgoodfor me to experience in various situations.
When I look later more closely at C's learning diaries, my first impression is that her
reflections on her learning tend to show:
1. her negative evaluation of what she has done;
2. her focus on the difficulty of individual words;

3. her general wish to enrich her vocabulary;
4. her general sense of being able to achieve progress through practice andcommunication.

In an earlier draft of this paper, I comment: " Whatis interesting is that C is negatively specificabout what she has done, and positively general about whatshe might do. Shefinds it much easierto criticize what she has done rather than toplan specifically what she can do." Yet, for somereason, I am not satisfied with this explanation. It niggles.
Finding Interpretations That Fit

Through listening to the interpretation of my colleague, Mike Nix, I re-think my understandingof C's initial entries, seeing C's development moving from an affective focus on herself, where
she is concerned with mistakes and accuracy,towards a pro-active way of thinking where she isconcerned with understanding and presenting to others clearly.
The conversation with Mike takes place on our way down to the Anthology Retreat in June near
Osaka.It is a weekend full of dialogue, laughter, presentation, and collaboration, and the positiveand supportive atmosphere gives me a better senseof direction. It also helps me understand how
learning is all the richer for being affective, interactive, and pro-active,and not simply individual andself-critical. The Retreathas the added effect of making me re-consider again the assumptions I had
made about Learning Diaries in talking with Cath over e-mail in February and March.
I notice that I use Bereiter and Scardamalia's psychological metaphor of knowledge-tellingand knowledge-transforming as a stock formulation for two basic types of reflective habit.

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Bar f i e l dHowever, the written record of the dialogue with Cath lets me see later that the metaphor
itself is potentially misleading in at least two ways. First, it tends to emphasize individual
psychology at the expense of social learning. Second, it prioritizes knowledge over experienceby downplaying the influence of affective factors in reflection. The questioning of the metaphor
is a small but important shift in my awareness that comes to me when I find space to look backwith detachment at these initial discussions with Cath. Yet, several other questions remain.
Learning diaries are seen as a useful means to help learners self-monitor, self-assess, andbecome critically reflective (e.g., Barfield, 1993; Cotterall, 1995; Murphey, 1992; Nunan, Lai& Keobke, 1999; Usuki, 1995), but should the format of the diary be left open or should theprompt questions be fixed from week to week? An open format seems more suited to thelater stages of a course once students have developed the ability to describe and analyse theirlearning in specific terms. In contrast, a fixed set of questions suggests that the development ofreflective awareness can be fostered over time without varying the frames of reflective reference.
Intuitively, this seems doubtful. So, one critical question that the reconsideration of the
dialogue with Cath leads to is how to develop the structure of learning diaries to help students
reflect in more effectiveways.
It's also a question that my colleague, Mike, and I have been discussing over the last year.
Mike suggested five steps for writing a learning diary, which we then adjusted towards fivedifferent ways of thinking (Nix, 2003). Applied to a weeklylearning diary for a once-a-weekclass, these five ways can be summarized as:• Descriptive: What did I do for homework? What happened today in class?What did
we do? What did we talk about?

•Affective: How do I feel about what I did in today's class?

•

Evaluative: What was successful? What was not so successful?

• Analytical: Why was I / were we successful today? What did I notice about effective
ways of learning and communicating?
•Pro-active: How can I improve my learning? What specific actions can I take? What
are my specific goals for this week?

Having used these five ways of thinking in the secondsemester of the previous academic year,
I felt that they greatlyimproved the quality of the reflections that students make. Part of theeffectiveness of the five waysmay be that they combine reasoning and action with description,
emotion, and judgment. In other words, the five ways seem to help students encompass bothknowledge-telling and knowledge-transforming modes of looking at their learning.
An alternative interpretation is that the five ways of thinking assist learners in structuring
their awareness and autonomy at different levels. Thavenius (1999), for example, sees learners
potentially reaching three different levels of awareness:

It goes without saying that the learners reach different levels of awareness andautonomy. Those who describe what they do and how, belong to the lowestlevel. Those
who describe what they learned and how, reach a higher awareness level.And those
who are able to describe the relationship between their planned learning objectives andtheir learning achievements, and who also reflecton why and why not, reach the highest
level, (p. 160)

What the comparison with Thavenius's classification shows is that the five ways potentiallyoffer access to all students to reach the 'highest level of awareness' over time. This seems a— LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y —59* Routine Reflecti ons . . .

plausible interpretation that fits well with my own values and concerns, and I convey thisconfidence to Cath.

