Running head: AUTONOMOUS LEARNING
Autonomous Autonomous Learning Natalie Castillo Z Institución Universitaria Colombo Americana
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Abstract
In this paper I am going to write about the importance of promoting autonomous learning, what is it about and how it can be developed by learners in order to improve their learning process. Issues such as responsibility, responsibility, reflection, reflection, learning styles, learning learning strategies become crucial crucia l to change an attitude towards learning. Learning takes place n not ot only in the classroom but transcends other other environments from from which the learner learner takes advantage of. These spaces can take place in the library, librar y, resource resourc e center, and classroom. It can also take place working independently independently or following following the advice of of a counselor. counselor. means it occurs little by little.
Being autonomous autonomous takes time, which
It is important to consider that learners become part of a
culture, part of a nation and that political and sociological aspects play a role in this change of behavior. Keywords: Autonomous Autonomous learning, responsibility, learning styles, learning strategies.
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Autonomous Learning
Autonomous learning is an approach that is becoming stronger in education, because it helps the student to become independent and responsible for his own learning process such as learning styles, learning strategies strategies it is important to mention that the learners are not alone in this process they have the guide of a counselor who is offering support when they needed. In this approach learners establish their own objectives, take action working with meaningful assignments and see if they have found the appropriate way or if they need to change his action plan until he finds the way he is looking for to make this learning process feasible. This type of learning has become popular because students have their own projects, and can work the time they want. Autonomy and its Definition According to Little (1990), learners become responsible when they are ready to ta ke their own decisions, take part of of their own learning process process by being critical. With respect to what Sinclair declares that (2001) autonomy takes place when learners establish their own objectives, select methods and techniques that work; r egulate and monitor their own process and is able to evaluate what he has acquired. Holec Holec (1981) states that autonomy is not innate, learners acquire it by means of a training in ³ how to learn to learn³ learn ³ ; in other words learners learn by interacting culturally and socially. For example if lear ners are acquiring a language, they apply some techniques offered by experts; also they use their learning styles. On the other hand, Benson (1996) states that teachers a nd institutions should enhance autonomy by providing techniques that pr omotes this learning process.
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Autonomy and its Principles
Sinclair (1997) established the principles keys to define autonomy:
1. Autonomy is a concept of capacity. The learner must make decisions about his learning. 2. Learners take responsibilities for their own learning. 3. Complete autonomy is his principal goal. The objective is to make students take more responsibility, responsibility, not to t o take it all. 4. There are degrees of autonomy. The development for autonomy depends on different factors that can be affective, physiological, psychological or environmental. 5. These degrees are variable. 6. Autonomy is not simply a matter of placing learners in situations where they have to be independent. independent. This is developed whit psychological and methodological preparation. 7. Developing autonomy requires conscious of the learning process, Students need to know and use metacognitive strategies to reflect on their learning. Those strategies help to set goals, to self-assess progress, to evaluate learning activities and to use learning resources. 8. Promoting autonomy is not only teaching strategies. Teaching students learning strategies and how to use them is a key part in the development of autonomy but it is not the only aspect that is to be considered. 9. Autonomy Autonomy can take place both inside and outside the classroom. classroom. Students have to consider the possibility of studying at home with their computers and books and also to do extra courses online. 10. Autonomy contributes to the construction of community, not only academic, but also to the construction of country as a community. Sinclair (1990) Says ³Autonomy is less about µpersonal empowerment¶ than about contributing to society¶s economic health by developing the ability to adapt and keep up with the increasing pace of change and competition faced by that society´. 11. Autonomy is interpreted differently by different cultures. The teachers and learners vary from culture to culture.
