English Teaching and Autonomous Learning Conference

Conclusion

Purposes

1. The end product of education is an independent learner…(Mcdevitt 1997, p. 30).

2. Autonomous learner active learner success in distance learning

3. A Self-Learning Center survey (done in June, 2008)

– 826 respondents (SLC users, esp. the students whose teachers encouraged self-learning).

• http://ce.etweb.fju.edu.tw/slw/questionnaire.asp

What do you think is the strongest motivating force for English self-learning?

請問你一般學生要持續自修英文，最重要的動力（會）是什麼？老師算分 355老師鼓勵 17語測激勵 64出國或就業 190學習護照加點 2

興趣 146增廣見聞 36其他 5

What do you think is the strongest motivating force for English self-learning?

請問你一般學生要持續自修英文，最重要的動力（會）是什麼？

TOTAL

老師算分 355

老師鼓勵 17

語測激勵 64

出國或就業 190

學習護照加點 2

興趣 146

增廣見聞 36

其他 5

Liberal Arts老師算分 30老師鼓勵 9語測激勵 9出國或就業 43學習護照加點 0

興趣 42增廣見聞 9其他 2　 144

Foreign Languages

老師算分 2老師鼓勵 0語測激勵 3出國或就業 13學習護照加點 1興趣 19增廣見聞 9其他 0　 47

Management老師算分 11老師鼓勵 2語測激勵 19出國或就業 38學習護照加點 0興趣 31增廣見聞 4其他 0　 105

Did you get encouraged by your teachers to do self-learning? 請問你在本學期（年）

有沒有受到老師或系所學院鼓勵自修英語？ (可複選）•

If your English self-learning is not effective, what can be the reasons? 如果你覺得本學期進行英語自修的效果不佳，為什麼？

•

太忙 536

興趣不夠 154

外在動力不夠 240

學習資源不夠 20

方法不對 66

Tentative Conclusion• Teachers’ encouragement and guidance are

indispensible.

• Questions:

• How do English teachers foster S’s autonomy in learning and/or encourage students to do self-learning ?   

Possible but Still Difficult Answers1) Methods: offer Ss transferrable language learning

strategies and skills (e.g. cognitive skills in reading and writing, visualization skills, socialization strategies, syntactic awareness, etc.) in various courses;

2) Methods: adopt teaching strategies in support of autonomous learning (e.g. in determining the locus of control, assessment criteria, or giving comments, scaffolding; adding self-reflexive elements )

3) Motivating/Maintaining, and/or Monitoring? guide/encourage Ss to – use existing learning resources;

– set proper goals, and acquire a sense of achievement;

– build learning communities;

– develop reflection and metacognitive strategies.

Difficult because

• Ideas need to be concretized differently in different contexts; teachers need to be cognitively flexible to recognize student temperament interests and needs;

• Decisions need to be made between evaluating performativity and allowing freedom. (e.g. errors in LiveABC)

• It takes time to provide road maps, too.

More Questions …

1. Visualization with computer software – Inspiration, MS. Visual, concept map tools—can it be limiting?

2. How do we do scaffolding in teaching English majors, and non-English majors, without testing? If moving from multiple-choice Q’s to cognitive skill training is a method taken by GE teachers, how about teachers of Eng. Majors?

More Questions … from teaching, to learning, to self-learning

• What role(s) does a teacher play today, a knowledge-provider, a judge, a mentor, or a learning facilitator who offers them multiple choices in learning, and show them more in this world?

• Teacher: as a star, an unmoved mover (師父引進門，修行在個人 ), a coach or a shepherd?

• How about a self-learning center? • SLC’s doing fish-netting 一網打盡• SLC”s angling 姜太公釣魚願者上鉤

• Can the two work together as shepherds using an open garden? (Self-learning ecology--the relationships between the air, land, water, animals, plants, etc., usually of a particular area)

Thank you!

Especially all the staff members. . .