Why do you think students find it so difficult to become autonomous?
We have been discussing for over a week, people from different countries and experiences, but there seems to come a point where we look around for reasons why we don´t manage to implement it to our satisfaction.
We have explored learner autonomy and different cultures, we have explored whether management can interfere with the process, etc. But I keep having the feeling that it is something inside us as teachers that has to change before we manege to generate really Autonomous Learners.
What do you think?
Hi Maria and Shaun,
I consider this problem to be of great importance. It's not easy to teach students to speak foreign language but it's more difficult to teach them to be autonomous. "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" is a common enough saying in this world. It also holds true for teaching. We need to teach our students how to be responsible for their own learning. One way of doing this is teaching them proper ways to study. Our task is to show them all possible ways and let them choose their beat one. The best way to make them work on their own is to relate the learning to their lives. No one is going to want to learn anything if they don't see how it impacts them.
Best regards, Elena, Ukraine
Hello all,
From my experience in Portugal, students lack autonomy due to a whole culture of apathy. It takes a while to get students to understand that there is a world of knowledge at their fingertips and that we, as teachers, can only give them a 'taste' of some things. Guidance and motivation is of the essence but for this to be effective, teachers also need to be motivated and see how they too can benefit from students' development. Fear holds many teachers back... 'maybe I won't know how to answer if they know too much...'. I think our roles as teachers are changing and the more we realise this and use students' own experiences to the teaching/ learning process's advantage, the more autonomous students might become. Obviously, these are just my perspectives, but I'm sure many of you out there will have much more to add.
See you at the talks tomorrow.
Jane
Hi Maria,
Thank you for starting this thread, what do you think need to be changed? I feel that teachers need to 'teach' students how to be autonomous, learner training is important to show learners how to take responsibility for their own learning. In my training experience, teachers seem often overlook this aspect, especially with adult language learners. With the growth of web 2.0 it is easier than ever for learners to achieve autonomy but it does need us to point them in the right direction.
What do others think?
Shaun