EFL Teacher’s Beliefs and Practices in Implementing Learner Autonomy

Introduction

In the traditional view of teaching and learning, a teacher is a person in charge of

determining what and how to learn. This way of teaching will create passive learners. Passive
learners only absorb the information provided to them by their teacher without any
reflections, analysis, and evaluation of the information. This traditional view that teachers as
the main resource of the knowledge have been gradually changed. The term “learner
autonomy” has been considered as the key area of research in foreign and second language
study. Learner autonomy can be defined as the learners’ authority and responsibility for their
own learning. Learners’ involvement in decision-making process increases students’
motivation and determine the success of the learning.

A study conducted by Smith (2008) showed that learners have the right and power to
learn for themselves. However, learner autonomy does not mean learning without the teacher
or letting the students learn alone without a guide. Dam (2003) stated that “it is largely the
teachers’ responsibility to develop learner autonomy”. The teachers should take part in order
to foster the development of learner autonomy in the classroom. Autonomous learners are
accepted to be capable of putting realistic and reachable learning goals, selecting appropriate
methods and techniques to be adopted, monitoring their own learning process, and assessing
the progress of their own learning (Benson, 2001; Dam 1995; Holec, 1981; Little, 1991;
Scharle & Szabo, 2000; Wenden 1991) with the help of teachers to a certain degree.

An understanding of teachers’ beliefs should be considered as an integral part of

initiatives because it aimed to promote change in what teachers do in the classroom (Wedell,
2009). However, the teachers’ understanding of learner autonomy is not well developed. As
argued by Borg and Al-Busaidi (2012), an analysis of language teachers’ understandings of
this concepts is lacking. A lot of researchers in the field (Al Asmari, 2013; Barillaro, 2011;
Benson, 2010; Borg, 2009; Borg & AlBusaidi, 2012; Palfreyman, 2003; Shahsavari, 2014)
claim that little has been done in the field of teacher perception and beliefs on learner
autonomy. They further claim that there is a gap between theoretical discussions of learner
autonomy perception and practices of teachers and further go on that although there is a large
body of research carried out for learner beliefs on learner autonomy, little has been done so
far to investigate what teachers’ beliefs actually are. Without such insight into teachers’
perceptions, the reasons for classroom practices may not be comprehended fully.

Based on the gap above, there is a need to clarify the principle of learner autonomy
from many theories, what beliefs actually are, the correlation between teacher’s beliefs and
practices and to reveal some strategies to promote autonomous learning in the classroom.
This literature review will give more comprehensive explanation regarding the important
terms in learner autonomy beliefs and practices in EFL settings. This article presents a review
of the beliefs and practices in implementing autonomous learning within the broader
perspective of ESL/EFL language learning. It provides an account on which areas of the
teachers’ beliefs in learner autonomy that have not been much explored in the literature. In
order to achieve these goals, the following sections will firstly discuss the main concept or
the principle of learner autonomy.

The Principles of Learner Autonomy

Learner autonomy is about involving learners in decisions about what they learn
(Borg 2017; Alhaysony 2016; Lengkanawati 2017). The authors argue that independent study
contributes positively to the development of learner autonomy. Cakici (2015) found that
learner autonomy grows out of the individual learner’s acceptance of responsibility for
his/her own learning as well as taking responsibilities for all aspects of the learning
experience (Chan, 2003). This means that learner autonomy is a matter of explicit or
conscious intention: one cannot accept responsibility for her/his own learning unless s/he has
some idea of what, why, and how she/he tries to learn.

Autonomy means that learners are free to decide how their learning will be assessed
(Lengkanwati 2017). However, some studies stated that teachers are not really sure that their
students are able to assess their own learning (Dogan 2017; Borg 2017; Chan 2003). Further,
Alzeebaree (2016) stated that learner autonomy implies a rejection of traditional teacher-led
ways of teaching and involving learners in decisions about learning activities, like setting the
objectives of a course or selecting course content. Learner autonomy will not only benefit
them in language and communication skills but as well as to train them to be autonomous in
all subject s and fields and to practice the lifelong learning (Yunus, 2015). The author proved
that the implementation of autonomous learning will be influenced by how teachers perceive
learner autonomy. The following section elaborates the teachers’ beliefs on learner
autonomy.

