How autonomous are our students?

Risultati di una ricerca italiana

Marcella MenegaleCa’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy

Venice 9 September 2011

Defining Language Learner Autonomy

Capacity to take charge of one's own learning, choosing to do it consciously and responsibly.

It is the result of a personal mixture of different aspects connected to language learning: attitude, motivation, experience, context.

This capacity must be acquired gradually in interdependence between the learner and any external language input.

Learner beliefs:

perceptions of the role of the teacher/their own role

self-confidence and self-efficacy

willingness to take charge of one’s learning

attributional factors

Concerns in measuring LLA: -multidimensional construct (Benson 2001;

Little 1991; Nunan 1997; )-psychological aspect (Breen & Mann 1997)-no explicit preparation

Need for LLA assessment:If autonomy is not explicitly included in the curriculum, the majority of students will not see its importance (Boud 2002; O’Leary 2007)

Self-directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) - Guglielmino (1977)Self-direction in Second Language Learning Measurement Scale (SSLLMS) – Lai (2001)Self Regulated Questionnaire (SRQ) - Brown et al. (1999)Components of Self-Regulated Learning (CSRL) - Niemivirta (1998 in Torrano Montalvo, Gonzales Torres 2004:14)Questionnaire by Cotterall (1995; 1999), by Spratt et al. (2002), by Zhang & Li (2004 in Dafei 2007:9) , by Zhoulin (2007)

ISSUE: measuring LLA

Test reliability

Factor analysis (principal factor analysis; scree plot; communalities)

Internal consistence reliability: Cronbach Coeff. .78

RESULTS

There is no significant difference in autonomy level

between students of different ages

χ² = 3,702, Sig. > ,05, gdf = 2

Students are shown to be rather resistant

to language learner autonomy

Positive outcomes

They acknowledge that their effort in learning is important to achieve successful results

Willingness to find out what their learning style is to monitor what they study and learn to assess their learning

Negative outcomes

Low level of self-confidence and self-efficacy

Students think it is up to their teacher to take decisions on their learning (closure in traditional roles)

They are not aware of the use they make of the FL outside school

Some other findings...

Teachers’ actions to promote language learner autonomy versus students’ perceptions

Why don‘t learners learn what teachers teach? (Allwright 1984)

Teacher expectation of their students’s ability to be autonomous is even less than students’s belief

Some students’ comments:_____________________________________________________________________________________________

“In studying my second foreign language I found fewer difficulties than in studyng the first. That could probably be because I already had an overview of the language learning method…I did not use any strategy, instead I tried to keep distance among languages so to learn them separately” (Secondary school, 5° Class, Liceo Linguistico)

“When I start to study my second foreign language , I remember finding greater problems because it is much more complex and articulated (as to grammar, structure and lexis), and I also used different learning methods because teachers required different ways of teaching” (Secondary school, 3° Class)

“I adopted different ways of learning for each foreign language I have studied, as teachers require us to do that.” (Secondary school, 1° Class)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

“I think it is useful that method of doing things that please and interest you, using the foreign language (TV programmes you like, journals, …) so to get a double advantage: to widely exercise your listening (you deal with topic you are interesting in) and to do it in a more productive way (because curiosity stimulates and speeds learning)” (Secondary school, 5° Class, Liceo Linguistico)

Concluding considerations:

Urge for crossdisciplinary language learning

Need for teacher autonomy

Research on out-of-school learning

Things can change...

Thank you for your attention

menegale@unive.it