Increasing Autonomy in Learners of EAP Writing: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Many in the field of education suggest that the capacity for learner autonomy is a worthwhile goal for teachers and learners to strive for. Developing a learner’s capacity for learner autonomy involves equipping them with individual skills, overarching strategies and certain beliefs about the learning process and their role within it. Our learners will not always have a teacher to go to with their questions, so it is important that they can write autonomously throughout their tertiary studies, as well as after they complete their education and enter the workforce. There is still little in the way of concrete suggestions for how to balance the necessities of the educational context while simultaneously fostering the skills, strategies and beliefs associated with autonomy in our learners.

In the current study, the instructor developed and implemented a comprehensive plan to lead Japanese university students from a passive, teacher-centred approach towards a capacity for learner autonomy in an EAP writing course. The instructor taught and scaffolded self review and peer review throughout the course, as well as self assessment and guided reflection. Then questionnaire data was collected at the end of the one-semester course to ascertain learner perceptions of the activities in the course and their take-home beliefs about the writing process. The guiding questions for the research were as follows: When activities designed to promote the capacity for learner autonomy are used systematically over a period of one semester, to what extent do learners become capable of self-directed process writing? When the process approach is used and reflected on systematically over a period of one semester, to what extent do learners leave the semester with an appreciation for the importance of the writing process?

The questionnaire data showed that the learners believed they had improved a little in their ability to effectively self-review their own writing and believed they had improved more in their ability to peer-review the writing of their classmates. They also felt that the self-review question sheet had helped them a little, whereas the peer-review question sheet had helped them more. Most students reported that they would make an effort to have their writing peer-reviewed even if they were not required to by their teachers in future courses. The questionnaire data also showed that students felt that proofreading their own draft was the most important step in the writing process, followed by receiving feedback on their drafts. However, they felt that the prewriting steps were less important. The chapter will discuss the ways in which the course was adapted in an attempt to foster learner autonomy and the results of the questionnaire in detail before suggesting implications for others in the field who would like to foster more autonomy in their learners.

Appendices

Appendices

1.1 Appendix A: PLP Introduction for Students

1.1.1 Personal Learning Plan

A personal learning plan is a long-term, self-directed assignment with the main aim of improving your biggest weakness in writing (which can also be called your “focus area”).

Everybody has different strengths and weaknesses in writing, and the word personal shows that this assignment is unique to each individual. Even if two people have the same weakness, different activities will be more effective for different people because people have different learning styles.

The word learning shows that when you improve on your biggest weakness, you will be learning something. Not only that, you will also learn other things during your PLP. You will learn about different methods of improving your focus area. That means that even if this PLP is not so successful, after the semester is over, you will have methods to keep improving on that area. Furthermore, the skills you learn in your PLP can be used to improve other focus areas in the future. The process you go through when you complete your PLP is an important process that can be used for almost any learning.

The word plan shows that you are controlling your learning. You should not just sit back and wait for learning to hit you but rather actively decide what to learn and how to learn it.

1.2 Appendix B: Example PLP Report

1.2.1 Writing PLP

I tried to improve the range of my expression in my writing PLP. This is because I cannot think of the exact words to convey my real feelings or ideas when I write an essay. Even if I could recall those words, I would have no confidence to use them. Therefore, I used an English paper dictionary to look up words whose meanings I did not know, when I found them. Then, I wrote down sentences or phrases with those words into one notebook. However, I could not remember them easily, so I tried to continue reading them before going to bed or during my free time. Through these methods, I could feel that the range of my expression is broadening.

I thought of some ways to solve my writing problem in which I did not have enough words to explain my ideas correctly. They were “to use an English-English dictionary”, “to use an English paper dictionary”, “to write down new words many times until I have remembered them” and “to make sentences with words which I do not know and gather them into one notebook”. The reason why I tried to use a paper dictionary was to be able to take notes on it when I looked up my unfamiliar words. It is important because I can check them next time, and they will tell me which words I mistake many times. Therefore, I decided to carry out this method for my writing PLP. Moreover, I chose the way to make sentences with words whose meanings I did not know and write them down into one notebook. This is because making sentences or phrases with these words makes me able to memorize them with their usage and correct collocation. It also would enable me to hit on the exact words which suit the situations and use such words in the correct circumstances. For these reasons, I decided to carry out these two methods to solve the problem of my writing. At the end of this semester, I had a test by myself to check my development.

The number of words which I looked up was more than 500. Moreover, I read them before going to bed or during my free time to memorize them. These methods have two good points and one bad point. The first advantage is I could review these words easily. I could go over them with only one notebook, and I could also remember these words as certain phrases, because I memorized collocations of these words by reading them. I expect that I will be able to use a proper word depending on the situation by using these phrases. The second one is that I could notice my tendency of the words I looked up in the dictionary many times. This was done by checking some notes which had been taken before, and I got to pay more attention to such words. On the other hand, it took a lot of time, more than one and a half hours, to look up words in the English paper dictionary. This is a problem of using this method. Sometimes, I spent more than half the time of studying because of using a paper dictionary, and it became an obstruction of my studying. In this way, I noticed that my methods chosen to improve my vocabulary skills had both advantages and a problem.