Andy: I guess the good thing about the five ways is that they allow a person a way tostart seeing patterns and then change their routine way of reflection.
Cath: How do you discover a student's routine way of reflection? Do you thinkintroducing the 5 ways of thinking actually altered the way they reflect?

It's a great question: What is routine reflection? Do the five ways of thinking really help? It'stime to re-consider this because C, like the other students in the class, is asked to use the five waysof thinking to organise their learning diaries in the next 5-weekcycle of learning and research.
Developing Frames of Reflection

The second cycle from mid-May to mid-June begins with the students completing a review
of how they see their skills development. The five classes in the second cycle also guide thestudents to working for about 45 minutes in groups during each class, which they begin by
discussing and setting their own goals together. These three frames—skills self-assessment,
learning dairies in a different format, and group-work—are the common external structuresof the second cycle. I will limit my focus to the first two—skills self-assessment and learning
diaries using the five ways of thinking—as well as consider how my own position as teacher
and researcher changes in the second cycle.
Skills Self-assessment

The skills self-assessment is designed to help the students to develop a specific metalanguage
for talking about their learning with each other and to become more specific in the way
they can plan and carry out their learning. Again, the earlier dialogue with Cath in February
highlighted some of the reasoning behind this.
Cath February 21: About diaries confirming underachievement—I have similar
experience & I must admit I wondered whether there's a socio-cultural barrier here inthat in Japanese you rarely hear anyone say "I'm good at this, I did this well."As well as
keeping their observations at a very general level, I feel some students were falling backon a formulaic stock response: "I can't do this, because I'm poor at English." A diaryfull of these kinds of comments is both untrue and enormously dispiriting. Perhaps
both students & teachers need practice in dividing the mammoth task of language
learning into small bite-sized chunks, achievable goals. All of this got me thinking
about the pre-requisites for effective reflection for language teachers and students:•

a certain amount of confidence in your own judgment•

based on prior experience of success•ability to de-personalize / objectify their own behaviour for analysis.

This may be particularlydifficult when die student is being evaluatedon this same behaviour.
Since the concept of academic literacy itself is so complex (and since the development of
academic literacy is a central aim of the course, too), the self-assessment review aims to separatea basic understanding of such literacy into key macro-phases, which can then be understood as—

Autonomy You

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Bar field

consisting of smallerinterconnecting webs of sub-skills. These macro-phases are (a) learning
skills, (b) getting ready for discussion, (c) discussion skills, (d) presentation skills, and (e) researchskills. The students are asked to consider how familiar and how confidentthey are with eachmacro-component and its sub-skills, so that they have a reference point for their development.
The final part of the skills self-assessment frame requires students to decide and focus on six
particular aspectsof academicliteracyin English that theywish to improve.
C's individual self-assessment follows on the next two pages. She narrows down her skills
development towards presentationskills for the second learningand research cycle, choosing
global population issues as her research topic. In responding to the final narrowing down focus
questions (i.e.,"Which 6 specific concepts/skills do you most want to develop in the second
learning cycle? Why? How?"), C decided:

tuInhdersia faecnodlpt acobnfiduet

What I most want to develop in the second learning cycle ispresentation skills. I think that
it is important to refer to myopinions. I didn't have many chances togivea presentation
in English, butnowI have ones andI want to make use of these chances. I could explain
about SARS without notes. I wanttospeak without notes whenever I givea presentation. I
want to tryto express myfeelings with accuracy in order togive a good explanation.

