How to gain autonomy when learning a language abroad – BY CAP ULYSSE

This article is part of one of the results of project Optimo, an Erasmus+ project that aims to support language teachers and trainers in helping adult learners with migration backgrounds develop communication skills for real-world inclusion.

By: Audrey Fresquet and Elisabeth Silva (Cap Ulysse)

Introduction

Here we tried to understand autonomous learning not only as a set of competences for the classroom and (second language) learning but also as a vital skill set and strategy for the learners’ everyday lives and professional inclusion.

Autonomous learning is not a skill to learn and then to keep but more to be understood as a multidirectional learning and training process. It requires a didactical mindset of encouraging progress while accepting limitations to learning. Especially in migration biographies and the specific intersectional setting members of the target group might find themselves in, the applicability of lifelong learning skills outside of the classroom is vital to consider.

Indeed, migrants who arrive in their host country, although they are mostly accompanied by social workers, are not learners like others. They are directly immersed in a cultural and linguistic bath. This new life is not always voluntary, chosen, due to sudden uprooting most of the time. They must then face the mourning of their previous life. As adults, they have to act autonomously in their daily lives (making decisions, taking care of the children and their new schooling, administrative procedures, feeding themselves and their family, maintaining their homes, finding work, etc.).

In the same way as learning the language of their host country, autonomy itself is conditioned by this linguistic aspect and is initially a survival matter. Then, in a second step, autonomy becomes a sign of integration and accomplishment for these learners.

If autonomy is understood as independence, self-determination and self-management, this skill (of autonomy) must also be transferable within the classroom. The learner can really play the role of the main actor of his learning and by this way be involved in a more effective educational approach. Therefore, he must develop his autonomy by questioning what he knows, the way he learns better, by identifying his strengths, his weaknesses and his needs to find the best way to respond to them.

The learner takes home their thoughts about learning, self-management, and self-assessment tools and can individually adapt them to their own needs and capabilities.

2. Autonomy on the learning process in the literature

Autonomy on the learning process is defined differently in the literature. While it can mean the ability to make independent decisions for one’s own learning setting, methods and goals, reciprocity between trainer and learner must be one of the vital goals of an educational model that aims to enhance autonomy in the learning process.

Maintaining a growth mindset and emphasising and supporting self-efficacy are other key points. More holistically, autonomy also entails the active transferral of control by the trainers to the learner. Important for this context is to understand autonomous learning as a competence that can be acquired and practised and not as an inherent characteristic that a learner already must possess prior to the learning process.

In this perspective, learners' self-evaluation should be encouraged and included in any course plan.

The cultural, social, religious and political values and beliefs of both trainers and learners need to be taken into account, as they may influence their learning goals and limitations. Trainers should be reminded that it can be a positive learning outcome if learners find their own solutions for challenges even if they are different from those suggested by trainers.

Accepting individual learning techniques while neglecting the trainer’s proposals is a principle of autonomous learning and can benefit the relationship between trainer and learner.

The encouragement of self-efficacy, self-determination, self-motivation, self-confidence, and integration must therefore be a rule of thumb. Nevertheless, in her dissertation, educational scholar Maria Giovanna Tassinari argues that the goal of acquiring learner autonomy must entail more than aiming at learning success. In her understanding, learner autonomy also means the acceptance of failure, shortcomings and disadvantages.

Teaching that aims at strengthening autonomous learning encourages learners to commit, participate, practise democracy, self-reflect, critically analyse, and think action-orientated in life situations.

3. Autonomous Learning profile

Here, we can summarise five core competences learner autonomy should entail:

First, learning management and awareness are to be encouraged to strengthen learner autonomy. This includes a positive learning attitude, taking over responsibility, finding motivation, staying persistent and developing self-efficacy throughout the learning process.

Problem posing and goal setting is accompanied by the identification and reflection of problems or hindrances and the setting of realistic learning goals.

Planning in general entails locating and managing learning and social resources, managing proper learning settings (space and time) and the management of learning activities. Selection and realisation mean finding resources, setting learning goals independently and identifying problems in everyday life and using learning resources and strategies for solving those independently.

A critical final step in focusing on autonomy is the monitoring and evaluation of learning activities and outcomes. This requires tools for reflection as well as self-assessment and the ability to reflect upon learning strategies and results and critically review the learning process. However, the literature forgets to mention an engagement with learners affected by educational disadvantages and learning in non-formal education settings. Therefore, the characteristics and needs of this particular target group deserve to be studied.

It is interesting to see that autonomous learners rely less on their trainers. Therefore, talking about adult learners with low academic backgrounds, when learning a foreign language: it is important that trainers support learners in being aware of their learning profile and autonomy in the learning process, especially when learning a foreign language.

If a certain vertical vision of teaching was still present in our Western societies and classrooms a few years ago (while the actual tendency is to gradually make this educational model disappear), this vision is still very present in many societies, particularly in countries in Africa, the Middle East and even in Asia.

More than others, foreign language teachers and trainers must deconstruct these top-down visions and practices of teaching where teachers are considered as the only “knowers”, their knowledge and teaching methods are not to be called into question.

Of course, this approach nourishes and reinforces the lack of self-confidence, especially when learners face failures and learning obstacles (for example, they do not understand or no longer progress). Furthermore, this vision fosters learners’ passivity and relationship of dependence on the role of the teacher. We are here in the opposite learning situation to that which interests us today, namely that of autonomy in learning.