Teachers’ Beliefs on LA

Teachers perceived LA facilitates success in L2 learning (Harati 2017; Borg 2017;

Duong, 2014). In addition, the teachers consider LA as important because learning is a broad
task to be limited to class hours (Harati, 2017). The author found that learner autonomy
encourages students to learn better, because it makes the learning process easier and learning
should carry out outside the classroom settings. Language teachers viewed students’
motivation as the most powerful factor that influences learner autonomy (Szocs 2017;
Alhaysony 2016). It is revealed that confident and motivated language learners could develop
autonomy more easily than learners who were not confident and motivated that much
(Dogan, 2017). Further, the teachers believe that to become autonomous, learners need to
monitor and evaluate their own learning as well as know how to learn. This was supported by
the teachers’ answers in the interviews and concurs with previous studies such as Arshed
(2015) and Salimi and Ansari (2015).

Duong (2014) emphasized that the majority of respondents thought that learner
autonomy was associated with learner independence, but not entirely independent of the
teacher. It means that they did not believe that entire independence could help promote
learner autonomy. In addition, some respondents related learner autonomy to decision-
making process regarding learning methods, kinds of activities, and learning materials in
promoting learner autonomy (Shahsavari, 2014). The teachers also explained about the need
to attend related lectures, workshops, and seminars to provide teachers with the further
knowledge about learner autonomy (Yunus, 2015). Teachers’ professional development are
very essential so they can play their role actively in school as well as in the learning
communities.

The classroom culture and dynamics in the society play a crucial role in learner
autonomy as well as learners’ age (Smith et al 2011; Reinders 2015). Dogan (2017) indicated
that the sooner was the better for students to normalize the idea of autonomy. The author
focused on habits further expressing that they were hard to change after some time, so in
order not to handle with resisting habits in the development of autonomy, students needed to
be provided autonomy support from early ages on. The teachers are afraid of handing over
some responsibility to their learners for fear of losing control and the obligation to follow the
strict curriculum which make the development of learner autonomy all the more difficult
(Smith 2003; Lacey 2007). The authors argue that the teachers’ beliefs give the contribution
into what they do in the classroom. The consistency in teachers’ beliefs and practice will be
discussed in the following section.

Teachers’ Beliefs and Practice

Most of the teachers understand that they play a major role in ensuring the successful
practice of ALL, however, some of the teachers stated that they did not receive necessary
theoretical support from the university regarding learner autonomy (Yunus, 2015). In the
meantime, some teachers indicated that learner training component is not included in their
teacher development program. The authors argue that it might due to the fact that they did not
understand the true notion of learner training and autonomous learning (Borg & Busaidi,
2012; de León, 2010; Al Asmari, 2013) or the fact that they are truly not exposed to the
learner training component in their university years. Chan (2003) found that teachers clearly
saw one of their responsibilities to encourage what could be seen as autonomous practices,
however, they are less positive about students’ readiness to accept overall responsibility for
their own learning. Perhaps, this was one of the reasons why teachers nevertheless assumed
the main responsibility for the majority of the language-related decisions.

The teachers were willing to change and to develop practice for learner autonomy;
they supported involving learners in material selection, areas of classroom management,
learning strategies and styles; however, they were reluctant to involve learners in defining
aims and in methodological decisions (Chan 2003; Borg 2017). The results indicated that
although instructors were positively disposed to learner autonomy, there was a significant gap
between the desirability and feasibility of involving learners in decision-making (Dogan
2017; Szocs 2017). Insructor are desirable to involve students in decision-making process,
but they didn’t find it as much feasible as it was desirable to involve them in decisions
regarding how learning is assessed, the objectives of the course and the classroom
management. This gap between what instructors had in mind theoretically and what they
actually practiced confirms insights acquired from other studies on teachers’ perception and
practices on learner autonomy (Borg and Al-Busaidi, 2012; Camilleri, 1999; Chan, 2003;
Shahsavari, 2014).