'ihdtow.

tuInhderisa dbcoun'tep fcoenidlt

Table 2 Talking about Learning, Discussion, Presentation and Research:
C's Self-assessment in the middle of May

ahtbowut 'it'do.

These are some 'key terms' or 'key concepts' for thinking about learning, discussion,presentation and research. They are 'thinking tools'—a kind of language that we can use
together. How familiar are these terms to you?

dIon'tConcept(1) Learning skills
Preparing before class
Meeting deadlines
Making your learning goals specific
Planning your learning
Reviewing your learning(2) Getting ready for discussion
Reading and note-taking
Learning vocabulary0

tunhderisa tihcosnrept, comanpelwty
fcomnre.pt

0
0
o
o
0
o
o
o

Self-talko

Mind-mappingoManaging your time(3) Discussion skills
Using your notes
Keeping going in English

0
o
o

o

Listening actively
Repeating key words and phrases
Taking turns in a discussion
Asking questions
Asking for examples
Checking your understanding of what

o
o
o
o

o

0

another person says
LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y —6i•

Routine(4) Presentation skills
Giving a presentation
Opening a presentation
Telling the listener how many key points
Introducing the key points

Reflections

0

o
0
o
o

Organising the opening, middle and endof a presentation
Giving evidence to both sides of aquestion
Speaking without notes
Raising issues for discussion(5) Research skills
Using the Internet in English
Writing research questions before you

0

o

o
o
0
o

o

read

Making your research specific
Making vocabulary networks
Explaining key ideas from your researchoooAlthough C's most confident area of academic literacy is learning skills, she rates 'Planningher learning' and 'Making her learning goals specific' less confidently than the other aspectsof this overall ability. In other words, she seems able to fulfill externally imposed tasks such as
preparation and meeting deadlines for handing in work, but her sense of self-initiated learning
is still not strong in her global assessment. This may underscore the uneven balance between
teacher control and learner control in the initial part of the term.
One possible understanding of C's uneven development in terms of learning skills is that she
is more confident about the individually controlled parts of her learning, and less confident
in using her individual preparation interactively with others for presentation and discussion
in class. However, it is the narrowing down of her skills focus to specific individual goals thatshows C's growing confidence about how she would like to improve 'giving a good explanation.'
The students complete the same skills self-assessment in mid-June as part of their review of thesecond cycle. (See the Autonomy You Ask! website for more information.)
Stepping Back and Finding SpaceThe second cycle lasts five weeks, during which the students take greater responsibility forstructuring their learning. As before, the class starts with Social English, Learning Goals, andLearning Diaries, but, in contrast to the first few weeks of term, students then work in groupsof three with similar specific goals. C's group, for example, is interested in developing theirpresentation skills,while other groups want to practice discussion or hybrid mixtures ofdifferent discrete skills. In the second cycle, as mentioned earlier, group-work lasts for around45 minutes.

Such a change in the lesson structuring means that I observe for longer periods of time how
different groups are working and that I respond more closely to my students with individual
advice, too. Near the start of the second cycle (June 5th), I introduce the use of recording
walkmans for group work and collect in the students' cassettes after the first recording by thestudents. As I listen to the tapes and transcribe C's group work, I am struck by the fact that thethree students are taking very long turns in presenting their ideas to each other, and that muchof their discussion centres on understanding new words. Again, something niggleswith me
about this.

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I'm not sure what to do. On the one hand, I havethe linguistic 'evidence'of thetranscription, which I tend to interpret in negative terms becausethe group seems limited in
its interaction. On the other, I have also been observing groups in class where I have the sensethat the students are taking over and seem to be investing much more in what they are doing.
Data-collecting in this non-collaborativemanner (i.e., the students record, I listen to the tapes
and notice) creates distance. Having struggled to catch up with what my students are doingin group work, I wonder whether I have caught up only to take more control of what they are
doing. This dilemma brings me back to my assumed position as researcher: Is it to be 'linguistic
researcher on the outside' or 'exploratory co-learner on the inside'?
To step back, I stop collecting the tapes and ask the students to continue using the walkmans,so that they can later listen to their tapes themselves—which is what they would be usually
doing if I wasn't so concerned with collecting data for this project!—and choose parts of theirsocial English conversations and presentation-discussions to transcribe as part of a portfolio of
work for the end of the semester.

