Theory And Practice Of Self-Directed Foreign Language Learning

ABSTRACT Self-directed learning is not a classic concept in language teaching handbooks, nor a well-defined one in dictionaries of applied linguistics. The main characteristic of self-directed learning is that students take some significant responsibility for their own learning over and above responding to instruction. The ability to conduct self-directed learning is considered desirable for philosophical and practical reasons. The philosophical rationale behind self-directed learning is the belief that learners have the right to make choices with regard to their learning. Many writers have pointed out the importance of preparing learners for a rapid changing future, in which independence in learning will be vital for effective functioning in society. Helping learners become more independent in their learning is one way of maximizing their life choices. It was suggested that one outcome of learners acting more autonomously may be an increase in enthusiasm for learning. Furthermore, the practical argument for promoting learner autonomy is quite simply that a teacher may not always be available to assist. Learners need to be able to learn on their own because they do not always have access to the kind or amount of individual instruction they need in order to become proficient in the language. In addition, learners become more efficient in their language learning if they do not have to spend time waiting for the teacher to provide them with resources or solve their problems. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to guide English learners to train themselves to be efficient English self-learners. English learners can become self-directed learners by learner training or self-learning training. Self-learning starts from the initial need analysis to regular self-assessment, identification of problem area and appropriate solutions, evaluation of the usefulness of learning materials and activities, choice of a particular learning activity from a variety offered, and to a final self-assessment at the completion of the self-learning process, with a determination of goals and actions for continued learning. Since learners who are autonomous might take responsibility by setting their own target, the ESP is a specially useful concept discussed to guide the self-directed learning. In the language learning needs analysis refers to the process of determining the needs for which a learner acquires a language and arranging the needs according to priorities. The learner must carefully analyze the environment in which they study II MASTEP THEE IS English for certain purpose (ESP), so that he can avoid the obstacles and take advantage of the opportunities. Thus needs analysis should be concerned primarily with the establishment of communicative needs and their realizations, resulting from an analysis of the communication in the target environment/situation?what I refer to as target situation analysis (TSA) to identify this more restricted sense of needs analysis. It is necessary to go into the target situations, collecting data and analyzing that data in order to establish the communication that really occurs ?its functions, forms, and frequencies ?then selecting from these on some pragmatic learning basis. Through target setting, the English self-learner decides what speech community he wants to step in. Then, the next step is to make a self-learning plan. Self-learning planning involves deciding on wha...