Based on the findings from some studies, there are some problems that hinder the
development of learner autonomy and causing the gaps between their perceptions of learner
autonomy and their actual practices to implement learner autonomy. Before elaborating the
constraints or problems, the ways to foster learner autonomy is discussed in the following
section.

Fostering Learner Autonomy in ELT

The majority of the instructors believed autonomy could be developed outside the
classroom by independent study in a library, by independent work in a self-access centre and
encourage the students to find supporting materials from the internet (Dogan 2017;
Lengkanawati 2017; Duong 2014). Learner autonomy, they believed, could be developed
through learning outside the classroom and with out-of-class tasks. Harati (2017) found that
the teachers use portfolio assessment as the useful way of keeping track of students’
performances, ask the students to assess themselves and constructing outside classroom tasks
to students by considering their needs and interests. Szocs (2017) stated that teachers choose
the topic of their presentation or of their writing task to be done at home, guessing the
meaning of words, involvement in individual work, pair work and less often in group work.
Teachers motivated learners in various ways: praised them, showed interest in their free time
activities, hobbies, raised their interest in the topics under discussion, tried to meet their
needs with choice of topics. In addition, teachers encouraged creativity and individual ideas
when learners were involved in picture description, comforting them by stating that “English
is easy”.

The teachers also prefer learner-centered plus teacher’s facilitation pattern in their
teaching and introduce the students to various teaching learning strategies such as
metacognitive, social and socio-affective strategy could promote learner autonomy (Yunus
2015; Cakici 2015). Reinders (2015) found that the teacher asks the students to choose what
kind of activities they would like to do or which theme of vocabulary they find interesting.
Teachers encourage the students to learn English outside the classroom by reading books and
magazines in English, watching and listening English movies, note down new words and
their meanings and do revision on their own initiative (Chan, 2003). Duong (2014) stated that
teachers attempted to give students opportunities to work on their own because most of them
believed that learner autonomy can lead to life-long learning.

The following section discusses about the the problems or constraints that teachers
face in promoting learner autonomy in the classroom.
The constraints in implementing learner autonomy

The teachers stated that the constraints to implement learner autonomy are due to the
inability of the students to think outside the box or think critically, lack of learner autonomy
concept, focusing on products in learning, lack of motivation and the low English proficiency
(Borg, 2017). The teacher also explains that the curriculum does not provide extra activities
to promote LA due to lack of time.

Yunus (2015) found that the education system has been exercising the spoon-feeding
system. The students are found to worry out about their performance and learn just for the
sake for the sake of getting good grades without understanding their learning goals. As from
teachers perspectives, learner motivation to learn English is not very encouraging and might
be influenced by how teachers interprets and expect from their learners to be autonomous due
to the notion of autonomous is very hard to defined as the definition are subjective and varied
(Benson, 2006). However, the author found that motivation plays a unique and critical role in
shaping autonomous language learners and it is the key to successful language learning
(Dornyei, 1994, 2006).

Another interesting finding is that the students are found to attend classes only in
order to to pass them (Dogan, 2007; Al-Asmari 2013). The authors argue that sudents are not
intrinsically motivated and do not care about it either. The students are unaware of their
weaknesses, strengths and too much dependence on teachers. The teacher also added
curricular constraints, passive students and motivation as some of the reasons which
instructors felt contributed to lack of autonomy in their students (Szocs, 2017). Al-Asmari
(2013) stated that the students were interested in their performance and were concerned more
about their grades. Further, the teachers revealed that the students are not encouraged to learn
English at school level, it also suggests that most of the students come without having
sufficient background of independent learning. The teachers also encounter the difficulty in
fostering learner autonomy due to the various learning styles and cultures which depend
heavily on the authority of both the teachers and institutions (Cakici 2015; Harati 2017).
There is a traditional learning style at the majority of the classroom settings, teachers even
don’t know what it is, the opulated classrooms, lack of equipments and accessories, etc.
Teachers also added that autonomy is a neglected part of learning.