Learning Diaries with the Five Ways of Thinking

In addition to the skills self-assessment at the start and end of the second cycle, C's learning
diaries for the second cycle show her using the fiveways of thinking to structure her reflection
and to move towards increasingly more specific individual goals.
C's Learning Goals May 29™

I want to speak and explain aboutwhatI looked over asplain as I can. It is important to
try to give a goodpresentation in order to improve myEnglish. I will confirm whether mypartnerunderstand my explanation.
C's Learning Diary May 29™

Today I givea presentation about population problems in the world. I tried to make mypartner who wanted to improve presentation skills understand whatI said, butI didn't
bring English-English dictionary. I couldn't explain about difficult words. It is regrettable
thatI couldn't exactexplanation, and Ifeel thatI have to bemore active. The reason for I
wasn't so active is thatI didn't have confidence to explain aboutmypresentation. I think
it is important to make themost of English-English dictionary. I want toget accustomed
togivea presentation without being worry about making mistakes. Next time I will ask
mypartners whether they understand or not mypresentation. When I listen to mypartner
speaking I want to show interest and askquestions.
C's Learning Goals June 5™

I want to be activeand listen carefully. Last timeI wasn't so active. It is important to be
active in order to improve myEnglish. If I don't understand what mypartner say, I say tohim or her"What doyou mean?"C's Learning Diary June 5™

Today I explained about "population problems in the world." I listened tomypartners
presenting asseriously aspossible, but I couldn't understand allcontent because of mylack— LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y —63*Routine ReflectionsofEnglish vocabulary. I was nervous while I was presenting, because I had no confidence togive agood explaination. But I tried to be relax. My partner said that my mind map wasgood toexplain about mytopic. I was happy tohear that. Butmypresentation was notso
good. There are two reasons why it was not sogood. First I didn't practiced my presentation
sufficiently, soI was at a loss how to explain. Second my topic is too difficult to understandand explain because "Population problems in the world" isextensive. So I have to limit
the topic. Before the class, I have to practice my presentation sufficiently to give agood
presentation and bemore active.
C's Learning Goals June 12™

I wantto make whatI sayclear. The topic I'm researching is difficult to explain. I try to
make the mostof "vocabulary networks."
C's Learning Diary June 12™

Today I tried to repeat and rephrase what I thought was important. And lasttime I
was negative, soI wanted to be active to speak and listen. I gave my presentation first,
so I learned how to repeat or rephrase watching my partners do. I repeated the phrases
I thought was important to understand my topic. I think I'm getting to used giving mypresentation about "population problems" because I havea knowledge aboutpopulationin theworld. Comparing with last time, I could take part in discussion actively. But Ifelt
thatI depended on my mindmap and vocabulary networks too much. I didn't watch mypartner's eyes. SoI wanttogivea presentation with watching their eyes not notes. And
when I saynumber ofpeople in mypresentation I hadbetter repeat the number slowly
next time. I think thatI want togive a best presentation and reflection next time.
From May 29lh to June 12lh, it is clear that C develops her ability to become more detailedin what she notices about her learning. The imbalance in her developing autonomy that I
had noticed in her self-assessment now starts to even out through more detailed reflection
each week: The diary entries become longer, the patterns clearer. What strikes me in seeing
C's learning diary for this period is how she moves once more from emphasizing affective
factors (May 29th) to greater analytical thinking (June 5lh), and then to an interactive mode oflearning (June 12lh). It could be said that she does not have a routine way of reflection; rather,
we could understand C's learning development as showing cycles of deepening awarenessand collaborative engagement. By taking greater control of what she does, she becomes moreinteractive; by becoming more interactive and self-aware,she takes greater control. The spacefor developing autonomy seems then to be located between interactivity and self-awareness,or, between negotiation and control: A dialectic of communicative learning rather than acontinuum of discrete stages of skills mastery.
The key insight for me is the cyclical nature of C's development of autonomy: It is not linear,
but rather recursive-progressive. C pushes towards greater autonomy by simultaneously noticing
both her independence (e.g., "Comparing with last time, I could take part in discussion actively")and dependence (e.g., "Ifelt that I depended on my mindmapand vocabulary networks too much")so that she can re-combine these into a new integrated and interdependent learning goal: "SoI want togive a presentation with watching their eyes not notes" This way of interpreting C's
development suggests that the effective development of autonomy is motivated by the balanced
re-combination of the routine with the reflective towards new levels of awareness and action.

