Transcript Yokohama JALT

Introducing Self-directed
Learning to College Students
Yokohama JALT
Sunday, December 11th, 2005
caution
• This is not an academic paper
• This is a story
• The story of my personal development as
a teacher
• I hope it may prompt you to think, and to
share your story, with me, with other
teachers, with your students
overview
1. Defining some terms
1. Autonomy
2. Learning
3. Teaching
2. History
3. Problems and difficulties
4. Q & A, comments, etc
First steps
• Whole class learning
– Drill (Michigan method)
– Some music/songs
• SAPL (self-access pair learning)
– Students work in pairs at their own pace
• LL class
– Wasted resources
– Menu
First steps (2)
• 4-corners
– Not everyone in the class wants to speak
– Those that DO, feel inhibited
– So…
– Video, audio (songs), writing, conversation
Intensive Reading
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2 classes (sophomores) combined
Teachers brought materials to the classroom
1st semester: orientation
2nd semester: self-directed study
Negotiated grades
Portfolio (records and self-assessments)
Quotas
Study plans
Guest speakers
Study Skills
• Materials “fair”
• Portfolios
– Concept
– In reality
Problems and difficulties
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Students slow to self-direct
Lack of engagement
Few students try different things
Inability to create their own study plan
Lack of self-reflection (not understanding the
rationale for this?)
Students not doing enough work
Students not showing up
Not identifying “at-risk” students until too late.
Lack of a sense of group, of class community
3-tiered system
• 1 possible reason for the aforementioned
problems is students’ lack of experience
with self-directed learning. The very
concept is alien. So…
• Introduce the idea earlier
– Basic English and Talking About Japan (1styear classes)
• Extend it further
– 3rd-year seminar (Dunham)
Future steps
• One-to-one interviews
– To give individual attention
– To get to know students better (learner
profiles)
– To better identify students’ interests, strengths
and weaknesses
– To assign/suggest individually tailored
activities
Conclusion
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Sheffner’s original hypothesis was that
giving students choices might raise
motivation
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Some students enjoy and benefit from the
choices; others remain confused and
unmotivated.
Conclusion (2)
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Next step: increase the variety and
quality of materials available for selfdirected learning, to reflect students’ own
interests and predilections.
– Again, this worked with some students, but
others remained unmotivated and
rudderless
Conclusion (3)
• Next step: increase the guidance and
instructions in strategies, in “ways and means”,
– how to use the materials in different ways for learning
English
– The different purposes (and skills) that might be
targeted
– Different learning techniques and approaches
– Thinking about their purposes
• Step 3 likewise seemed to have only limited
success
Conclusion (4)
• Step 4: borrowing from Smith (2003),
teachers spent more time walking around
the class, asking students about what they
were doing
– Why did you choose this material?
– How are you using it? Why?
– What is your purpose here?
– What do you think of this material?
Conclusion (5)
• Again, step 4 had no clear success
• However, the increased time spent talking
to students individually or in small groups
DID seem to have positive effects on an
affective level, particularly with lowmotivated students
• It also gave the instructors a better idea of
what students were actually doing in the
class.
Conclusion (6)
• It seems that, in my search for a way
to motivate students, I have peeled
back a layer of an onion each time,
and each layer has revealed a further
layer beyond: motivation has not
been greatly affected by any of the
steps yet taken:
Conclusion (7)
• offering choice,
• offering greater choice, “sexy” materials
(cartoons, videos, DVDs, songs, etc),
• Inviting guest speakers to motivate
students
• explicit instruction in learning strategies,
• Frequent questioning of students as to their
choices and goals
Conclusion (8)
• None of these steps, it seems to me, has
really triggered students’ ability to selfdirect: the majority are still dependent on
someone to tell them what to do. They
cannot:
• Define their own goals
• Select their own materials based on their goals
• Decide on how to use their materials based on
their goals
• Measure their progress
Conclusion (9)
• They mostly have not grabbed the
freedom that has been offered.
• Why not?
• Gatto suggests that young people are
in desperate need of finding meaning
in their lives, and that school is not
geared to provide that.