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Styles, Strategies
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and Learner Autonomy
It should be reiterated that autonomy is not an article of faith, a product ready made for use or merely a personal quality or trait. trait. Autonomy Autonomy in learning can be better understood understood as relate related d with the concepts of learning strategies and learning strategies. Learning
strategies: Are mental steps or operations that learners use to learn a new language
and to regulate their efforts to do so. To greater or lesser degree, the strategies and learning styles that someone adopts may partly reflect personal preference rather than innate endowment endowment Skehan (P., 1998) 1998) . A strategy strategy can be taught taught overtly or or covertly. They are more procedural -related to direct experience experience than t han to knowledge knowledge about them. -Cognitive strategies: strategies: Operate directly on incoming information, manipulating it in ways that enhance learning (Cha mot, 1990). Learning may use any of all the following according to (Cook 1993:114-115):
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R epetition, epetition, when imitating others¶ speech;
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esources e.g., dictionaries and other materials R esources
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Translation ( using their mother tongue as basis for understanding and/or producing the target language;
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Note-taking; Note-ta king; deduction or conscious application of L2 rules;
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Contextualization, when embedding a word or phrase in a meaningful mea ningful sequence;
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Transfer -using knowledge acquired in L1 to remember to understand facts and sequences in L2;
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Inference, when matching an unfamiliar word against valuable information ( a new word etc);
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Question for clarification, when asking the teacher to explain, etc.
- M etacognitive etacognitive strategies: are skills used for planning, monitoring and evaluating their learning activity; they are strategies about learning rather than learning strategies themselves. Some of these strategi es are (Cook, 1993:114-115):
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Directed attention, when deciding in advance to concentrate on general aspects of a task
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Selective attention, paying attention to specific a spects of a task;
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Self-monitoring, checking one¶s performance as one speaks;
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Self-evaluation, appraising one¶s one¶s performance in relation r elation to one¶s on standards
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Self-reinforcement, rewarding oneself for success.
In this metacognitive process learners evaluate a nd assess themselves in terms of the outcome of their attempt to use certain strategies, strat egies, examining and judging their own performance.
Learning
styles. styles. In addition to the strategies, in autonomous autonomous learning, learning styles styles play an
important role. They refer to the particular way in which which a learner tries to acquire acquire something. (R ichard, ichar d, 1996) proposes for language learning, learni ng, four cognitive styles that correspond to four different types of students: auditory, visual, tactile, kinesthetic, and affective (which includes: introvert, extrovert, intuitive, thoughtful, emotional, judge, perceptual, rightist, leftist etc). Shows the relationship between strategies, styles and multiple intelligences. intelligences.
Learner autonomy is not easy to achieve, a chieve, and for that r eason alone it poses a very great challenge chall enge to educators. It is through autonomy that our learners may better better fulfill the communicative aims of their their foreign language curricula. curricula. Professors and teachers need to plan curricula and classes keeping in mind the potentialities of the learner and by stressing guidance guidanc e in the process proces s and somehow give less emphasis to content. To do the above educators must always pursue an inquiry into who their learners are, how they learn, and what they expect from learning.
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Learners learn best under under the umbrella of autonomy. The responsibility of learning is given back to the learner. The tasks can be better assessed assessed depending on the processes they promote and the outcomes expected. Teachers enrich their class with investigation they have the possibility to encourage their partners to think about the exercises done in the classroom. When they evaluate their process and the goals they have the introduction of new methodology and evaluation contributes to the lear ning in students and institutions.
Having in your mind new styles of learning, learners will have more advantages in the program of their course. It also helps you to identify this style, as a natural tendency for the ones who learn and orientate the teacher to use a lot of new techniques for their teaching that will improve all the tendencies for learning.
Autonomous learning can be described as the process in which the students learn using their own style, is the activity that students use as a complement for his learning process. This is possible when the teacher guides his student, using his knowledge as a condition for the process of learning.
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Bibliography
Benson.
(1996). Concepts of autonomy in language l anguage learning. In R. Pemberton. Hong KongUniversity
Press. Chamot, O. M. (1990). Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition. . Cambridge. Holec. (1981). Autonomy (1981). Autonomy and foreign language learning.Pergamon. Little. (1990). Autonomy (1990). Autonomy in language learning. England: CILT, Blackhorn Press. P, S. (19998). A (19998). A cognitive Approach to Language Learning . Oxford University Press. P., S. (1998). A (1998). A cognitive Approach to Language Learning. Oxford University Press. Richard. (1996). Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. London: Longman. Sinclair. (1990). Learning to Learn English. Cambridge: CUP . Sinclair. (2001). Learner autonomy, teacher autonomy. Sinclair. (1997). Learner Autonomy: the Cross-cultural Question. In IATEFL Newsletter Newsletter ,, Issue 139. Pages 12-13. V, C. (1993). Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. University Press.