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Barfi e l d

The term learningfluency might act as an appropriate description here: Learning fluency,
as much as language fluency, may pivot on the re-formulation and re-combination of known
elements with new insights in order to grow and become self-sustaining. But in what ways
does C perceiveher own development of autonomy? To understand this, I would like to movetowards the end of this chapter by presenting extracts from C's end-of-semester portfolio andletting C speak for herself about her own sense of developing autonomy.
Re-combining the Routine with the Reflective

C:In Apriland beginning of May, I was so negative and afraid of makingmistakes inEnglish. So Ifelt nervous every class. I was confused to write mygoal because I didn't know
my specific aim or which skillI wanted to improve. But now I think I'm moreactiveandtake part in discussion orfree conversation without being afraid of mistakes.
My classmates arekindand when I don't know English words I want to explain, theyteach me. So I realized that "Being active" is most important thing and thefirst step. And
I think my research skill, presentation skill and discussion skills were improved becauseof thepresentation for two or three months. I wanted to improve the discussion moreand I want to improve mypresentation skill. Comparing with earlier lessons, myEnglish
vocabulary is increased. But sometimes I don't know words I want to say, so I want toincrease vocabulary. In May I explained aboutSARS, butit was not good because I was not
usedto giving a presentation. Compared withpresentation aboutpopulationproblem, I
think the later is more better.

Forthefirst time, I was afraid of making mistakes in English. But duringfree
conversation, I made many mistakes in English. I realized that beingactive is the mostimportant thing: Now I'm notafraid of making mistakes because my classmates don't
oblivious of my mistakes, theyemphasize whatI want to tell. Forme it is natural thing touseEnglish now. And I think it is better to useEnglish as often aspossible. I want to makethe most offree conversation to enjoy English. I want to make the contentmassive in thesecond semester.

I think theposter presentation (June 19th I June 26"') helped me improve myEnglish. It
was a very hard work for me, because I had to research population problems in the internet
every week and write mind-maps and vocabulary network andprepare before class. But I
think these homework improved research skill, presentation skill, and discussion skill. For
thefirst time, I was so negative. ButAndy said to me, "Don't beafraid of making mistakes,
beactive." It made me relaxed. It was very goodfor me to be encouraged.
I think presentation will becalled for in the future. So having given thepresentation
for two months is very valuable. I think it wasgood to make smallgroups whatskill
we improve most because to have clear aim isgood. ButI'm nervous when I record mypresentation orfree conversation because I awake to tape. I want not to use tapes as if
I can. I don'tknowhow to repeat or rephrase with accuracy, so I wantyou to tell in thesecond semester. I also don'tknowhow to startmypresentation arid how to connectwith
the subject.