Conclusion (10)
• The next steps taken will therefore be:
• One-to-one interviews with all the students, starting at the
beginning of the year.
• A compilation made of students’ interests and needs
• Individualized assignments and/or suggestions will be made
• These assignments will take into account students’
requirements for personal growth as well as their English
language-learning requirements
• Mini-lectures will be given on specific topics in order to
broaden students’ horizons and stimulate interest
• Guest speakers will be continue to be invited. Speakers will
be chosen for their potential as mentors to students.
Quotes
• “Autonomy is the ability to self-direct one’s own
learning.” (Henri Holec)
• “How do you control the students?” (an observer of one
of our Study Skills classes)
• “Discovering meaning for yourself as well as
discovering satisfying purpose for yourself is a big part
of what education is.” (Dumbing Us Down, by Gatto, JT)
• “For one hundred and fifty years institutional education
has seen fit to offer as its main purpose the preparation
for economic success.” (Dumbing Us Down, by Gatto,
JT)
• “We’ve got to give kids independent time right away
because that is the key to self-knowledge.” (Dumbing Us
Down, by Gatto, JT)
Quotes (2)
• “Self-knowledge is the only basis of true
knowledge.” (Dumbing Us Down, by Gatto,
JT)
• “Only after a long apprenticeship in rich
and profound contact with the world, the
home, the neighborhood, does the thin
gas of abstraction mean much to most
people.” (A Different Kind of Teacher,
Gatto, JT)
Bibliography
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Cotterall, S. & Crabbe, D. (eds.) (1999), “Learner Autonomy in Language Learning: Defining the Field and
Effecting Change”. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang GmbH.
Benson, P, (2001) “Teaching and Researching Autonomy in Language Learning”. Harlow, UK: Longman
Benson, P & Toogood, S. (eds)(2002), “Autonomy: Challenges to Research and Practice”. Dublin, Ireland:
Authentik
Benson, P. & Voller, P. (eds) (1997), “Autonomy & Independence in Language Learning”. Harlow, UK:
Longman.
Dickinson, L, (1987, 1991), “Self-instruction in Language Learning”. Cambridge, UK: CUP
Ellis, G. & Sinclair, B. (1989), “Learning to Learn English”, Cambridge, UK: CUP
Gardner, D & Miller, L (eds) (1999), “Establishing Self-Access”. Cambridge, UK: CUP
Gatto, JT (2000), “The Underground History of American Education”. , NY, NY: The Odysseus Group. Also at
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/index.htm
Gore, J, (2002) “Learner Autonomy in the ESL/EFL Classroom: an Applied Project in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree Master of Teaching English as a Second Language”, Arizona State
University. Retrieved from http://www.asu.edu/clas/english/linguistics/gore-AP.doc on 29th September, 2004.
Hawkins, E. (1984) “Awareness of Language: An Introduction”. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Holliday, A. (1994) “Appropriate Methodology and Social Context”. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press.
Holec, H. (1981), “Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning”. Oxford, UK: Pergamon Press.
Holec, H. (1993), “Autonomy and self-directed learning: present fields of application”. Strasbourg, France:
Council of Europe Press.
Bibliograph (2)
• Little, D. (1997), “Autonomy and self-access in second language learning:
Some fundamental issues in theory and practice”. In Muller-Verweyen,
M. (ed.) New development in foreign language learning: selfmanagement
–
autonomy.
Standpunkte
zur
Sprachund
Kulturvermittlung 7: 33-44. Munich: Goethe Institute.
• Norton, B & Toohey, K (eds) (2004), “Critical Pedagogies & Language
Learning”. Cambridge, UK: CUP
• Pemberton, Li, Or, & Pierson (1996), “Taking Control”. Hong Kong: Hong
Kong University Press
• Smith, R. & Palfreyman, D. (2003), “Learner Autonomy Across Cultures:
Language Education Perspectives”. UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Smith, R. & Aoki, N. (1999), “Learner Autonomy in cultural context: the
case of Japan”. In Cotterall, S. & Crabbe, D. (eds.) Learner Autonomy in
Language Learning:: Defining the Field and Effecting Change;
Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang GmbH; pp.19-28.