Mike, Rui, Erfan, Stephenie

We are in agreement that teachers play a crucial role in helping learners to broaden their knowledge of the language and in encouraging learner autonomy. We also believe that teachers are responsible for raising learners' awareness of learning strategies.

In the examples provided by Dickinson, the teacher mainly takes the role of a facilitator or even a supplier by taking various learning strategies in order to help learners become more independent of their teacher.

As far as learner training is concerned, teachers take into account different factors that can have an influence on learners' language learning. Since the main aim of learner training is to encourage learner autonomy and language awareness, the teacher should take the role of a supplier rather than an instructor.

In our group, we find it difficult to stick with it largely because back in our countries, we are not allowed to use our own teaching materials and styles. Most of the time, it is compulsory to stick to the teachers' book and the syllabus document provided by the language school.

Learner autonomy learning circle week 2(Betul, Tira, Dona, Mike )

From the examples of Dickinson’s article, the teachers play crucial role in terms of raising learners’ awareness in language learning strategies and their needs and wants. Actually, learners have their own strategies when learning a language and the role of teacher is helping students to find out the most useful strategies of learning.


With regard to the similar experience of playing the role of promoting learner autonomy, our group members tried to raise the learners’ awareness of affective factors. She shared her personal learning experience of language learning and mentioned she was not a successful language learner when she was in junior high school. The purpose of sharing her previous learning experience is to introduce the factors which help or hinder language learning. Realizing that there is nothing impossible in terms of mastering a target language and the most important thing of learning is effort and believe. After that, she also introduced some learning strategies to her students. Another example from my group member, she imposed social strategy on promoting learner autonomy in her class. Asking students who gets higher marker of exams to share their learning strategies with class. Also, asking students to take note in terms of one listening task and ask them to share what strategies they use for taking note(e.g. mind map or write down key points). We agree that near peer role model and also social strategy might help learners to be more autonomous.


After discussion, we all agree that there are three key points in terms of learner training:

1. What to learn?
2. Why to learn?
3. How to learn?

In order to help learners become more autonomous, the above points should be considered by teachers before the class. However, it is still difficult if we want to apply learner training for the vast majority of the time in our context. For example, it is a tough test for language teachers to teach linguistic knowledge and promote learner autonomy at the same time, particularly given the restrictions on time.

Learner Autonomy

Abeer, Daniah, Jung-min, Randah, Sally
Secretary:Abeer

As a group we do agree that the teacher can play a very important role in helping students to be more autonomous. We can consider the teacher as the facilitator of the process of learning and the guider for the student in terms of helping them to find their own way in learning and choose what serves their interests and targets. In fact, it is recommended for the teacher to raise learners’ awareness of their learning techniques, for example, teachers can provide their students with a form of questionnaire, given to them at the early beginning of the course, which is designed to help them to be aware of their learning strategies and the effective factors in language learning. In addition, we as teachers can raise learners’ awareness of self-assessment and its techniques. There are other techniques any teacher can choose from in order to help the learner to be more autonomous. We believe that the teacher can be more creative in providing the students with what can make them more independent and self-reliant.

After the discussion with my colleagues about their teaching methodologies and to what extent their students are autonomous, we found that we all agree that the teachers are engaged in learner training and their job is to draw students’ attention on how to learn rather than on what to learn. However, when speaking about our countries: (Britain, Korea, Libya, Saudi Arabia), we have to mention that we still do not have the total freedom to choose or to design our own syllabus or text book, even though we still have the responsibility of teaching our students how to be autonomous and provide them with the alternatives from which they can make their own choices.