Keywords

1 Introduction

Earlier chapters of this book have emphasized the importance of motivation in second language acquisition, and most practising teachers would surely concur with Tudor’s (1996) view that, when learners are motivated, the whole process of education is more enjoyable for all concerned: the teacher enters the classroom with a lighter step, and learning is more likely to be retained. Consequently, when attending conferences on language teaching, I am not surprised to see the popularity of sessions on how to motivate learners. Typically, such sessions are “learner-centred”, offering attractive and stimulating activities based on the teacher’s close knowledge of his/her learners. However, in most cases, it is the teacher who decides on behalf of the students what will motivate them. If such activities create the idea that language learning is pleasurable, they should help to foster intrinsic motivationFootnote 1: but will such motivation be sufficient to keep the learner motivated even when tasks necessary to mastering the language are not quite so much fun? Perhaps, with Ushioda (1996), we should ask some slightly different questions – not only, how can we, as teachers, motivate our learners? but also “how can we help learners to motivate themselves? […] can we help learners to generate and sustain the appropriate kind of motivational behaviour that characterizes autonomous learning?” (p. 2, author’s italics). Indeed, Ushioda (2012) has argued convincingly that learner autonomy is the answer to just this type of long-lasting, self-sustaining motivation.

In this chapter I consider how and why learner autonomy can enhance motivation. In order to do so, I discuss the interrelatedness of a range of affective variables including anxiety, self-esteem, engagement and agency, and how these in turn impact negatively or positively on motivation. I go on to consider specific examples of practices designed to promote learner autonomy. Drawing on evidence from my own research with university English language learners, I examine the impact of these practices on their motivation.

The results of the study appear to confirm that greater learner control can, indeed, impact positively on learner motivation, and I pinpoint which practices seem to lead to this positive outcome. Nonetheless, there is also some evidence that such practices may have a de-motivating effect. I discuss possible reasons for these reactions and how they were tackled in the present study.

The purpose of this chapter is to help teachers seeking to promote learner autonomy to harness the powerful affective factors in their favour, while being aware of the pitfalls which may be met on the way. As a result, I hope that the teacher-researcher will be better prepared if negative reactions or resistance do occur and hence more able to give learners the support they need.

2 The Interrelationship between the Affective Variables and Autonomy

In this section I discuss the links between motivation and other affective variables.Footnote 2 I start by discussing anxiety, before looking at the connection between anxiety and self-esteem. This leads me on to the subject of engagement with learning and its relationship with motivation, which is likewise influenced by self-esteem.

2.1 Anxiety

Although anxiety about exam success may motivate learners to study harder, the most obvious effects of this emotion are overwhelmingly negative. Krashen’s (1982) concept of the affective filter is helpful in visualizing how anxiety rises up like a barrier, acting as a block on effective learning, so that acquisition is significantly reduced and performance impaired. In everyday parlance, we might say that our mind goes blank, or we lose track of our ideas when we are experiencing excessive stress.

Under these circumstances, the learner will be resistant to change and to assimilating new ideas, which will be perceived as threatening. Unfortunately, language learning appears to generate particularly high levels of anxiety for many people, arising from factors such as the fear of making mistakes and the necessity of expressing ideas in a way which may seem hesitant or childish, particularly for older learners (Arnold Morgan 2007). If we add the additional pressure of asking learners to take on new responsibilities which are outside their normal experience, such as when promoting learner autonomy, it becomes doubly important to ensure that students experience relatively low anxiety levels.

2.2 Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Self-Esteem

The expression self-efficacy belief, coined by Bandura (1997), refers to a person’s perception of their competence in a particular area. Self-efficacy beliefs may or may not be based on truth, but low self-efficacy beliefs tend to lead to under-achievement and avoidance strategies in the area of perceived weakness, hence reinforcing the negative self-belief. Weak self-efficacy beliefs may also lead to anxiety. For example, if learners believe that they cannot pronounce correctly they will inevitably feel more anxious when called upon to speak in front of others (Arnold Morgan 2007).