Szocs (2017) found that most of their students had low levels of autonomy as they
were not ready to take control over their learning, “they just sit, watch and wait for someone
to tell them what to do”. Teachers believed that students were more concerned about
immediate learning goals than showing long-term engagement (Shahsavari, 2014; Scharle &
Szabo, 2000). The authors found that the most challenging factors in promoting learner
autonomy were seen to be students’ lack of motivation, lack of time, students’ socioeconomic
backgrounds, continuous distraction caused by the overuse of technology, and institutional
constraints. Alhaysony (2016) stated that the teachers did not feel their students had a fair
degree of autonomy. They explained their opinion by mentioning that their students lacked
motivation for learning, relied too much on their teachers and always tried to be a way of
taking responsibility. In addition, their students seem to be unaware of their weaknesses,
strengths and their own learning. Learners are lack of motivation in learning language, as
their main aim was to pass the course, learners different expectations, needs and learning
styles, lack of relevant resources for teachers and learners, teachers limited expectations of
what learners can achieve and teacher’s fear of losing control.

Reinders (2015) found that the students get used to the spoon feeding or teacher-
centered teaching style from their previous classes since their early schooling. Students don’t
think English is important to them, they just say really hate English and didn’t learn anything
much in high school. They don’t really try to develop their English for other purposes. Chan
(2003) stated that classroom and institution’s facilities hinders the development of learner
autonomy. There is little or no autonomy training in the English course and the lack of
student free time is the biggest hindrance. Duong (2014) stated that the students seem to like
teacher-directed teaching rather than independent learning and students sometimes did not
know which materials were appropriate for their learning. Nasri, et al (2015) found that
teachers need more freedom in choosing/making the material, content, and tests, they could
improve their learners’ autonomy more successfully. Rodrigues (2014) found that the
students are much accustomed to spoon-feeding and teacher-dependent. The findings also
revealed that the teachers need of proper training or professional development in
understanding learner autonomy.
Conclusion and Future Direction

As one of the essential ways to improve students’ ability to learn independently,

learner autonomy needs special attention in an EFL context especially in Indonesia. Learner
autonomy does not mean that the students learn alone without the guide or roles from the
teachers. The teachers’ involvement in introducing learner autonomy to the students, using
various teaching styles and helping the students to choose their own material and srategies are
the teachers’ obligation in promoting learner autonomy to the students. The way teachers
understand about what learner autonomy actually means, must be implemented into the real
practice in the classroom situation.

We have attempted to review the teachers’ beliefs and practices in implementing

learner autonomy in comprehensive ways. The review indicates that the teachers know the
importance of learner autonomy in learning process and they are found to be willing to
implement learner autonomy in the classroom. However, they still face many problems
especially from institutional regulation, that makes learner autonomy is less feasible. Since
institution goal is only to make the students pass the final examination, the teachers do not
space or time to promote autonomous learning. In addition, the teachers are hard to foster
learner autonomy due to the sudents’ purpose to learn is only for the sake to get good grades.
This makes ‘lifelong learning’ as the final goal of autonomous learning is hard to achieve.

Since there has been no deep explanation regarding the psychological and cultural
factors as some perspectives of learner autonomy, future programs and research should be
directed toward the factors in the cultural aspects or students background that can contribute
to the development of learner autonomy. Since learner autonomy has a big correlation with
students internal motivation in language learning, future research also need to be directed to
explore deeply regarding students’ psychological aspects that can determine the students’
motivation to be an autonomous learner.
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