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IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
Tools to develop language learner autonomy
David Little
Trinity College Dublin
Ireland
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
Overview• What autonomous learners can do in their target
language after four years of learning: two examples• Learning tools and learning focus in the autonomy
classroom• Speaking and thinking in L2: a Vygotskian perspective• A concluding theoretical view of language learner
autonomy
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
What autonomous learners can do in their target language after four years
of learning: two examples
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
Where do the examples come from?• Leni Dam’s classroom• Learners at the end of their fourth year of learning
English: Grade 8 / 15 years old• The question: “After four years of learning English, how
would you assess your overall progress?”• The task: to write a short self-evaluation• The immediate nature of the task:
– Learners must reflect briefly on the question and then write their response in their logbooks
– They have no time for elaborate preparation, use of dictionaries, etc.
– They must activate the same psycholinguistic mechanisms as underlie fluent speech
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
Example 1Most important is probably the way we have worked. That we were expected to and given the chance to decide ourselves what to do. That we worked independently … And we have learned much more because we have worked with different things. In this way we could help each other because some of us had learned something and others had learned something else. It doesn’t mean that we haven’t had a teacher to help us. Because we have, and she has helped us. But the day she didn’t have the time, we could manage on our own.
• Impressive combination of fluency and competence• Relation between proficiency in English and awareness of the learning
process: “the way we have worked”; “the chance to decide ourselves”; “we worked independently”; “we have worked with different things”
• Learner self-direction and control benefits the individual learner but also the class as a whole: “in this way we could help each other”
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
Example 2I already make use of the fixed procedures from our diaries when trying to get something done at home. Then I make a list of what to do or remember the following day. That makes things much easier. I have also via English learned to start a conversation with a stranger and ask good questions. And I think that our “together” session has helped me to become better at listening to other people and to be interested in them. I feel that I have learned to believe in myself and to be independent.
• Again a combination of fluency and competence• The capacity of the autonomy classroom to
− create continuities between learning at school and life outside the classroom: “I already make use of the fixed procedures from our diaries when trying to get something done at home”
− have an impact on general attitudes and behaviour: “I think that our ‘together’ session has helped me to become better at listening to other people and to be interested in them”
− develop learners’ confidence and self-esteem: “I have learned to believe in myself and to be independent”
The target language as
medium of communication
and instrument of reflection
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
Learning tools and learning focus in the autonomy classroom
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
Tools
Learner logbooks − record of learning•Content of lessons•Words etc. to be memorized•Plans for homework•Evaluation of own progress•Especially in the early stages, the texts they compose•As far as possible in TL
Posters − stimulate, guide and record learning of class•Words and phrases•Ideas for learning activities and homework•Results of brainstorming (teacher translates from L1)
In due course learners make their own posters
Learner-created learning materials •Word cards •Dominoes •Picture lotto •Board games
Learner-generated texts •About myself •Picture + text •Plays, stories, poems•Projects
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
A dual focus
Intentional learningActivities that are•Analytic•Focus on language and linguistic formCan be very simple•Beginners’ word cardsor complex & sophisticated•Hanne Thomsen’s vocabulary learning project (Thomsen 2003)
Creative text production
Activities that•gradually become more complex and ambitious from a very simple start•usually involve working in pairs or small groups•give language learning a “here and how” purpose
Three points to note:•Because everything is communicated in the TL, the boundaries between intentional learning and creative text production are fuzzy•Traditional distinctions between listening/speaking and reading/writing are difficult to maintain•The dynamic of the classroom depends on writing in order to speak and speaking in order to write
Logbooks, posters,
intentional learning activitie
s
and creative text production
are all second-order to
ols
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
Speaking and thinking in L2: a Vygotskian perspective
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
Vygotsky’s view of the relation between speech and thought
Speech ThoughtVerbalthinking
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
Four kinds of speech (Vygotsky 1987)
Written•Designed for others•No interlocutor•No paralinguistic cues•Fully explicit and expanded
External•Social function•Dialogic form•Abbreviation possible: shared knowledge and assumptions
Egocentric•Developmental bridge between external and inner speech•Evolving form
Inner•Largely implicit and fragmentary•Social interaction with oneself as the basis of human consciousness
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
Four kinds of speech (Vygotsky 1987)
The developmental process
External speech
Egocentric speech
Inner speech
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
Four kinds of speech (Vygotsky 1987)
The relation between external and inner speech is complex and dynamic:•External speech: “a process of transforming thought into word” (Vygotsky 1987: 257)•Inner speech: “a process that involves the evaporation of speech in thought” (ibid.: 257)•“Where external speech involves the embodiment of thought in the word, in inner speech the word dies away and gives birth to thought” (ibid.: 280)
Miller (2011: 195) on the transient function of egocentric speech: •“… as children develop into adults they discard their external auxiliary crutches and replace them with internal mental representations”•they become “fully autonomous agents with motives ‘that give birth to thought’ ”
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
In the autonomy classroom• All activity is mediated, embedded and realized in “external speech” • “External speech” is captured in writing (logbooks, posters)• Creative activities entail the production of “written speech” (About
myself, Picture + text, plays, stories, poems, etc.)• Constant engagement with the target language − communicating
but also reflecting − generates a capacity for inner speech (thinking on the basis of the target language)
• The capacity for inner speech in the target language explains learners’ ability to produce discursive text spontaneously and fluently
• As learning progresses, learners are able to abandon some of their second-order tools (word cards, lotto, picture dominoes) as they become increasingly autonomous agents in the target language
The target language its
elf is
the first-order to
ol of learning
in the autonomy classroom
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
Conclusion
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
A theoretical summary• Learners already know, at least implicitly, what it is to behave
autonomously: they are agents of their own lives outside school
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
The joys of family life
“To parents, even babies seem to have a will of their own; they are hardly passive creatures to be easily moulded by the actions of others. From their earliest years, boys and girls make their active presence, their wilful agency, their demands and protests, very vividly felt. In every household that has children, negotiations must be made with young family members: their personal agendas have somehow to be accommodated” (Salmon 1998: 24)
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
A theoretical summary• Learners already know, at least implicitly, what it is to behave
autonomously: they are agents of their own lives outside school
• Our task is to help our learners extend their existing capacity for autonomous behaviour to the business of learning/using and using/learning the target language
• This entails helping them to make their autonomy explicit − Giving them co-responsibility for planning, monitoring and evaluating− Ensuring that all learning activity embedded in reflection metalinguistic talk in
the target language
• Our first-order tool: spontaneous and authentic target language use from the first the target language is a channel of learners’ agency
• Our second-order tools (which mediate the first-order tool): logbooks, posters, learner-created learning materials, learner-generated texts
IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 9 September 2011
Developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning
ReferencesMiller, R., 2011: Vygotsky in Perspective. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Thomsen, H., 2003: Scaffolding target language use. In D. Little, J. Ridley and E. Ushioda (eds), Learner Autonomy in the Foreign Language Classroom: Teacher, Learner, Curriculum and Assessment, pp.29–46. Dublin: Authentik.
Vygotsky, L. S., 1987: Thinking and Speech. In R. W. Rieber and A. S. Carton, The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky. Volume 1: Problems of General Psychology. New York and London: Plenum.
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