Self-efficacy beliefs are just one aspect of the more general concept of self-esteem. According to Legenhausen (2008), self-esteem is a pre-requisite for developing learner autonomy, as learners will not take responsibility for their learning unless they believe in themselves. High self-esteem motivates the learner to attempt ever more difficult tasks with confidence, and will protect the learner from much of the negative impact of failure (André and Lelord 2008; Poletti and Dobbs 1998). Learners with low self-esteem, on the other hand, will tend to take fewer risks and avoid challenges due to the expectation of failure. Consequently, they will have fewer successful experiences, confirming their estimation of themselves as lacking in self-worth. According to Arnold Morgan (2007) “the negative beliefs about oneself, which are part of low self-esteem, make it hard for a learner to be fully on task, as energy is split between the task and excessive concern with one’s lack of ability, or worth” (p. 147). The low self-confidence associated with negative self-perceptions leads to poor motivation and low levels of effort (Ridley 1997).

Although the fundamental self-concept, that is, the image one has of oneself, is established in early childhood, self-esteem is nonetheless highly malleable (André and Lelord 2008) and can be influenced, for good or ill, by positive or negative learning experiences or relationships with significant others.

2.3 Engagement

In addition to taking steps to counteract the negative influence of factors such as anxiety and building healthy self-esteem, the teacher must foster the learner's engagement, or emotional involvement (van Lier 1996), if effective learning is to take place. Engagement encourages the deep-processing of new knowledge which is necessary to transfer language from short-term to long-term memory (Stevick 1976; Arnold Morgan 2007).

In this section we have seen how the affective variables can impact on each other negatively, creating vicious circles which will reduce the effectiveness of learning and tend to prove self-reinforcing. However, if we can enlist the help of these same factors in the learning process, these vicious circles can be inverted, leading to a rising spiral of positive influences which increase and sustain the learner’s motivation to take on fresh challenges. To enlist these factors in our favour we need a pedagogy which fosters engagement, minimizes anxiety, promotes healthy self-esteem and gives learners opportunities to extend their self-efficacy beliefs.

3 Integrating the Affective Variables through a Pedagogy for Autonomy

Ideally, a pedagogy for autonomyFootnote 3 should meet the criteria just mentioned. If learners are communicating meanings which are relevant to them personally, about subjects which they are interested in, and over which they exercise choice, they are much more likely to be engaged in their learning (Deci 1980; Ushioda 2012; Williams and Burden 1997). Learning to exercise choice effectively and critically is also a vital part of developing autonomy (Macaro 1997; Ridley 1997). A pedagogy for autonomy implies that learners have opportunities to select and perform learning activities which are within their scope and where they will hence experience success, thus re-enforcing their self-efficacy beliefs. If learners are able to gradually extend into their Zones of Proximal Development,Footnote 4 with the support of peers and teacher, their self-esteem is fostered, and they can be expected to extend their confidence in their capacity to take on new tasks, thus widening the scope of their self-efficacy beliefs. The key is optimum challenge (Arnold Morgan 2007; Csikszentmihalyi 1990).

Nonetheless, it is also widely acknowledged that progress towards autonomy can be slow, difficult and, at times, painful (Little 1991). In the rest of this chapter I examine evidence of the affective impact – both positive and negative – of my own attempts to implement aspects of a “pedagogy for autonomy”.

4 Participants in the Study

The data discussed in this chapter are taken from two case studies taking place over consecutive academic years as part of an action research project conducted at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. All the students involved were members of my own English Language classes, in the second year of the degree of English Philology. The activities were carried out during time-tabled classes with all students present on the occasion concerned (between 20 and 25 students), however data analysis was limited to those students who attended at least 60 % of classes and completed all the questionnaires and interviews (14 students in the first study, 18 in the second).

In terms of their educational background, students had almost without exception been used to a very passive learning style, based on the rote-memorization of information presented to them, often in pre-digested form, by their teachers. There had been little opportunity, even during their first year at university, for independent research, and they were not accustomed to questioning accepted methods of language learning, based on the routine completion of exercises from a set text book. Choice over subject-matter or learning materials was practically unknown.

The activities described below were planned, delivered and analysed by myself, their English Language teacher, as participant observer. The intervention took place over one academic year, in each case, although the second case study also included a follow-up phase, during the year after the intervention concluded.

5 Tasks Set

In both studies, I introduced a series of measures intended to help learners take greater responsibility for their own learning. These included self-assessment and goal-setting, choice of learning materials, peer-review of written and oral work, peer instruction, and the use of a learning-to-learn Portfolio, as well as periodic, structured reflections (described in Wilkinson 2010). Inspiration for the activities came largely from the work of Dam (1995, 2008), Legenhausen (2008), Little and Perclová (2001) and Wenden (1987), as well as the European Language Portfolio.

