Semi-autonomous Learning in English Classroom Teaching

[Abstract] Nowadays autonomous learning is becoming more and more important in learning, especially for the students at college. But the students at present have been used to the teacher-centered teaching model, and may not make them accept the student-centered teaching model totally without any trouble. So after one year’s experiments and observation in regular class and also in Beiwai online tutorial, the author of the thesis thinks it necessary to establish a semi-autonomous learning in classroom teaching.

[Key words] Semi-autonomous learning, a competent teacher, an excellent student, new teaching methods

With the development of science and technology, knowledge is being replaced faster and faster. The students nowadays must be cultivated into lifelong learners to adjust themselves to the times of knowledge explosion. Therefore, autonomous learning is becoming more and more important in learning, especially for the students at college. Meanwhile, the introduction of CAI (Computer Assisted Instruction), which provides not only the words but also the sounds, the pictures and the supplementary materials from different resources, makes autonomous learning by the students possible. But the students at present have been used to the teacher-centered teaching model, and may not make them accept the student-centered teaching model totally without any trouble because sometimes they are so at loss that they don’t know what to learn. So after one year’s experiments and observation in regular class and also in Beiwai online tutorial, I think it necessary to establish a semi-autonomous learning in classroom teaching.

How should we understand what semi-autonomous learning really means? First let’s know what’s the meaning of “autonomous learning”. According to Holec, “autonomy” is defined as “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning”. [1](p6) Furthermore, Dickinson accepts the definition of autonomy as a “situation in which the learner is totally for all of the decisions concerned with his or her learning and implementation of those decision.” [1](p6) From these two definitions, we can see that the learners must be independent thinkers, and should have a clear view of the whole learning process, including the purpose of learning, the aim of learning, the way of learning, the choice of materials in learning, etc. In another words, it includes everything concerned with learning. Of course, there is no doubt that it is very useful for the students to learn autonomously. But it is not very suitable in our students’ cases. As we know, our students at college have got used to being taught by teachers in class before they registered into college after 12 years learning in primary school and high school. Even the worse, guided by the exam-oriented teaching model, most of the students nowadays can do nothing but answering the fixed questions and passing the exams. If they were asked to study all by themselves for one or two months, we can not imagine what would happen then. So in my view a neutral way should be found in this special transitional period to lead the students to learn actively, in which case the students should be encouraged to do some learning by doing on their own under the teacher’s guidance. At the same time, the teachers should adopt a new teaching method to complete the transition from the teacher-centered teaching model to the student-centered one. This learning process, in my opinion, can be called semi-autonomous learning.

In this process, the teacher’s role has changed, but just partially not totally, the same to the students’ role. With the wider and wider use of CAI in English teaching, we have to admit that the teachers’ privileged and centered position in teaching are being challenged. First, since the students can get more knowledge from a variety of channels through the computer, the traditional figure of teachers as authority and expert is turned over in the role of teacher. Yes, teachers are no longer the only experts in imparting knowledge, but just organizers in classroom teaching activities. Second, teachers should act as supervisors and guide the students to seek truth, to practise, rather than to accept knowledge merely. Third, teachers should be participants and often participate in students’ communication and “provide a scaffold for their students’ learning with their own knowledge and experience --- even when they are not immediately in a communicative exchange”. [2](p108)

So in order to be a competent teacher, he or she should be characterized as the following:

l Be in high spirit all the time

l Love the students

l Have strong sense of responsibility

l Know some modern teaching methods

l Be knowledgeable not only in language itself but also in CAI and internet

As a result of the change in teacher’s role, the students’ role in classroom teaching has changed, too. First, the students should be active learners rather than passive receivers. They must know what to do and where to go under the guidance of the teacher. They must be industrious enough to consult the reference books or surf on the internet so as to gain some knowledge on their own. Second, the students should be active participants or performers in class. In tradition, the teachers play the absolute lead in the classroom teaching, and they are the only protagonists. But it isn’t the case now. It’s time for the students to show themselves and to give a full play to their abilities. They should pluck up their courage to speak out their own opinions or to make a heated discussion with others. Third, the students themselves should realize very clearly that it is themselves not the teachers that should take whole responsibility for their learning because they are afforded the opportunities to engage in self-generated, personally relevant communication which involves a wide range of motivations, functions, and meanings that may be very useful in the development of language learning.

In order to become an excellent student in semi-autonomous learning, he or she should have the following characteristics:

l Learn how to learn autonomously under the guidance of the teacher

l Be able to use different channels to get as much information as possible

l Be active in the process of classroom learning

l Be ready to take certain charge of his or her own learning

l Overcome the complete dependency on teachers

l Learn to impose his or her self-discipline

l Learn to monitor his or her own learning process

In this whole process, especially in the process of classroom teaching, teachers should adopt some modern teaching methods to arouse the learning interest among the students. As we know, CAI has brought fresh air in the teaching methods in college English teaching, which makes it possible to combine the classroom activities with a large range of communication elements --- text, sound, graphics, pictures, animation, moving video and so on, therefore makes the classroom teaching more active and more attractive. But how should we bring it into full play? How should we complete the combination between the traditional teaching model and the modern multi-media methods?

