by

Beata Opałka

The importance of learner autonomy understood as the capability, not an inborn ability, to govern and regulate one’s own thoughts, feelings, and actions freely and responsibly, while at the same time overcoming feelings of shame and doubt – is increasingly recognized by educators. It is emphasized that the underlying components of learner autonomy, that is, readiness to learn, willingness to take responsibility for the process of learning and confidence in one’s ability as a learner, ought to be strengthened by the environment in which learners find themselves. It is also believed that promoting learner autonomy should be very profitable for learners as they get consciously involved in language processing and begin to develop their individual strategies. Moreover, learners may find their individual learning styles, start to believe in their own abilities and, finally, gain independence (Gwiazda-Rzepecka, 2000).

One way to do it is ‘having language learners think about language learning – their own beliefs about learning and their preferred learning strategies, for example – through retrospection’ (Matsumoto, 1996:143). It means that raising learners’ awareness of the language learning process could be done through the learners’ own reflection on how they learn. Reflection makes learners active in the sense that they learn to analyse their learning strategies, thus, they start to make decisions, e.g., whether to improve them or not, and in what way. As a result, the learners’ autonomy from the teacher increases. Besides, reflection may transform failure into feedback when mistakes are treated as a source of information on their progress. However, reflecting is a skill which has to be learnt and practised (Robles, 1998). Generally, learners are not expected to reflect upon their own learning processes, analysing and evaluating their classroom language learning experience. When asked to e.g., keep journals and analyse their records they become sort-of researchers deliberately examining their own language learning. Other retrospective tasks, such as interviews, group or class discussion and structured questionnaires also encourage learners to reflect upon classroom learning through retrospection. These retrospective activities may help learners to take responsibility for their language learning processes as autonomous learners and to form a habit of reflecting on their own learning (Matsumoto, 1996).

In some studies (Bailey 1983, Matsumoto, 1986, 1996) diary-keeping proved to be beneficial to learners’ language learning. In fact, merits of journal writing are multiple not only for learner but also for teachers (Eken, 2001) . Keeping a journal may help:

1. promote the creation of an effective learning and teaching environment full of genuine interaction, sympathy, appreciation and respect, and give learners a real sense of achievement.

2. study the process of teaching and learning, raise learners’ awareness of their own language learning. It may also help teachers cater better to their learners’ needs and expectations and make any necessary adjustments. Moreover, it could be used as a research tool for investigation into the learning strategies learners already use or are in the process of acquiring.

3. record events and ideas for the purpose of later reflection. As a result, it may help teachers guide their actions by reflection and critical thinking and arrive at their own judgments as what works and what does not work in their classrooms. Additionally, journal-writing may help learners discover things about themselves, their learning difficulties or anxieties, think critically about their weaknesses and strengths.

4. promote a process of discovery teaching (or inductive teaching), where a process of writing itself helps trigger insights about teaching/learning, consequently helping learners develop the awareness of methodology.

5. tap into affective factors (giving a sense of freedom. Journal-writing could be treated as a means of relaxation. Besides, receiving immediate feedback makes learners feel valued and increases their self-confidence.) and learners’ own perceptions (they develop critical thinking skills and gain intelectual maturity, that is, are able to draw conclusions, make generalisations, suggest solutions).

 

We should also bear in mind that learning to write needs to take into account fluency development and journal witing provides informal autonomous writing practice (Oxbrow, 2000). In the case of my students it was the first reason why I decided to introduce journal writing to my classes. Generally, my students only read specialised texts or talk about various specialised topics. They do not really need to write in English for even the final exam is oral. Despite such a dismotivating situation I started to introduce tasks requiring writing, such as designing crosswords and quizes, writing grammar and vocabulary exercises, or writing a recipe for a healthy dish, writing an advert for a drug (based on a Polish advert) and writing a short passage (based on an article in a specialised periodical from the university library). However, writing journals not only provided my students with an opportunity to practise writing skills but also express their opinions on language learning and to reflect on their own language learning.

1. Bailey, K. M. 1983. ‘Competitiveness and anxiety in adult second language learning: Looking at and through the diary studies’ in H. W. Seliger and M. H. Long (eds.), Classroom Oriented Research in Second Language Acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

2. Eken, A. N. 2001, An inner journy, English Teaching professional 19, 48-50.

3. Gwiazda-Rzepecka, B. 2000, Autonomy in the classroom environment – work in progress, Network 3/3 32-35.

4. Matsumoto, K. 1989. ‘An analysis of a JapaneseESL learner’s diary: factors involved in the L2 learning process’. JALT Journal 11: 167-92.

5. Matsumoto, K. 1996, Helping L2 learners reflect on classroom learning, ELT Journal 50/2 143- 149.

6. Oxbrow, G. 2000, Writing to learn: dialogue journals and strategy training. TDAL SIG Newsletter 4 available at http://www.iatefl.org.pl/sig/al./n4w2learn.htm

7. Robles, A. 1998, Reflective learning:why and how, Modern English Teacher 7/1 43-46.