Secondary school English learners on the road to autonomy
Abstract
The scope of this study is to investigate which attributes of autonomous learning can be fostered during the language teaching and learning process, in a specific context. To this end, a case study was designed and implemented in a state school in Western Mexico, featuring the participation of two teacher trainees and twelve secondary school learners, English language learners of ages 12 to 14 who attended a non-mandatory 40-hour course under the autonomous learning approach. Prior to this experience, pupils had customarily learned in teacher-centered environments. Teacher trainees kept a research journal through which they tracked the whole process and made it possible to both gain knowledge of autonomous learning and to examine the phenomenon in a real-life context. The journals were analyzed with the help of Atlas.ti software, and the researcher made inferences from the resulting data, including pupils’ reactions to the autonomous learning process. Data analysis shows how pupils’ behavior and response to the English course was, for the most part, passive at the outset, yet grew increasingly closer to autonomous learning, as the course progressed. To sum up, the data seems to shed light on two main issues: the importance of fostering an environment that encourages autonomous learning-related behavior, and the need to provide appropriate scaffolding strategies to help pupils move towards the development of autonomous learning. This study made it possible to understand that autonomy is a path to be trodden, rather than the natural state of a learner, in this particular educational context.
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