Very little was found in the literature on the question of young language learner autonomy. The second research question in this study sought to provide an overview of sixth graders autonomous behaviors in an MAER program. The related autonomous behaviors in the MAER program is presented in Figure 5.2.
Figure 5-2 Students’ autonomous behaviors in MAER program
The relation of the readiness or the initial autonomy with learner autonomy development in the ER program will first be discussed, and followed by the implications of some observable autonomous behaviors in terms of book selecting, goal setting, and strategies.
5.2.1 Readiness and Learner Autonomy Development
In reviewing the literature, Cotterall (1995) argued that learners’ sets of beliefs may influence the readiness for learner autonomy. The six factors from her questionnaire include role of the teacher, role of feedback, learner independence, learner confidence in study ability, experience of language learning, and approach to studying. Since the questionnaire was distributed to adult ESL learners, differences may found between her study and the present study. In the present study, the students’ readiness consists of the following themes: passion, boredom, teacher’s job, and not my thing. Compared with the six factors from Cotterall (1995), it seems that “learner independence,” “role of the teacher,” and “learner confidence in study ability” are related to the themes found in
In Cotterall (1995), the factor “learner independence” includes learners’ clear idea of the reason they learn English. In this study, the students said when they are passionate about something, they will learn them autonomously. For example, one student was passionate about a pop singer in USA. Her goal of learning English is thus very clear, that is, she wanted to understand the meaning of the lyrics and be able to sing the songs. It was assumed that if she brought with her the initial motivation of learning English and started the MAER program, she would be more autonomous in reading books compared to others. However, she was not especially diligent in reading Raz-Kids. This inconsistency may be due to the learning materials, content and method, since the students expressed their passions are in certain topics and certain approaches.
At this stage, they did not consider ER a way to help them achieve their goal, and they rely mainly on their preference on learning objects.
From Cotterall’s (1995) analysis, the students’ perception of the role of the teacher affects their behaviors in their learning. When students think that it is the teacher’s responsibility in delivering the learning content and deciding what the students need to do for improvement, they might not be ready for autonomous learning.
Although there was only one student who replied that she considered it is the teacher’s job to teach, it might be other students’ voice as well since they said they were told or
“forced” to learn English. In traditional classrooms, students are used to the authoritative image of a teacher. Hence, it is important to provide students with learner training in order to introduce the concept of autonomous learning and provide them with tools to foster learner autonomy (Wenden, 1985). The current study noticed the importance of learner training and designed lessons to promote and raise students’
awareness. The result, however, may not be completely successful.
In terms of learner’s confidence in study ability, learners’ belief in the influence they have on their own learning and their prior learning experience have an impact on the confidence in learning a language (Cotterall, 1995). One student in this study mentioned studying is a barrier to overcome for him. He had not break the barrier so it was impossible for him to be autonomous. This idea seems to be in line with the confidence in study ability.
The students in this study had different readiness levels. Some of them demonstrate higher possibility of autonomous learning such as those who were initially passionate about English and its culture. Some of them did not consider themselves as autonomous learners. As in Lu (2010), learners’ lack of readiness may lead to their negative opinions such as time-wasting or useless.
5.2.2 Young Language Learner Autonomous Characteristics
Prior study has suggested reasons for little research on young language learner autonomy, including the difficulty of cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies, and teacher’s role change from controller to facilitator (Wawrzyniak-Śliwska, 2005).
In the present study, the program design was inspired by Kim (2011). It includes three stages: (1) Awareness raising, (2) Learner training, and (3) Individual learning. Hence, the two problems mentioned by Wawrzyniak-Śliwska (2005) were solved by conducting the MAER program by the researcher herself and providing learner development lessons to enhance understanding of learning strategies. The research hopes to observe autonomous behaviors during the MAER program.
Breen and Mann (1997) proposed three phases of learner autonomy development: (1) Dependent or Counter dependent, (2) Independent or Individualistic, and (3) Interdependent. The students’ behaviors could be seen as in all of the three phases, although they are not sustainable as the students gradually stopped reading as
the graduation ceremony approached. The following paragraphs will describe what observable behaviors or characteristics the students showed in terms of book selection, goal setting, and learning strategies.
At the beginning of the program, the students depended on the researcher to assist them in setting goals and monitoring their process. In the learner development classes, they wrote down their weekly goal of book amount. After some time, it was found that most students did not remember the goals they set. Meanwhile, the researcher interfered to help the students reflect on their goal setting by filling out new reading journals.
During the process, some students were able to read on their own as they were independent enough to be responsible for their own learning. Observable positive behaviors for such include:
(1) selected books that are not too easy to read, but more challenging and suitable for their level (Gordon, Carmen)
(2) read in a chaotic and noisy environment (Wayne) (3) saw goal setting as a challenge (Emily)
(4) read more books (Tammy)
(5) looked up unknown words in the dictionary (Gordon) (6) asked for more capable others’ help (Linda, Carmen) (7) evaluated oneself with quizzes (Sandra)
However, there were also behaviors that hindered autonomous learning:
(1) selected books that are either too easy or too difficult (Tammy, Johnny, Gary) (2) randomly selected books (Wanda, Emily, Mandy)
(3) saw goal setting as useless (Johnny, Wanda, Mark) (4) gave up when facing difficulties (Johnny)
While some students already started to learn to be independent on their learning, some were dependent and still required the teacher or the researcher to pay attention to their reading. Some students did not care about the reading until I participated in their reading process. With moderate assistance and encouragement, along with the reading competition as an external incentive, some students demonstrated possible positive behaviors:
(1) self-correction (Johnny)
(2) finished reading journals (Gary)
(3) monitored oneself due to peer pressure (Gordon)
One particular pair of students were found to reach the third phase, interdependent phase, as they sat together reading and provided support for each other (Linda, Carmen).
The other example is one student sharing interesting findings with another student (Wayne, Mandy).
To sum up, this finding, while preliminary, suggests that sixth graders can possibly demonstrate autonomous learning behaviors. Although the behaviors may not be purely self-generated as the researcher mediated and supported the learning process, the results may help us understand what students at this age need in order to develop their learner autonomy.