According to the survey among 148 students in my class before my experimental teaching began, 70% of them still hold it is the teacher who is the center of the classroom teaching, and they also admit they have been used to being dependent on their teacher in their learning. Here, we can see that it is unpractical to realize the completely autonomous learning at present. So while teaching, the teacher should design his or her teaching plan elaborately to attract the students to be involved in the teaching activities.

l Set up classroom collaborative learning

The whole class can be divided into several fixed groups, each of whom has 4 or 6 members. Whenever the discussion topic is given in class, the leader of each group is responsible for organizing the heated discussion within the group, and every member in the group is encouraged to participate, then the representative of the group will deliver their speech in the presence of the whole class. Sometimes, the groups are asked to choose their own topic for study, then after class, they are willing to proceed to a probing investigation on that topic and prepare the report to the whole class next time.

My students once were asked to know well about some important holidays or special days in the United States. Each group was only demanded to find one such a day but in detail, not in brief. Then when we met the next time, what they had done was really beyond my expectation. Every group presented by means of computer. Some of them used Powerpoint, and some of them even used Flash to deliver their speech. Some of them found the different origins of the same holiday. I was deeply moved at the moment. And from then on, the students were encouraged to do the presentations by the means of multi-media, from which they can not only learn some knowledge but also feel the joy brought by the modern technology.

l Choose the charming topics for discussion

If the teacher wants to involve all the students into the discussion, he or she must choose a good topic, which can arouse the students’ interests, and which is easy for them to find more information concerned. Otherwise, the class discussion would fall into an awkward situation at a time. In my class, I once set some topics like Greenhouse Effect, Happiness, Life in 2050, China’s Entry into WTO, SARS, etc. Almost all the students showed their solicitude for these topics, therefore, they were eager to participate in the discussion.

l Mobilize the enthusiasm of the whole class by top students

In order to avoid the students such as the so-called poorer performing ones or shyer ones not participating much in classroom discussion, some measures should be made. It seems that when the discussion begins, the students mentioned above are unlikely to be the first ones to express their own ideas. But in my view they should not be ignored even if the discussion would still continue smoothly without their participation. So as teachers, we should mobilize their enthusiasm as much as possible. From my own experiences, I seldom demand them to answer some difficult questions or do some presentations unwillingly. On the contrary, I encourage them to be participants in the discussion led by some top students. Sometimes I even help them to prepare for the discussion. Sometimes I ask them to be the assistants to the representative of the group to deliver their group speech. Whenever they make any progress, I’d like to give them highly praises. After one year’s practice, I found most of the students who are not active in participation in traditional classroom teaching have dramatically changed. Some of them have become the really active participants in all teaching activities.

l Organize a variety of classroom activities

In order to make the class lively and attractive, the teacher should adopt different methods and organize various activities to draw students’ attention of learning. For example, while giving my lecture on “Pop Music”, before we came to the text itself, I first asked the students to listen to the song “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina”, and then tried to fill in the blanks with words or phrases they heard. After that, we exchanged the ideas about the deep understanding of the song. We even talked something about the singer Madonna and the film “Evita” from which the song was taken. The discussion was so heated that even the next time some of the students brought some supplementary materials about the song or Evita which were got from the internet. Another example, I once played a video CD film “The Beauty and the Beast” in my lecture. But I just stopped in the middle for the first time, and all the students desired eagerly to know the ending of the story. No matter how hard they demanded, I still insisted. Instead, I asked them to imagine what happened later and make up the story after the class. When we met again, so many interesting stories were spread before us. We really enjoyed them all. From these activities, the students themselves find learning English is very interesting, and they also come to know that in addition to the teacher’s lecture, there are so many other ways to learn, and as long as they like, all roads lead to Rome. Yes, the students who engaged in self-paced learning-by-doing with an interactive environment can become independent learners who are usually labeled “knowledge navigators”. [3](p41)

After one year’s experimental teaching, the questionnaires show that lots of the students have made some progress in English learning. 88% of them recognize they are much more interested in English and very willingly to attend the English lectures. 70% of them think it easy to express themselves in English now. 67% of them believe they have learned more about English culture in the lectures, some of which derives from their own research. 63% of them have improved their reading skills. 82% of them enjoy the communicative discussion activities. 55% of them have gained confidence in their ability as independent learners.

From these figures, it is not difficult to see that students can learn autonomously provided that they are given some intentional training especially at the beginning. Therefore, before making it, students must learn how to learn semi-autonomously. This is a transitional way, which may lead the students to an active learning from the passive learning, and which little by little may help them to realize the autonomous learning completely.

References:

[1] David Gardner & Lindsay Miller. Establishing Self-access ------ From Theory to Practice [M]. 上海：上海外语教育出版社， 200.11.

[2] Kern, R. Computer-mediated Communication: Using E-mail Exchanges to Explore Personal Histories in Two Cultures [M]. University of Hawaii, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center, 1996.

[3] Blackstock Junior High School. Multimedia Technology Drives Smart School [J]. Technology and Learning 14(1), 1993.

作者简介：王新（1969-），山东青岛人，沈阳师范大学外语部副主任，副教授