Towards A Pedagogy For Learner Autonomy Among Chinese Tertiary EFL Learners Through Self-access

This dissertation was intended to explore the theory and practice of pedagogy forlearner autonomy among EFL learners in the Chinese tertiary context. To achieve thispurpose, this study followed the development research approach, in which four stepswere undertaken: problem analysis, initial model construction, empirical test of themodels and evaluation of the outcomes. The preliminary investigation into the studieson learner autonomy both at home and abroad helped us to focus on the main issuesconcerning the promotion of learner autonomy in the Chinese tertiary context. Froman extensive review of the literature it was found that research into language learnerautonomy in the Chinese tertiary context needed to be supplemented in two aspects.First, these studies often gave an incomplete picture of learner autonomy in theChinese tertiary context because of ideological and semantic conflicts, andfragmentary theories on the construct of learner autonomy. This limitation in turn ledto limitations in the research design aiming to foster autonomy. Second, most researchon self-access aiming at promoting learner autonomy was practice-led and there was apressing need for a sound pedagogy for self-access which was built on a cleartheoretical framework and supported by well-designed research. Because of the needto approach learner autonomy from multi-dimensional, contextual and operationalperspectives, this study hypothesized two conceptual models. The first modelhypothesized that learner autonomy in the Chinese tertiary learning context is both aconstruct of learner attributes and a construct of learning contexts. Learner attributesare defined in this paper as attitudes and awareness, self-management skills andautonomous learning behaviors to take charge of one’s learning. Learning contexts,here refer to both a physical context to allow for learner to exercise control over theirlearning and a teacher-learner interactive learning context. The second model intendedto operationalize learner autonomy through self-access hypothesized that apedagogical model for self-access learning consists of three basic elements: the goals of the self-access program, the intervention program, and the evaluation of theprogram.Empirical evidence was sought for the validity of the two hypothesized modelsfrom four separate researches.Research1was undertaken for dual purpose: to give empirical support of thethree conceptual dimensions of learner attributes in autonomy in the first model, andto provide a validated survey instrument to measure students’ level of autonomy forthe present study. Data from11expert teachers and three samples of1,423studentswere used to test content validity, construct validity and internal consistency of theintended scale. Results produced a38-item, three-factor solution supported byacceptable fit indices in two confirmative factor analysis. The three factors wereconsistent with the three dimensions of learner attributes in the first model, suggestingthat the hypothesized model of learner attributes in autonomy was statisticallysupported. Good performance in the validity and reliability criteria indicated that theinstrument offered value for the present study.Research2served as a diagnostic survey in this study, the purpose of which wasto uncover how students under study were ready for learner autonomy so thatappropriate intervention measures could be designed accordingly. Data were collectedfrom both the validated AELS and an interview among a convenience sample of731potential subjects for this study. Findings of this research indicated that the subjectsappeared psychologically, but not technically ready for learner autonomy and therewere gaps between their belief, their perceived ability and their actual learningbehaviors. The mismatch indicated that an intervention program needed to bedeveloped so that students could reasonably be expected to exercise managementskills.Research3and Research4were conducted to test the first model that bothphysical learning context and the teacher-learner interactive learning context areconstructs of learner autonomy in the Chinese tertiary context. In order to have moreuniformly distributed sampling before the research,603students out of1,300potentialsubjects were chosen as the subjects in these two researches because of their approximately equivalent scores in the pre-test of the AELS and of listeningproficiency. These subjects were divided into three groups: Both Group One (223students) and Group Two (183students) adopted the self-access listening mode inwhich the subjects learnt their listening independently according to the assignmentsgiven by their teachers in the SAC. Group Three (197students) adopted the classroomlistening instruction. The three groups had the same required learning time forlistening, used the same text books, took the same tests in the final examinations.Arrangement was made at this time so that every three groups were taught by thesame teachers. Four teachers participated in the research.Research3was carried out to test the hypothesis that the provision of the SCA,the physical context by itself would contribute to the development of students’autonomy. In this research both Group One and Group Two were taken as thetreatment group, while Group Three as the control group. A pre-and post-test designwas used. The pre-test instruments included the AELS pre-test, and the listeningpre-test. The post-test instruments not only involved the above quantitativeapproaches but also qualitative approaches such as teacher and student open-endedquestionnaires, and interviews. It was hypothesized that the treatment group woulddemonstrate greater language autonomy than the control group by the end of thisresearch. Results of the one-semester research indicated that the control groupexcelled in the development of their language autonomy, but the treatment groupproduced greater listening achievement than the control group. Although this researchfailed to present convincing results in regard to its hypothesis, it did provide somesupport for the first model in that students’ autonomy in language learning can not bepromoted by simply providing a physical environment for students to learn in.Research4was designed to serve dual purpose:1) to test the first model that theteacher-learner interactive learning context together with the SAC is constructs oflearner autonomy in the Chinese tertiary context, and2) to test the second model thatthe hypothesized pedagogical model for self-access learning works toward thepromotion of learner autonomy. In this research Group One which received anintervention program was the intervention group (I-group) while Group Two which remained intact from any intervention was the control group (C-group). Apart fromthe quantitative approach such as the AELS survey and listening tests, this researchemployed teachers’ journals and seminars, learning logs, interviews, and open-endedquestionnaires.This research was designed as an action research, in which the sixsteps—problem identification, hypotheses, planning action, intervention, evaluationand planning future action were taken. It lasted for two semesters and was divided intotwo phases. On the basis of the evaluation of Research2and3, the interventionmeasures at Phase1were characterized by the development of the Self-accessListening Syllabus and the use of learning logs. The evaluation of Phase1revealedthat the I-group experienced greater, although not significant, improvement in theirattributes in autonomy than the C-group. Problems identified in Phase1generatedanother cycle of action research for Phase2.The focus of Phase2was to design a teachers’ support learning structure, astructure which integrated the classroom instruction with the self-access learningtogether with individual teachers’ action research and their reflective approaches apartfrom the use of learning logs. A third sample—the classroom listening mode (theCL-group) was added in this phase to see if this group still remained superior in thedevelopment of learner autonomy as shown in Research3. An evaluation of thequantitative and the qualitative data in this phase showed that the I-group producedthe best results in the development of students’ autonomy compared with the C-groupand the CL-group. This finding supported empirically the initial assumption thatlearner autonomy is a teacher-learner interactive construct. Findings of this researchalso confirmed the validity of the three elements of a pedagogical model forself-access learning—goal, intervention and evaluation, but a refinement was madeabout the model that teacher autonomy is an important factor in a pedagogicalprogram that aims to promote learner autonomy among the Chinese tertiary EFLlearners. But this research failed to find a significantly linear correlation betweenstudents’ autonomy in language learning and their listening performance.The findings of this study highlight a number of issues, which have wider implications. First and foremost, teachers’ autonomy support is a prerequisite for thedevelopment of learner autonomy in the Chinese tertiary learning context. For moststudents, their language autonomy has to be learnt and developed with the help of theteacher. Second, learner autonomy is constantly being negotiated within theteacher-learner interactive relationship. How much the teacher holds back frominfluencing his/her students and how much the student holds back from seekinginfluence from his/her teacher is a constantly negotiated process towards learnerautonomy. Third, teacher autonomy is an important element in pedagogical attemptsto promote learner autonomy in the Chinese tertiary context. Teachers’ willingness tohelp students take responsibility for their learning and their capacities for self-directedprofessional development are two crucial factors in such pedagogical practice. Fourth,the cycles of an action research has proved to be valuable strategies in the interventionprogram of the study, the value of which calls for more attention of both teachers andresearchers of the similar background.