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13Жамият ва инновациялар -Общество и инновации -Society and innovations
Journal home page: https://inscience.uz/index.php/socinov/index
The main peculiarities of autonomous learning in foreign language acquisition
M.Kh. GULYAMOVA1 Z.M. KADIROVA2
Uzbek State World Languages University
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Article history:
Received March 2021 Received in revised form 20 March 2021 Accepted 15 April 2021 Available online 20 May 2021
Keywords:
learning, autonomous, characteristics, research, concept, effectiveness, factor, process, teaching, background, theoretical, strategy, responsibility, method, learner, competence.
This article defines the role of autonomous learning in teaching foreign language acquisition. As it's known, that the learner autonomy aims at providing language learners with the ability to take on more responsibility for their own learning. The author of the article explains the terms of "learner autonomy" and "autonomous learning" by theoretical approach. Moreover, the main characteristics and classifications of the learner autonomy in language learning are discussed constantly.
2181-1415/© 2021 in Science LLC.
This is an open access article under the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license (https: //creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.ru)
Хорижий тилларни урганишда мустакил таьлимни асосий узига хос хусусиятлари
_ АННОТАЦИЯ_
Калит сузлар:
урганиш, автоном, характеристикалар, тадкик;от, жараён, самарадорлик, омил, укитиш, маълумот, назарий, стратегия, жавобгарлик, усул, тушунча, урганувчи,
Мазкур ма;олада чет тилларини эгаллашга ургатишда муста;ил таьлимни роли ёритиб берилган. Маълумки, урганувчининг автономияси тил урганувчиларга узларининг укишлари учун купро; маъсулиятни уз зиммаларига олиш кобилиятини таьминлашга каратилган. Ма;ола муаллифи "урганувчини мустакиллиги" ва "мустакил таълим" атамаларини назарий ёндашув билан тушунтиради. Бундан таш;ари, тилни урганишда укувчининг автономиясининг асосий хусусиятлари ва таснифлари мухщама килинади.
1 PhD, Uzbek State University of World Languages. Tashkent, Uzbekistan
2 magistr, Uzbek State University of World Languages. Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Жамият ва инновациялар - Общество и инновации - Society and innovations Special Issue - 4 (2021) / ISSN 2181-1415
Основные особенности автономного обучения иностранному
ответственность,
метод,
концепция,
учащийся,
компетентность.
Foreign language teaching is developing globally, as well as in our country. The effectiveness and efficiency of teaching the target language is demanded immensely. Therefore, teaching English language is an artistic talent for all pedagogues in the world and the demand for fast and creative techniques to utilize in the classroom increased tremendously in every society.
As it's known, learner autonomy and learner responsibility are the fundamental topics in foreign language acquisition. If the learners are not aware of their responsibilities or autonomous, they can never be successful in learning new things or they don't make any progress in learning. Being autonomous learner means doing or learning things for yourself, self-assess, self-monitoring or individual learning. Learner autonomy requires the learner's full involvement in planning, monitoring and evaluating his or her learning.
Some scholars, researchers worked on learner autonomy and autonomous learning in teaching foreign languages: such as Dam L. (1990), Little D. (1996), Littlewood W. (1999), Aoki N. (2002), Benson P. (2003), Benson P. (2006), Fisher D., Hafner C. & Young J. (2006), Oxford R. (2008), Balfikanli C. (2010), Borg S. & Al-Busaidi S. (2012), Feryok A. (2013), Shahsavari S. (2014).