Continuing Insights from C

In the autumn, as the new semester starts, I show C the present version of the chapter, and ask
her if she would be willing to read and respond to my understanding of how I have interpreted
her development. C agrees, then later writes:— LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y —65*Routine R e f l e c t i o n s

I think youranalysis of me is nearly truthful. I am negative whatever I do asyou analysed
me. I have wanted to beable to speak in English, butI didn't have much time to do. I am
good at reading English better than speaking, so I am a typical studentin learning English.
This unbalance makes it more difficultfor me to havea confidence. As you wrote, I am
negatively specific aboutwhatI have done andpositively general about whatI mightdo.
I didn't notice thefact then. I think to notice myweak points help me develop myEnglish.
And writinglearning diaries withfive different ways also help me noticewhat I should
do or whyI could not besatisfied with mypresentation and so on. While I was reading
your report, I could do a disinterested analysis of theself. I think it is important forme
to look back myselfafterevery class what is better thanprevious class or what is worse. I
didn'tunderstand the importance of autonomy sufficiently, but now I know. Developing
autonomyconnects developing myEnglish level. I still don'tknow the bestway to learn
English, butI think it's important to approach English in all its bearings.

Concluding Thoughts

In this chapter, I have tried to interweave the development of learner autonomy and teacher
autonomy in order to reveal parallels in both processes. Following C's development of herawareness, while at the same time making multiple and plausible interpretations of her learning
diaries and self-assessments, made me think closely about my own teaching assumptions andhabits. Yet, because I decided early on to keep re-writing this paper as a way of keeping an
ongoing diary for this project, my interpretations changed many times; in the end, I decided
that C should speak for herself without my imposing any interpretation at all on what she says.
Reading C's continuing insights again opens up more questions for me, as I try to understandbetter ways to learn, research, and teach.
This captures a constant dilemma. Little cites Ackermann's (1996) "notion of an alternation

between connection and separation, what she calls 'diving in' and 'stepping out'" in referringto the tension between using language and reflectingon our use of language in autonomous
language learning (Little, 2000, p. 19). A similar tension seems to apply to the developmentof a teacher's own awareness of what he or she is doing. Looking closelyat one student's
development lets us perhaps see characteristics of becoming autonomous that would otherwise
remain obscure; simultaneously, the focus on the individual risks obscuring the individual'sinteraction and interdependence with the group. As such, the role of negotiation andcollaboration gets downplayed, and the presentation and understanding of lesson-by-lesson
minutiae are partial and incomplete.

Aware of this trade-off, I have also attempted to show in this chapter how my own awarenessdeveloped through engagingin a lengthydialogue with Cath Malone, observing C, anddiscussing key questions with different colleagues, particularly Mike Nix. It also grew throughattending much more closely than I would have otherwise done to what was happening
with this class group and other classes too. As a result, I feel that I have ended up with morequestions than I started with, but I also see that my questions are becoming more reflective andless routine: Thingshave become simultaneously clearer and less certain,leaving an inescapable
sense of skeptical self-direction. Is that what we might also mean by developing autonomy?

Autonomy You

Aski —

66«

Barfi eld

Critical Reader Response i

Stephen J. Davies
Andy Barfield's thought-provoking paper discusses in detail the development of teacher
and learner autonomy He develops his ideasdiscursively through a process of description,reflection, and interpretation, while, at the same time, foregrounding the role of his
collaborators. Indeed, a sense of edgy interaction between learners, collaborators, and otherresearchers resonates throughout his paper.
Most of his data is drawn from a learner diary written by one of his students. This student
was one member of small class that had a total enrollment of 23. All of the students werestudying how to develop academic literacy in English.They were encouraged to establish anawareness of learning goals and reflectivity by keeping learner diaries.
The data that he analyses consists of 9 separate diary entries and an extended end-ofsemester review. He accepts that there are various ways of interpreting the data, and also freely
acknowledges his own feelings of uncertainty about some of his intuitions. Nevertheless, his
detailed analysis enables him to posit two important ideas about learner autonomy.
First, he discusses the theory that autonomy might consist of various levels of awareness.
Learners progress through these at different rates. However, progress is not automatic; forexample, some learners may remain at the level of simple description without involving
themselves in any critical self-reflection. Andy acknowledges the danger of negative
reinforcement if learners become fixated on their own perceived inadequacies. This, in turn,raises the issue of how to empower learners so that they can "generalize and theorise" fromtheir learning in order to be able to set specific learning goals and activities for themselves.
The solution that Andy proposes is the use of a set of guidelines for writing diaries derived
from Nix (2003). These guidelines encourage students to reflect in 5 specific modes: descriptive,
affective, evaluative, analytical, and pro-active. He demonstrates the effectiveness of this 5point procedure by providing evidence of growth in reflective understanding drawn from thediary of the learner C.
However, he goes on to suggest that it may be too simplistic, in fact, to think of learners
progressing toward autonomy through clearly defined discrete stages, instead, we need tothink in terms of a more cyclical,"recursive-progressive" process, that essentially involves a
dialectic of communicative learning. Indeed, progress towards autonomy can best be describedas the gradual achievement of "learning fluency," forged in the context of mediated classroom
discourses.

