AUTONOMOUS WORK IN A L2

Student

Laura Camila Pinilla Castiblanco

ID: 702201

Signature

Research in Education
NRC: 14063

Teacher

Andrea Alexandra Bernal Hernández

CORPORACIÓN UNIVERSITARIA MINUTO DE DIOS – UNIMINUTO

BACHELOR DEGREE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES

BOGOTÁ D.C Thursday 27 November, 2020

 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

RESEARCH TOPIC: AUTONOMOUS WORK IN A L2

The goal in autonomous work in a L2 is focusing on a competitive society in

understanding, effort, dedication and opportunities. (Roldan, 2011). To complement, Achury

(2017) says that autonomous learning depends on the relationship between students and

teachers for developing this ability. She affirms that the people have the capacity to develop

this ability through time because they will find different ways to advance, improve or practice

their own work.She says that it’s an opportunity to pay attention to the effect produced in the

learner in relationship with his attitude and interaction. However, it cannot be an obligation

for the audience. To conclude, autonomy is defined as "the competence to develop as a

self-determined, socially responsible, and critically aware participant in (and beyond)

educational environments, within a vision of education as (inter)personal empowerment and

social transformation" (Jiménez Raya et al., 2007, p. 1 quoted by Diaz 2014).

RESEARCH PROBLEM: LACK OR ABSENCE OF THE AUTONOMOUS WORK

The research problem I’ve found is the lack or absence of the autonomous work in a

L2. There are several characteristics about the research problem in a specific population. My

survey was implemented to 20 students of the IV semester of the bachelor degree in foreign

languages at the Uniminuto University. At the moment, they are studying the Research in

Education subject. In this way, they answered the tool where they explained details about

resources, time, points of view and others. After that, I found some problems in the

population. Thus, with respect to the importance of autonomous work in a L2, the students

answered that it’s important and they explained the reason. It can be seen in figure 1.
Figure 1

OPEN ANSWERS
 I found that 90% of the population consider that autonomous work in a L2 is

important. In this way, 18 of 20 students wrote their ideas about this ability according to their

own experience with the English as a foreign language in their lives. After that, I did an

analysis of the answers given and I found that 7 of 18 students consider that this ability is

important because they can improve their English skills. To support that, figure 2 arises.

Figure 2

Chart divided in the most important aspects that were found according to the open

answers seen in the survey.

Given the above, I can think that there is an important recognition of the ability in the

population and that the most repetitive reason for applying the autonomous work in their

learning process is the importance to improve their English skills because they can do free

practice with different resources. However, it depends on a time, dedication and effort factor

because each process has a consequence. The population can improve their English skills if

they do a higher practice or begin to use the ability for advancing in their level. To explain

that, there is a graph where the students expressed the frequency with which they do a

practice per day and it can be evidenced in figure 3.

Figure 3

Frequency to learn the language per day.

In fact, there isn’t autonomous work in a L2 because there isn't’ a recurrence in the

hours dedicated to the free practice for all the students. Although the graph shows a

percentage per day, through informal conversations they told me that it isn’t an habit, they

explained to me that it’s an ability that they practice occasionally. For that reason, I

concluded that they don’t do a conscientious, active and real use of this ability because there

isn’t a repetitive practice determined among the students.

JUSTIFICATION

I decided to start a research proposal about autonomous work in a L2 because I

consider that this ability is the way most organized where the population can learn a language

in different contexts. According to Roldan (2011), there will be a population developed with

education, work and professional knowledge in their lives. He also says that Colombians will

develop a high efficiency in any place and an autonomous training for generating an impact

multilingual in the future generations. He affirms that they’ll have a clear objective within the

country or around the world. Eventually, I have recognized this ability during my

professional life because as a future teacher I think that the best way to learn is in the constant

practice of skills. Similiratity, the free time, motivation, effort and determination are

important factors. In this way, we need to find an objective for the transformation of the
society in our future classes and it can be developed through autonomous work in a L2. In

conclusion, I consider it able to be the best ability to teach and practice the language in the

population.

THE DEFICIENCIES IN OUR EXISTING KNOWLEDGE

In this paragraph, it is presented a contrast between the research done by Espinoza,

Serrano & Brito, 2017 and my research proposal. There is a different population, in both the

authors ​aforementioned a contrast​ with the population that I will research. According to that,

the research proposal will be focused on a cross-curricular subject English A1 at the

Uniminuto University. On the other hand, the research found about “​STUDENTS

AUTONOMOUS WORK IN THE MACHALA TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY​'' was focused

on a group of 13 students from the Bachelor Degree in Basic Education of Social Sciences at

the Machala Technical University in Ecuador. Given the above, (Espinoza, Serrano & Brito,

2017) focused their research in the process that must be developed to promote the

teaching-learning process improvement in relation to the knowledge acquired by the staff of

the Institution. Likewise, they applied a questionnaire where the audience found a scale to

define the strategies used by themselves.

In this way, my new perspective will be focused on the importance of this ability in a

learning environment, the appropriate resources and strategies to generate a good autonomous

process and the incidence of the values, attitudes and features of the students to learn without

problems, fears or oppressions in a cross-curricular subject English A1 at the Uniminuto

University. Lastly, it able to establish a difference between the research Espinoza, Serrano &

Brito 2017 and my research proposal because they developed their research in a group from

the Bachelor Degree in Basic Education of Social Sciences and a cross-curricular subject

English A1 is conformed by students of different professions such as psychology, business

administration, journalism and more.

THE AUDIENCE

The present research proposal will benefit a cross-curricular subject English A1 at the

Uniminuto University. Thus, the students will have the opportunity to know the strategies,

resources and factors that will be a great help to develop their ability. Besides, they will

improve their English skills with the free practice. In this way, they will advance, learn and

understand the language in an easier way due to their own educational process. To conclude,

they will find the most effective method to practice taking into account that the ability is a

capacity to study a specific topic into the language.

QUESTION

1) How does the social, cultural and personal context of a person influence or affect the

development of autonomous work in a L2 in Uniminuto University students of a

cross-curricular subject English A1?

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

General objective

1) To conclude practices, strategies and resources to guide the autonomous work in a L2.

Specific objectives

1) To identify the effect produced by the personal, cultural, academic and social context

in Autonomous work in a L2.

2) To explain why there is a lack or absence of autonomous work in L2 of the students

of a transversal course English A1.

3) To understand the new ways to practice, improve and advance in the autonomous

work in a L2.
LIST OF REFERENCES

- Roldán, H. (2011). Promoción del bilingüismo mediante la inclusión del inglés en un

modelo pedagógico enfocado hacia el aprendizaje autónomo. ​Voces y Silencios:

Revista Latinoamericana de Educación.​ Retrieved from

https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/doi/10.18175/vys2.2.2011.02

- Achury, A. (2017). El trabajo autónomo del estudiante. ​Universidad Externado de

​ etrieved from
Colombia Ciencias de la educación. R

https://cuestioneseducativas.uexternado.edu.co/el-trabajo-autonomo-del-estudiante/

- Diaz, M. (2014). ​Developing Learner Autonomy Through Project Work in an ESP

Class. ​Revista Universidad y Sociedad: Scielo.​ Retrieved from

http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0120-59272014000200

004

- Espinoza, E., Serrano, E & Brito.O. (2017). EL TRABAJO AUTÓNOMO EN

ESTUDIANTES DE LA UNIVERSIDAD TÉCNICA DE MACHALA. ​Revista

Universidad y Sociedad: Scielo.​ Retrieved from

http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2218-36202017000200028&l

ng=es&tlng=es​.