First of all, we should identify "What is learner autonomy?", "What makes an autonomous learning?". We'll discuss the theoretical background of autonomous learning with different scholars' and researchers' ideas. Learner autonomy in language acquisition is interpreted in different ways such as "learner autonomy", "autonomous learning", 'learner independence', 'self-direction', 'independent learning' but all these items have been used to refer to similar concepts. The autonomy is rooted in the European continent. On the contrary, there are researchers claiming that the very idea of autonomy has deep historical roots in Eastern philosophies. Pierson (1996: 49-58) has shown that ideas of autonomy and self-education have roots in Chinese thought dating back to the Sung Dynasty. Riley (1988: 12-34) was one of the first researchers to raise the issue of the cultural appropriateness of the idea of autonomy in language learning. Benson (2001) states that Riley's concerns were associated with the fate of non-European students in European educational institutions that adopted autonomy among their goals. Studies
языку
АННОТАЦИЯ
Ключевые слова:
обучение,
автономный,
характеристики,
исследование,
эффективность,
фактор, процесс,
обучение,
фон,
теоретический, стратегия,
В этой статье определяется роль автономного обучения в обучении овладению иностранным языком. Как известно, автономия учащегося направлена на предоставление изучающим язык возможности брать на себя большую ответственность за собственное обучение. Автор статьи объясняет термины «автономия обучаемого» и «автономное обучение» теоретическим подходом. Кроме того, постоянно обсуждаются основные характеристики и классификации автономии учащегося в изучении языка.
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related to these concerns were conducted, and it was discovered that the national culture was found to be an important factor in the provision of a cultural setting for fostering autonomy.
According to Moore "Learner autonomy starts with the premise that an autonomous learner takes responsibility for his/her own learning". Thanasoulas (2000) illustrates this: "It is noteworthy that autonomy can be thought of in terms of a departure from education as a social process, as well as in terms of redistribution of power attending the construction of knowledge and the roles of the participants in the learning process". Little mentioned "Learner autonomy is a problematic term because it is widely confused with self-instruction. It is also a slippery concept because it is notoriously difficult to define precisely". Holec defines learner autonomy as: 'the ability to take charge of one's own learning', which he then specifies as 'to have, and to hold, the responsibility for all the decisions concerning all aspects of this learning,' (1981: p.3). So we can define that autonomy as the freedom and ability, competence to manage one's own learning, which entails the right to make decisions as well.
At present time teaching and learning foreign language classrooms the teacher's role is to develop learner's communicative competence and proficiency in the target language.
Learner's in the autonomy classroom play three independent roles:
1. To develop language learner's communicative skills step by step;
2. To develop an explicit analytical knowledge of the target language system;
3. To develop an explicit awareness of affective and meta cognitive aspects of language learning gradually.
As it's shown that in order to develop autonomy skill one should develop their communicative skills too. Learners have to know formal and informal speech, writing and transferable skills which is very vital in FLT. For example: presentation skills, note taking skills, time management skills, decision making skills, IT skills, research skills and so on.
Holec (1981) assumed that the ability and responsibility in practicing autonomy can be operated from five main areas:
>setting the learning objectives;
>formulating content and material;
>choosing appropriate and suited methods and techniques;
Supervising procedures of learning;
>finally evaluating the whole learning process.
Reviewing the literature indicates that scholars such as Cotterall (1995), White (1995), Littlewood (1999), Little (2002), Schmenck (2005) and Vickers & Enn (2006) have enriched our understanding the concept of autonomy. They postulate promoting learner autonomy is a matter of helping learners to:
- develop a capacity for critical thinking, decision making, and independent action;
- take responsibility for learning and for using appropriate strategies;
- face heavy psychological demands to confront learner's weaknesses and failures;
- discover their learning potential and give up total dependence on the teacher.
Dickinson's classifications of learner autonomy are as follows:
(1) autonomous learners understand what is being taught;
(2) autonomous learners can formulate their learning objectives;
(3) autonomous learners select and make use of appropriate learning strategies;
(4) autonomous learners identify strategies that are not working for them;
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Special Issue - 4 (2021) / ISSN 2181-1415
(5) autonomous learners self-assess or monitor their learning (PP. 330-331)
We partially agree with Dickinson's idea because independent learner can easily identify what is being taught and what for. Such kind of learner always knows the appropriate strategy and at the same time how to use appropriate strategy in language teaching, in addition to, in this process the autonomy learner can easily make self-assessment, can give feedback, or peer assess their learning.