During the second study I introduced two series of group “learning to learn” tutorials designed to deal with some of the problems which arose during the intervention. Two series of activities proved to be of particular relevance to the theme of this chapter, namely, choice over learning materials, in this case, in the form of a personally-selected “set book”, and the self-assessment and goal-setting cycle. I will describe these processes in a little more detail below.

5.1 The Set Book

In the second-year course students traditionally studied a set modern novel, chosen by the teacher. This book then became an important focus for a significant part of class- and homework assignments. In order to foster students’ ability to select their own learning materials, it seemed logical to delegate the choice of this book to the students. Students were therefore asked to browse libraries, bookshops and the Internet for information on potential books, and write brief reviews, which were collated in a class “catalogue” to help guide their choice. During the year, students carried out various language tasks in relation to their chosen novel. All the tasks performed in relation to this novel had a genuine communicative objective since students were discussing books which neither their class-mates nor their teacher had read.

5.2 The Goal-Setting Cycle

At the start of the academic year, students evaluated themselves against the self-assessment grid from the Common European Reference Framework (CERF). They used this self-assessment to determine general goals for their learning, and through discussion with peers, went on to choose activities they could carry out autonomously to help them improve on their weak points. At first, students’ goals were rather vague and sometimes over-ambitious. In the second study, I gave students, partway through the course, a very specific list of evaluation criteria for the final exams, in order to enable them to target their learning needs more accurately, and employ their time more effectively. I derived these criteria from insider knowledge of what my colleagues and I were actually looking for in evaluating students, although this information was not officially recorded anywhere at the time.

Subsequently, students laid out their goals and proposed learning activities in a simple learning contract (or individual learning plan), which could then be discussed with the teacher. The group tutorials in the second study allowed teacher and students together to refine goal-setting skills and share ideas in a safe, collaborative environment.

6 Data Collection and Analysis

Data were collected throughout both projects by means of a range of questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and, in the second project, the transcripts and video-recordings of the group tutorials. These data were complemented with my own classroom observations, recorded in a research log, email communications, notes and transcripts from spontaneous conversations. Closed questions from the questionnaires were analysed statistically, and the open questions and interview transcripts were subjected to detailed content analysis (Dörnyei 2007; Richards 2003) to determine key themes and issues arising.

7 Results

Sifting through the immense body of largely qualitative data revealed four key areas concerning the relationship between autonomy and motivation:

  1. 1.

    The correspondence between usefulness and enjoyment.

  2. 2.

    The importance of sharing ideas.

  3. 3.

    The impact of choosing learning materials.

  4. 4.

    Mixed reactions to, and a developing “relationship” with self-assessment and goal-setting.

With regard to the first of these areas, there was a very close correlation between the activities which students reported enjoying, and those which they felt were useful. The activity which scored by far the highest on both these criteria was choice over learning materials, especially with regard to the work with the set book. Researching and presenting topics and materials from the Internet was also popular, although some students felt it was less useful, as they tended to waste more time and get more easily distracted.

Reviewing each other’s written compositions was also held to be very useful, as students considered it helped them become more aware of their own errors and improve the quality of their writing, a key to passing the all-important end-of-year exams. Students recognized that explaining grammar points to each other, rather than just listening to the teacher, helped them assimilate the rules better, although some discomfort was expressed at carrying out a task which they felt was really the teacher’s job.

Students found it very encouraging to share their ideas about how to learn better. Comments emphasized the importance of realizing you know something which is helpful to someone else, a situation which builds self-confidence and a trusting, supportive classroom environment (both key factors in nourishing self-esteem – see Legenhausen 2013).

As already mentioned, the activities associated with the free choice of a modern novel received an outstandingly positive reception, as reflected in the comments below:

It seems to me more productive than reading a book chosen by others – if you have a special interest by a book or film, you learn faster. It encourages you to read more in the future.Footnote 5

Choosing a book freely amazed me since I had always read a book out of a sense of duty without the chance of choosing the title of it.

The comments were often highly emotive, including expressions such as: “a special interest/encourages/amazed/delighted/enjoy”. (Although the students were in their second year of an English Philology degree, and had to read many books in English for their literature courses, I discovered that the majority of students had never read a book in English for pleasure and on their own initiative).

Self-assessment and goal-setting were found to help students focus their attention on their learning needs and gain many useful ideas from their peers about how to improve their learning. However a small minority of students appeared to find the process threatening or discouraging:

This activity only shows our deficiency in some points of English that we have to improve […] I only know what problems I have.

