Helping Students Cultivate and Develop Autonomous Learning

Dialogues and role-play: I try to involve my students in a situation which comes as close as possible to being a “real” one. So involvement is the key to the success of role-play. The whole students are divided into groups and pairs so that every student can seize their opportunity to speak. This is a very effective and practical way to develop students’ speaking ability.

Do not always insist on accuracy in language use: focus on what students are saying. To them, the message-the content-of their language is more important than the form.

To get students to make their mistakes work for them: let students catch and correct each other’s errors; do not always give them the correct form, encourage students to make lists of their common errors and work on them on their own.

To develop autonomy in reading—readings on the topic chosen: try to encourage students to read widely on their own, using school or public libraries as available. Encourage students to read newspapers, books, listen or watch broadcasts, or get information from the Internet. At the beginning of the term, I asked my students for 15 topics they are interested in. The whole students in class formed 10 groups, 5-6 members in each, and chose a topic for their own group. Throughout the reading, the students decided their work partner, the topic, materials, presentation, audience involvement, etc. Right after the presentation, the group first did self-assessment; then the classmates evaluated their work; last, I—the teacher gave comments and a score for the whole group.

    At the end of this term, I found the students become more interested in English. They were more active in class. They’d like to raise questions both in and after class. I felt glad to cope with them. Through the group work, the members co-operated, influenced and stimulated each other. There was more interaction among members because they assumed different roles and shared responsibilities. There was also a team spirit since they all worked toward the same goal.

    Students used libraries, books and the Internet for the required materials. They tried every means to get the knowledge themselves instead of waiting for it. In addition, they analyzed the information and selected what material best fitted their presentations.

   The presentations proceed naturally in class because the class doesn’t share the information one particular group has collected. Their in-class presentation task can fill in an information gap so that the class benefit from one group’s work.

    In conclusion, I can say that the learner-centered approach is generally accepted by EFL teachers. Teachers are no longer in their dominate position as lecturer in class while learners are not passive receivers any more. Teachers must play different roles in class as guides, facilitators, organizers and anticipators. The teachers’ job is more challenging in helping students grow up as creative and independent learners for life. Teachers should design and organize various activities to prepare students for more independence and responsibility. There’s an old Chinese saying: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a life time.” Learner autonomy, as a lifelong mode of learning, can play an important role in ensuring that academic development continues well beyond the classroom. So, we should push the idea forward as far as we can go now.

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