On December 8th, I had a vocabulary test by myself to check how many words I remembered. The result of the test was that I had 327 correct answers and 208 mistakes. I gathered 535 words in my notebook, so it meant that I remembered about 60% of the words. Judging from this result, I think this method is neither good nor bad. This is because I spent a lot of time to look up my unfamiliar words in an English paper dictionary, but nevertheless I could know only about 60% of these words. However, I know 327 words now more than I knew in September. Therefore, I decided to start using an electrical dictionary instead of a paper dictionary to cut the time and continue to writing down sentences into one notebook and read them. In conclusion, through my writing PLP, I felt that my vocabulary ability improved comparing with myself in September, but I feel my vocabulary ability is still not enough to express my opinions or feelings exactly. Next semester, I will keep using these methods which are using an electrical dictionary to cut the time and writing down sentences to memorize easily. By using these methods, I will try to improve my vocabulary ability more efficiently in order to express my opinions more directly and correctly.

1.3 Appendix C: Self-Review Checklist

1.3.1 Questions for Review

Organization

• Does the paragraph have a title?

• Is the title a topic only?

• Is the title specific?

• Does the paragraph have a topic sentence?

• Is the topic sentence a complete sentence?

• Is the topic sentence general, covering all the information in the paragraph?

• Does the paragraph have supporting sentences?

• Do the supporting sentences offer detailed information?

• Are the ideas in the best order?

• Does the paragraph conclude strongly?

Content

• Is every sentence clear and easy to understand?

• Is the relationship between ideas clear?

• Are there any ideas that are not explained clearly?

• Are there any ideas that are not clearly related to the topic sentence?

Grammar

• Is every sentence a whole sentence?

• Do the subjects and verbs agree?

• Does every transitive verb have an object?

• Does every countable noun have an article or plural “s”?

• Are prepositions used correctly?

• Is each word used in the correct context?

1.4 Appendix D: Example Essay Reflection Sheet

1.4.1 Essay Reflection

• 1. Do you understand what a thesis statement is and how to write one?

  • Not at all   Somewhat   Yes, quite well   Yes, really well

• 2. Do you understand how to write body paragraphs?

  • Not at all   Somewhat   Yes, quite well   Yes, really well

• 3. Do you understand how to conclude an essay?

  • Not at all   Somewhat   Yes, quite well   Yes, really well

• 4. Were you able to conclude your essay well?

  • Not at all   Somewhat   Yes, quite well   Yes, really well

• 5. What was the hardest aspect of writing this essay?

• 6. What have you learnt about essay writing while writing this essay?

1.5 Appendix E: Class Reflection Questionnaire

Reflection

• 1. Do you think you are able to self-review your writing better than at the beginning of this semester?

  • Not at all better Not much better A little better Much better

• 2. Many teachers do not give time in class to self-review your writing and do not ask you specifically to self-review your writing. When you go on to EAP3 writing, will you continue to self-review your own writing before bringing it to class? Why?

• 3. Do you think you are better at peer-reviewing your classmates’ writing than at the beginning of this semester?

  • Not at all better Not much better A little better Much better

• 4. If your EAP3 teacher does not ask you to have your classmates peer-review your writing, will you ask them to peer-review it for you anyway before bringing it to class? Why?

• 5. From all of the tasks that we have done this semester, please choose how important you think each one is in terms of writing an essay:

  • (a). Brainstorming and considering different topics.

  • Not important If I have time Every time for writing class Every time for all

  • (b). Writing an outline

  • Not important If I have time Every time for writing class Every time for all

  • (c). Getting feedback on your outline

  • Not important If I have time Every time for writing class Every time for all

  • (d). Self-reviewing your own draft

  • Not important If I have time Every time for writing class Every time for all

  • (e). Getting feedback on your draft

  • Not important If I have time Every time for writing class Every time for all

  • (f). Writing multiple drafts

  • Not important If I have time Every time for writing class Every time for all

  • (g). Reading through your final draft again before submitting it

  • Not important If I have time Every time for writing class Every time for all

• 6. What is one thing that you liked about this course?

• 7. If you could change one thing about this course, what would you like to change?

1.6 Appendix F: PLP Reflection Questionnaire

1.6.1 PLP Reflection

• 1. Do you think that it was suitable doing one long PLP project, or do you think it would be better to do more, shorter PLP projects in EAP2? Why?

• 2. Were the example PLP reports useful to help you to understand what you should do for your PLP?

• 3. How easy was it for you to decide your focus area?

• Very difficult   Somewhat difficult   Somewhat easy   Very easy

• 4. How easy was it for you to decide your PLP activity(s)?

• Very difficult   Somewhat difficult   Somewhat easy   Very easy

• 5. The PLP is a self-direct learning activity, designed to improve your self-study skills, especially identifying a focus area, researching, evaluating and selecting appropriate materials and methods and evaluating your own progress.

  • (a). Do you think your ability to identify suitable focus areas improved as a result of your speaking and listening and writing PLPs? Why?

  • (b). Do you think your ability to research, evaluate and select appropriate materials and methods for self-study improved as a result of your speaking and listening and writing PLPs? Why?

  • (c). Do you think your ability to evaluate your own progress improved as a result of the speaking and listening and writing PLPs? Why?

• 6. Another purpose of the PLP is to introduce you to research skills that you will need in your future studies: identifying a topic, researching, actively doing something and then writing a report about the process. Although you haven’t actually done any research at AIU, yet do you think that this experience will be useful for you in terms of having a basic understanding of the research process and writing a research report once you start writing them? Why?

• 7. If there was one thing you would change about the PLP assignment, what would you change?