In general I don’t like thinking about goals because if you don’t achieve them you feel frustrated. From my point of view it’s better to work bit by bit, without persecuting big and sometimes impossible aims.

These reactions, one from one of the weakest students, and one from a very able, but perfectionist, student, warn us of the possible negative impact on students’ self-esteem of carrying out this type of self-assessment. The second student’s reference to persecuting (presumably pursuing) “big and sometimes impossible aims” offers a useful starting point for the discussion on how to set appropriate, achievable goals which will serve as encouraging stepping-stones to help students measure and celebrate their progress.

In the second case study, using Learning Contracts and with the support of small group tutorials, goal-setting was developed much further. A number of students considered that referring to the very specific evaluation criteria provided had improved their confidence, by giving them a clearer idea of what they were aiming for.

INFootnote

Boxed extracts are taken from the group tutorials. The students are represented by their initials and myself, as interviewer/facilitator, by ‘Int’.

:

When I did my autonomous learning contract I had to read this (the teachers’ evaluation criteria), and I think I focussed on what I am worst at.

Int:

Is that a good feeling or a bad feeling?

IN:

It’s good to know what you need to focus on, so you worry a bit more about those aspects, and then once, if you go to the exam knowing that you have focussed on what you are worst at, you feel more confident.

On the other hand, several students expressed anxiety when first asked to set personal learning goals: “we are like kids. We need to be told what we have to learn, we are not able to decide what we need to learn”. Others just found it “weird” because they had never thought about their goals before. Nonetheless, as we continued to review goals over the year, sharing ideas in group tutorials, some of the most outspoken students began to express different opinions on this subject.

Int:

Ok, so when I first asked you to do this, your reaction was, “it’s a waste of time”.

CLM:

Yes, at first. […] But when we realise what is it, we find it very useful.

Int:

Are you saying that honestly? You do genuinely find it useful?

CLM:

Yes, I think so, I think we will need to do it in all the other things in life, having an order, what I want to do, what I need to do. […] it’s not just, following the educational system, it’s just think about what you want, what you want to achieve.

PP:

At the beginning I hated it… (the Learning Contract)

Int:

Yes, good be honest.

PP:

No, no, that was at the beginning, because I can’t explain why, maybe I don’t like to be put in order, and this is some kind of an order, something I have to do, but then I talked to you, we talked, 2 weeks ago, and now I really find it, not only for our English classes, I find it useful, I’ve made my own life contract with goals.

A year later, in the follow-up interview, PP said the following:

I think I told you, I have made a life contract, with my own personal goals. Now I’m trying to make them true, to make them real. I try to be more specific, not to try to do the very best, not to be so perfectionist. Because I get very disappointed, if things are not perfect, then I stop, I don’t finish. So I try to do things the way I can, and I’m more relaxed. It’s completely different.

This was CLM’s comment on the process of goal-setting, a year on:

It’s like someone has opened you a new door. You just see new things, and new ways to analyse things […] it’s been a general change also in myself, not just in the way I see studies, in the way I see everything […] because before I centred myself more on trivial things than on the important things. Now I’m changing, I’m in the process…

The comments of both these students, who initially felt very anxious about setting and pursuing their own goals, suggest that they had seen the relevance of this process, not only to their immediate studies, but also as a more general life-skill. This accords with Little’s (1991, p.4) view that “the capacity for autonomy will be displayed both in the way the learner learns and in the way he or she transfers what has been learned to wider contexts” (my italics).

8 Discussion

Given that the participants were university students studying the degree of their choice, the correlation between enjoyment and perceived usefulness of learning activities is perhaps unsurprising: we might expect similar attitudes from any group of self-motivated adult learners. Amongst all the results, choice over learning activities stands out as the most intrinsically motivating activity. Students were more engaged in their work and specifically affirmed that they learned more because they were paying closer attention to the materials they had chosen. The agency which freedom of choice allowed appeared to be experienced as empowering and led to a greater sense of ownership of the work generated from these materials, all of which was unique.

