Learner and Teacher Autonomy in language education

KWOK Chee Ying Henry 10401474LAM Yan Yin Felix 10401210LAU Tik Sang Dickson 09401482LEE Chi Leung Edmund 10401237 TAM Ming Sum Sammy 09401490

What is your goal

as an English Teacher?

Autonomy

Creating spaces

Constraints

Time

Student diversity

Lack of Training

Family

ClassroomDiscipline

Workload

EDB

Resources

School Politics

ExamsOriented Culture Scheme of Work

Class size

Teacher Autonomy

•Benson (2000) ‘right to freedom from control’

•Little (1995) ‘capacity to engage in self-directed teaching’

•Smith (2000) ‘teachers’ autonomy as learners’

Teacher Autonomy

Aoki (2000) ‘autonomous teachers’

‘the capacity, freedom, and responsibility to make choices concerning one’s own teaching’

Learner Autonomy

Would it be great if students can learn by themselves?

Misconception: ‘learning without a teacher’

Little (1991) ‘capacity for taking control of learning’

Teacher Autonomy Dimensions Classroom-based approach to the

development of learner autonomy (Sinclair 2000) Prominence of learner autonomy as a goal Promoting learner autonomy Structuring and scaffolding reflective

learning Learning ‘pedagogy for autonomy’ ‘student are to learn to take control and

teacher may need to let go.Reflection: When to let go, when to control?

Teacher Autonomy DimensionsPSYCHOLOICAL TECHNICAL POLITICALa strong sense of personal responsibility (continuous reflection and analysis)

how pedagogical skills can be acquired

uniform staff development programs & classroom observations

Capacity for self-directed professional action

Capacity for self-directed professional development

Freedom from control by others over professional action or development

Linking together

1. Capacity for self-directed teaching

2.Freedom fromcontrol overtheir teaching

Capacity to grant learners’freedomin learning

Able to applyto theirteaching

3.Capacity for self-directed teacher-learning

Teachersto be anautonomouslearner

In order to promote learner autonomy, teachers may need to have:

TeacherTrainingPedagogyfor fosterautonomy

TeacherReflectionLearning togetherwith students as a student

Teacher Education (e.g. PGDE)

Exam OrientedCulture

PSYCHOLOICALTECHNICAL

POLITICAL

ConstraintsTime

Student diversity

Lack of Training

Family

ClassroomDiscipline

Workload

EDB

Resources

School Politics

ExamsOriented Culture Scheme of Work

Class size

Teacher Autonomy

Learner Autonomy

Better LanguageBetter LanguageLearningLearning

Motivated

Life-long Learning

Creating Spaces

Attitudes, Skills, and Knowledge (ASK)Attitudes, Skills, and Knowledge (ASK)

TECHNICALPSYCHOLOICAL

POLITICAL

Linking together

Language Teaching

Autonomy in ELT?

Autonomy vs. Methods

Methods

Grammar

Translation

Direct Method

Audio-

Lingual

CLT TBL

Materials

Design

Autonomy

Autonomy in Language Teaching Grammar translation method

Assigned teaching materials Little autonomy

Direct method Find examples from every day vocabulary and

sentences Little autonomy

Audio-lingual method Follow model dialogue and teach through

repetition & drilling Little autonomy

Autonomy in Language Teaching Communicative Language Teaching

“It is unified but broadly based, theoretically well informed set of tenets about the nature of language learning and teaching.” (Brown H.D. 2001)

Design learning activities and tasks involving real-life communication

Autonomy

Autonomy in Language Teaching Task based learning

Skehan’s (1998) concept of TBL Meaning is primary Communication problem to solve Relationship to comparable real-world activities Task completion Assessment of the task in terms of outcome

Select authentic materials Autonomy

Summary (Autonomy vs. Methods)

