Learner and Teacher Autonomy in language education

1. Learner and Teacher Autonomy in language education KWOK Chee Ying Henry 10401474 LAM Yan Yin Felix 10401210 LAU Tik Sang Dickson 09401482 LEE Chi Leung Edmund 10401237 TAM Ming Sum Sammy 09401490

2. What is your goal as an English Teacher?

3. Autonomy Creating spaces

4. Constraints Time Class size Classroom Discipline Resources Family Student diversity Exams Oriented Culture Workload Scheme of Work Lack of Training EDB School Politics

5. Teacher Autonomy • Benson (2000) ‘right to freedom from control’ • Little (1995) ‘capacity to engage in • self-directed teaching’ • Smith (2000) ‘teachers’ autonomy aslearners’

6. Teacher Autonomy • Aoki (2000) ‘autonomous teachers’ • ‘the capacity, freedom, and responsibility tomake choices concerning one’s own teaching’

7. Learner Autonomy • Would it be great if students can learn by themselves? • Misconception: ‘learning without a teacher’ • Little (1991) ‘capacity for taking control of learning’

8. Teacher Autonomy Dimensions • Classroom-based approach to the development of learner autonomy (Sinclair 2000) • Prominence of learner autonomy as a goal • Promoting learner autonomy • Structuring and scaffolding reflective learning • Learning ‘pedagogy for autonomy’ • ‘student are to learn to take control and teacher may need to let go. • Reflection: When to let go, when to control?

9. Teacher Autonomy Dimensions

10. Linking together TECHNICAL PSYCHOLOICAL In order to promote learner autonomy, teachers may need to have: Teacher Training Pedagogy for foster autonomy Teacher Reflection Learning together with students as a student 1. Capacity for self-directed teaching 2. Freedom from control over their teaching 3. Capacity for self-directed teacher-learning Able toapply to their teaching Capacity to grant learners’ freedom in learning Teachers to be an autonomous learner POLITICAL Exam Oriented Culture Teacher Education (e.g. PGDE)

11. Constraints Time Class size Classroom Discipline Resources Family Student diversity Exams Oriented Culture Workload Scheme of Work Lack of Training EDB School Politics Linking together Teacher Autonomy Creating Spaces PSYCHOLOICAL TECHNICAL Attitudes, Skills, and Knowledge (ASK) Life-long Learning Learner Autonomy POLITICAL Motivated Better Language Learning

12. Language Teaching Autonomy in ELT?

13. Autonomy vs. Methods

14. Autonomy in Language Teaching • Grammar translation method • Assigned teaching materials • Little autonomy • Direct method • Find examples from every day vocabulary and sentences • Little autonomy • Audio-lingual method • Follow model dialogue and teach through repetition & drilling • Little autonomy

15. Autonomy in Language Teaching • Communicative Language Teaching • “It is unified but broadly based, theoretically well informed set of tenets about the nature of language learning and teaching.” (Brown H.D. 2001) • Design learning activities and tasks involving real-life communication • Autonomy

16. Autonomy in Language Teaching • Task based learning • Skehan’s (1998) concept of TBL • Meaning is primary • Communication problem to solve • Relationship to comparable real-world activities • Task completion • Assessment of the task in terms of outcome • Select authentic materials • Autonomy

17. Summary (Autonomy vs. Methods)

18. Sharing

19. Henry • After school enhancement classes (S3 & S6) • Drilling on TSA/ HKCEE / HKALE / HKDSE past paper • No autonomy • After school enhancement classes (S1, S2, S4, S5) • Less Drilling on past paper • Flexible group activities & games • Autonomy

20. Australian Primary School NET • Syllabus and teaching materials from EDB • (Primary Literacy Reading Program – PLP-R) • (Primary Literacy Reading/Writing Program – PLP-R/W) • Autonomy in group activities & games with P1 & P2 • touch the words • tailor-made chess board • baseball score card • CVC (Consonants Vowels Consonants ) word game • singing the “left & right” songs, letter songs, etc.

21. Felix • Teacher • Time limitation • Syllabus, lesson time, assessments, etc. • Belief • If you believe, you will • Encourage reflection • Students • Meaning • “What” to express before “how” • Motivation • Need • Cultural: teacher’s responsibility (Sakai, Takagi and Chu 2010)

22. Dickson • Scheme of work • Form coordinators deliver the scheme of work to form teachers. • Have to finish teaching the units and specific items within the assigned periods. • Teachers • Design worksheets, hangouts and any other teaching materials other than the textbooks in order to fit the needs of their own classes • Always encourage and reinforce students that they are capable and smart enough to learn more • Assign more challenging tasks and teach more advanced level items

23. Dickson • Students • believe they are capable so they are willing to accept extra tasks. • develop a habit that reading Young Post and write down new vocabulary items on their ‘Learning Log’ every day. • submit news summary and reflections which are not assigned by the teacher. • apply those new items in their writing and speaking tasks.

24. Edmund • Teacher • Creating spaces out of constraints • Teach Junior High if possible • Try to pick the essentials to teach from the Scheme of Work • Spare as much free time to discuss the weekly news • Learner autonomy – true believer of self-directed learning • Students • Weekly reading and writing as a habit • Reading (Authentic Materials – One news article weekly) • Writing (News report - encourage students’ reflection) • Insist on marking with feedbacks on their weekly writings • Exam-oriented culture as the external driver

26. Sammy • Background of the school • A Band 3 secondary school • A connection between the local school and the American Lutheran Church. • Department of International Interface • American volunteers visit the campus by promoting Christianity and English learning through playing games, singing songs, visiting local families, participating in the lessons, etc.

27. Sammy • Teacher autonomy promotes learner autonomy through: • Support by the Principal • Participating several activities with the volunteers from the US (sightseeing, dining, worshipping, etc.) • Communication > learning English for exam

28. Sammy • Teacher Autonomy • Constraint (Senior secondary school) • Society: Expect HKDSE takers have certain proficiency level • Parents: Expect the school has more drilling and practice • Curriculum: Senior form ( preparing for the HKDSE) • Time constraint : Remedial classes for different subjects • Feasible • Junior form • Language arts • Appreciation and enjoyment of the language • American studies lesson (culture, living style, activities) • Facebook connection with the US volunteers

29. Sammy • Evaluation • Not everyone in the school has the opportunity to participate • Able to create the space to enhance both teacher and student autonomy in junior level. • Enhancing the autonomy in their early age would strength the possibility of the development of whole-life learning

30. Discussion How can you create more spaces for yourself?

31. References

32. References • Benson (2010). Teacher education and teacher autonomy: Creating spaces for experimentation in secondary school English Language teaching. Language Teaching Research, 14(3), 259-275. • Benson & Huang (2008). Autonomy in the transition from foreign language learning to foreign language teaching. DELTA: Revista de Documentacao de Estudos em Linguistica Teorica e Aplicada, 421-439. • Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (2nd Edition). New York: Addison Wesley Longman • Sakai, S., Takagi, A., Chu, M.P. (2010), Promoting Learner Autonomy: Student Perceptions of Responsibilities in a Language Classroom in East Asia. Educational Perspectives v43 • Skehan, P. (1998). A cognitive approach to language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. • Smith R.C. (2003). Teacher education for teacher-learner autonomy. Centre for English Language Teacher Education (CELTE). University of Warwick. UK.

33. The End ~~~Thank you~~~