This definition of autonomy as a nexus of reciprocal-recursive discourses is of special
relevance for other researchers working in the field of learner development. Although acomprehensive definition of learner autonomy still remains elusive, Andy's paradigm is asignificant step forward. Finally he is not content with conceptualizing autonomy as process;his concluding paragraph hints at a new notion, that of autonomy as a mental state or"inescapable sense of skeptical self-direction."

LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y —67*

Routine R e f l e c t i o n s

Critical Reader Response 2

Mary Lee Field

Teaching and learning diaries, like think aloud protocols and other records of mental processes,
are attempts to 'see inside' the closed box of the mind—to know how the mind works, how
we learn, how we conceptualize. Andy Barfield's chapter shows us how to peek into the box.
When students 'notice' their own processes of learning, they can become more independent,
autonomous learners. By monitoring the students' 'noticing,' teachers can gather data to
structure and guide the students' development.
In his discussion about the meanings of a student's diary entries, Andy not only avoids
culturally biased misinterpretation of data but also illustrates the Velcro-like nature of learningand 'noticing' learning. The student is both learning a meta-language and simultaneously usingthat language to provide metacognitive observations on her own mental process. She is being
asked to write about her own learning process, skills, goals, and development even though
she comes from a culture where self-criticism, not self-reflection, is the norm, and whereautonomous learning has never been an avowed goal of the education system. To some degree
she must experience interference from the norms of the Japanese education system, from her
own level of English proficiency, and from deeply embedded cultural assumptions about thenature of learning and the definition of self (Nisbett, 2003, p. 50). That she teases apart learningand 'noticing' learning at all is a testimony to the meticulous scaffolding that she has received
from Andy's planning and execution of this project.
The leap from traditional Japanese educational values to valuing autonomous learning issubstantial. As I read about the course structure, I wondered how much discussion of the valueof autonomous learning is included in the first few weeks of the course. Do students truly see
its value? The set phrases that appeared early in this student's diary about being shy, afraid ofmaking mistakes, learn actively, touching English, being poor at English
all of these arise
from Japanese pedagogical practices; Japanese teachers expect to hear them, and Japanese
students are expected to say them (Rohlen & LeTendre, 1998). The student who has neverbeen praised, never learned confidence, never wanted to be independent certainly lacks the"pre-requisites for effective reflection"that Andy lists in the chapter. How much are those prerequisites developed—indeed, how much can they be developed?—in the beginning weeks ofthe course?

As the question mark at the end of the title confirms, neither Andy's nor the student's
reflections are quite routine. Andy's reflections avoid rigidity. He recognizes the need for reinterpretation, for finding interpretations that fit, and for acknowledging that some issues arequite specific to the Anglo-American cultural values of causality, self-reflection (as opposed toself-criticism), and metacognitive awareness. The student's reflections are most certainly notroutine. She not only allows us to see 'inside the box' of her own learning processes, but also
lets us see her removing herself from the invisible box of embedded cultural constraints thatmake autonomous learning processes difficult.

Autonomy You

Ask<

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— LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y —