Methods

Grammar

Translation

Direct Method

Audio-

Lingual

CLT TBL

Materials

Design

Assigned & prepared in advance

Examples from every day

Repetition & drilling

Design learning activities

Authentic

Autonomy

Sharing

Henry

After school enhancement classes (S3 & S6) Drilling on TSA/ HKCEE / HKALE / HKDSE past

paper No autonomy

After school enhancement classes (S1, S2, S4, S5) Less Drilling on past paper Flexible group activities & games Autonomy

Australian Primary School NET Syllabus and teaching materials from EDB

(Primary Literacy Reading Program – PLP-R) (Primary Literacy Reading/Writing Program – PLP-

R/W)

Autonomy in group activities & games with

P1 & P2 touch the words tailor-made chess board baseball score card CVC (Consonants Vowels Consonants ) word

game singing the “left & right” songs, letter songs, etc.

Felix

Teacher Time limitation

Syllabus, lesson time, assessments, etc. Belief

If you believe, you will Encourage reflection

Students Meaning

“What” to express before “how” Motivation

Need Cultural: teacher’s responsibility (Sakai, Takagi and Chu

2010)

Dickson

Scheme of work Form coordinators deliver the scheme of work to

form teachers. Have to finish teaching the units and specific items

within the assigned periods.

Teachers Design worksheets, hangouts and any other

teaching materials other than the textbooks in order to fit the needs of their own classes

Always encourage and reinforce students that they are capable and smart enough to learn more

Assign more challenging tasks and teach more advanced level items

Dickson

Students believe they are capable so they are willing to

accept extra tasks. develop a habit that reading Young Post and write

down new vocabulary items on their ‘Learning Log’ every day.

submit news summary and reflections which are not assigned by the teacher.

apply those new items in their writing and speaking tasks.

Edmund

Teacher Creating spaces out of constraints

Teach Junior High if possible Try to pick the essentials to teach from the Scheme of

Work Spare as much free time to discuss the weekly news Learner autonomy – true believer of self-directed learning

Students Weekly reading and writing as a habit

Reading (Authentic Materials – One news article weekly) Writing (News report - encourage students’ reflection) Insist on marking with feedbacks on their weekly writings Exam-oriented culture as the external driver

Sammy

Background of the school A Band 3 secondary school A connection between the local school and the

American Lutheran Church. Department of International Interface American volunteers visit the campus by

promoting Christianity and English learning through playing games, singing songs, visiting local families, participating in the lessons, etc.

Sammy

Teacher autonomy promotes learner autonomy through:

Support by the Principal Participating several activities with the

volunteers from the US (sightseeing, dining, worshipping, etc.)

Communication > learning English for exam

Sammy

Teacher Autonomy

Constraint (Senior secondary school) Society: Expect HKDSE takers have certain proficiency

level Parents: Expect the school has more drilling and practice Curriculum: Senior form ( preparing for the HKDSE) Time constraint : Remedial classes for different subjects

Feasible Junior form Language arts Appreciation and enjoyment of the language American studies lesson (culture, living style, activities) Facebook connection with the US volunteers

Sammy

Evaluation Not everyone in the school has the opportunity

to participate Able to create the space to enhance both

teacher and student autonomy in junior level. Enhancing the autonomy in their early age

would strength the possibility of the development of whole-life learning

Discussion

How can you create more spaces for yourself?

References

References

Benson (2010). Teacher education and teacher autonomy: Creating spaces for experimentation in secondary school English Language teaching. Language Teaching Research, 14(3), 259-275.

Benson & Huang (2008). Autonomy in the transition from foreign language learning to foreign language teaching. DELTA: Revista de Documentacao de Estudos em Linguistica Teorica e Aplicada, 421-439.

Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (2nd Edition). New York: Addison Wesley Longman

Sakai, S., Takagi, A., Chu, M.P. (2010), Promoting Learner Autonomy: Student Perceptions of Responsibilities in a Language Classroom in East Asia. Educational Perspectives v43

Skehan, P. (1998). A cognitive approach to language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Smith R.C. (2003). Teacher education for teacher-learner autonomy. Centre for English Language Teacher Education (CELTE). University of Warwick. UK.

The EndThe End

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