It is no longer the teacher but the learner who knows best his needs and his ways of learning and memorising in order to apply his knowledge in his everyday life.

4. Trainer’s position/challenges

There is no autonomous learning without an autonomous instructor. Autonomous trainers are self-sufficient individuals who accept ethical responsibility for their instruction.

The primary job of autonomous instructors in the classroom is not knowledge transfer.

Instead, they serve as organisers, advisors, and information providers. In this field the teacher becomes a guide for the students: thanks to him, they can have a reflexive view about who they are as learners, which “profile” suits them best, what type of memory they have, what type of intelligence is most like them – as we know today, intelligence is not only one but there are at least eight – all this autonomy self-reflection to make the act of learning most effective.

It is expected from instructors to:

• Identify language skills challenges foreign language speakers may have in one's learning.

• Be able to address the challenges and take concrete measures as part of ongoing teaching to increase learners' understanding and participation in teaching.

• Be able to evaluate the effect of their own regulation.

• Recognise and value learners' background (language, culture, values, beliefs, needs…).

• Give the learners time to evaluate the learning process and goals for themselves.

• Give learners tools for self-direction in learning, e.g., how to measure the process and actively reflect on what is learnt.

• Show faith in the student's ability to arrive at satisfactory solutions of their own.

• Help the student take ownership of and responsibility for their own learning.

• Challenge the learner, in ways that are supportive and constructive, when helpful to the learner's progress.

• Encourage feedback from the learner and critically reflect on and evaluate their own training skills and behaviour.

• Assist the learner in overcoming the challenges and navigating them through difficulties and barriers.

5. Strategies to stimulate autonomous learning

Collaborative/Cooperative Learning:Encourage learners of different levels to work together within small groups or with all the class.

Technology in the Classroom:Incorporate technology into teaching to actively engage learners, especially as digital media is already used by learners.

Experiential Learning:Create experiences for learners to see the concepts in action. Encourage learners to practise the concepts in a safe environment.

Problem Solving:The trainer sets a problem/situation, typically related to the language skills, and asks learners to make recommendations for solving it and to outline recommendations in either a presentation or in written form, either individually or in groups. Brainstorming can be part of the problem-solving process.

Collaborative Learning:

• Stump Your Partner

• Think-Pair-Share / Write-Pair-Share

• Group Discussion: The trainer gives discussion themes/topics to help learners prepare for upcoming group discussions. Learners will be given a time slot to think and frame their points and then will be given a time slot to discuss the topic within the group. The purpose of GD is to evaluate the subject knowledge, check if learners are comfortable speaking on digital skills and assess the spontaneity of thoughts.

Conclusion

Even if tendencies are starting to decline, especially for the youngest generations, recent French research tends to prove that “Immigrants living in France in 2021 and having completed their initial studies have, on the whole, lower levels of qualifications than the general population. 38% of immigrants aged 30 to 64 have no diploma (or at most a middle school diploma or equivalent), compared to 16% of non-immigrant people of the same age.”

That being said, adult learners with low academic backgrounds, when learning a foreign language, often constitute a challenging and complex learner profile for which the teacher must adapt his teaching and pedagogical methods.

The possible situations of illiteracy in the mother tongue of some learners necessarily have an impact on teaching, but also on their future skills in terms of autonomy to develop in their learning.

Without having a self-reflexive thought about their skills, learners develop, create and adopt a whole host of ingenious tricks and strategies to memorise, decode and act in their environment. Trainers must then be able to identify and unearth these learning talents with the aim of relying on them in order to develop the autonomy of these learners with a somewhat specific educational profile.

Trainers must also take into account certain learning specificities such as, for example, the oral culture which some learners come from.

In all situations, trainers try to perceive the emotional state of the learners – sometimes learning a language is too early in the learners’ journey (practical matters are not resolved yet, some of them are still mourning or denying this new idiom of the host country).

Autonomy, seen as a key element and the conditio sine qua non of any integration process, necessarily involves language and must be acquired within but also outside the classroom.

Sources:

Benson, P. (2001), Autonomy in language teaching and learning, https://www.pucsp.br/inpla/benson_artigo.pdf, (last access: 13.10.2023).

Benson, Phil (2011), Teaching and Researching. Autonomy, 2nd Ed. [Applied Linguistics in Action Series], ed. By Christopher N. Candlin & David R. Hall, Abingdon/New York, p. 1.

Candy, Philip, C. (1991), Self-direction for Lifelong learning, San Francisco, Jossey- Bass.

Elan interculturel (2021), Formation “Faciliter l’apprentissage du FLE par la pédagogie multisensorielle”.

Fuchs, Anna (2002), Transkulturelle Herausforderungen meistern.

Holec, H. (1981), Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning, Oxford/New York: Pergamon Press.

Kaikkien Malli Model, URL: https://kaikkienmalli.fi/ (last access: 18.12.2023).

Little, D. (1990), Learner autonomy and second/foreign language learning, URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259874624_Learner_autonomy_and_secondforeign_language_learning (last access: 13.10.2023).

Little, D. (1996), “Freedom to Learn and Compulsion to Interact: Promoting Learner Autonomy through the Use of Information System and Information Technology”, in R. Pemberton, E. Li, W. Or, & H. Pierson (Eds.), Taking Control: Autonomy in Language Learning, Hong Kong University Press, pp. 203-218.