According to Reachard there are five principles for achieving autonomous learning:
YActive involvement in student learning.
YProviding options and resources.
YOffering choices and decision-making opportunities.
^Supporting learners.
YEncouraging reflection.
From our point of view, during the classes teachers should encourage their learners to learn independenly. The teacher should give less of an instructor and facilitate a lot. Language learners are discouraged from relying on the teacher as the main source of knowledge. With the help of it students develop their own learning strategies.
Benson (1997) distinguishes three broad ways of talking about learner autonomy in language education:
• a 'technical' perspective, emphasizing skills or strategies for unsupervised learning: specific kinds of activity or process such as the 'metacognitive', 'cognitive', 'social' and other strategies identified by Oxford (1990);
• a 'psychological' perspective, emphasizing broader attitudes and cognitive abilities which enable the learner to take responsibility for his/her own learning;
• a 'political' perspective, emphasizing empowerment or emancipation of learners by giving them control over their learning. (cited in Palfreyman & Smiths, 2003, p. 3)
As Omaggio (1978) states there seem to be seven main attributes characterizing autonomous learners:
1. Autonomous learners have insights into their learning styles and strategies;
2. take an active approach to the learning task at hand;
3. are willing to take risks, i.e., to communicate in the target language at all costs;
4. are good guessers;
5. attend to form as well as to content, that is, place importance on accuracy as well as appropriacy;
6. develop the target language into a separate reference system and are willing to revise and reject hypotheses and rules that do not apply; and 7. have a tolerant and outgoing approach to the target language. (cited in Thansoulas, 2000).
According to the characteristics of learner autonomy and the dynamic structure in different age stages, autonomous learning has broad sense and narrow sense. Generalized autonomous learning refers to the growth of knowledge, competence, skill, talent, or development of a person at any time and in any environment by any means, with the help of his own efforts
As a conclusion, students' autonomous learning ability has a direct impact on their learning effectiveness. Clear the autonomous learning ability of the connotation, structure and dynamic process in the learning activities, will help to improve the ability of autonomous learning, to help students achieve success in learning and life, it has practical
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significance for the sustainable development with the development of the times, to cultivate talents.
REFERENCES:
1. Benson P. (2000). Autonomy as a learners' and teachers' right. In B. Sinclair, I. McGrath and T. Lamb (eds), Learner Autonomy, Teacher Autonomy: Future Directions. Harlow: Longman.
2. Moore I. What is Learner Autonomy? The Sheffield Hallam Retrieved 24 April 2015 from: http://extra.shu.ac.uk/cetl/cpla/whatislearnerautonomy.htm.
3. Little, D. (2015). Learner Autonomy and Second/Foreign language Learning. LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, Avenue Campus, Highfield, University of Southampton, Southampton, S017 1BF.Retrieved 24 April 2015 from: https://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/1409#ref2.
4. Holec, H (1981). Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning. Oxford: Pergamon.
5. http://www.multilingual-matters.com/display.asp?isb.
6. Cotterall, S. (1995). Developing a course strategy for learner autonomy. ELT Journal, 49(3). - PP. 219-227.
7. Dickinson L. (1993), "Talking shop: aspects of autonomous learning", ELT Journal, Vol. 47 No. 4, pp. 330-336, doi: 10.1093/elt/47.4.330.
8. Benson P. (2008). Teachers' and learners' autonomy. In T. Lamb & H. Reinders (Eds), Learner and teacher autonomy: Concepts, realities and responses (PP. 15-33). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
9. Thanasoulas D. (2000). What is learner autonomy and how can it be fostered? The Internet TESL Journal, 4 (11).
10. Little D. (1999). Developing learner autonomy in the foreign language classroom: a social-interactive view of learning and three fundamental pedagogical principles, Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses 38. - PP. 77-88.