The sense of threat which goal-setting evoked for a few students seemed to be related largely to their previous learning experience. Never before had they been asked to think about their own goals. At the start of the year, most students considered that all aspects of planning learning were the exclusive province of the teacher (see Wilkinson 2012). The impact of this belief on students’ initial willingness to take greater responsibility for their learning can be explained by means of the concept of socially-mediated motivation (Ushioda 2003; Dörnyei and Ushioda 2011). Dörnyei and Ushioda suggest that motivation may be far more context-dependent than has generally been assumed and that it is therefore a mistake to think of a learner’s motivation in isolation from his or her place in the society to which he or she belongs. In their view, the peer group, educational background, social and cultural expectations, etc., all help the learner to formulate a set of beliefs about what is right, “proper” and to be expected in carrying out an activity, such as learning a language. These psychological constructs inevitably affect the learner’s willingness (or motivation) to adapt to innovative ways of learning.

The belief that certain activities, like selecting learning goals and materials, were “the teacher’s job”, also appeared to combine with students’ low sense of self-efficacy in these areas. As they had never been required to perform these tasks before, the learning curve was, at first, steep.

Fortunately, continuity with an innovative task, combined, in the second study, with group tutorials, seemed to offer the scaffolding students needed to overcome their initial reservations and enjoy the benefits of the new way of working. These results seem to confirm Little’s (1991) analysis:

it is a common experience that attempts to make learners conscious of the demands of a learning task and the techniques with which they might approach it, lead in the first instance to disorientation and a sense that learning has become less rather than more purposeful and efficient. However, when the process is successful, it brings rich rewards (p. 21).

9 Conclusion

Introducing choice of learning materials proved so motivating for students that this would seem to be a good place to start if a teacher is wondering what first steps to take to promote learner autonomy. This is one of the simplest ways to hand over responsibility and to give learners a greater sense of agency. Through group or individual project work, choice can be central at any level of the education system, as long as suitable materials are accessible to learners. Thanks to the Internet, authentic and appropriate materials are universally available. By choosing the materials which will help them develop their skills, students start to feel ownership of their learning, which therefore becomes more relevant to them. Consequently they pay more attention, and are more likely to assimilate and apply the knowledge they are exposed to. With all these advantages, it is unfortunate that many teachers still continue to take the main responsibility for selecting learning materials for their students on the basis of what they think will be interesting or relevant for them. Although learners may initially need some guidance in determining what is most suitable, it is by exploring different resources that they gradually develop the ability to choose, which is surely one of the most important skills involved in autonomous learning.

Self-assessment, goal-setting, reflection and evaluation are key tools to help learners take greater control (Dam 1995; Dam and Little 1998). When carried out successfully and consistently, such tools have the potential to radically increase learners’ sense of their own agency and control over their learning, whilst providing them with a vital life-skill which can be transferred to other areas of learning (Wilkinson 2013a, b).

At the same time, the anxiety which some students experienced when asked to take a more active role in their learning threatened at times to undermine their motivation and the success of the project. The reasons for these difficulties seemed to derive from the teachers’ and learners’ constructs or beliefs about the learning process and their role within it. This would appear to confirm Ushioda’s (1996) view that “[w]hat learners believe about themselves is crucially important to their capacity for self-motivation” (author’s italics) and, moreover, that “effective motivational thinking hinges on the preservation of a positive self-concept in relation to the activity in question” (p. 55).

If learners are to become more autonomous, they must take on tasks which they have previously considered were exclusively the “teacher’s job”. Should they have no experience of these tasks, they may doubt their competence to accomplish them. Such self-doubt can lead to their feeling anxious and threatened by the new requirements – a reaction which will create resistance, rather than cooperation. It is therefore important at all times to proceed with caution, taking into account students’ previous learning culture and beliefs about language learning.

Fortunately, if small steps are taken, with appropriate scaffolding from teacher and peers, and if learners are given choice and an increasing sense of control over the learning process, together with successful learning experiences, this should build a stronger sense of agency and a more positive self-image, which will, in turn, increase intrinsic motivation. Increased intrinsic motivation and improved self-efficacy beliefs create a rising spiral, or virtuous circle, of increased attention, improved focus, higher levels of effort and more effective learning, creating a win-win learning situation for all.

Questions for Reflection on Future Teaching Practice

  1. 1.

    According to Dam (1995, p. 79), “A prerequisite for developing learner autonomy is a feeling of confidence, trust, acceptance and respect on the part of teachers and learners alike.” How do you/could you promote such an atmosphere in your classroom, to help students overcome any anxiety they may feel both in learning the language and in taking on new responsibilities for their learning?

  2. 2.

    How can you ensure that learners experience success in managing their own learning, thus helping to create new self-efficacy beliefs which will help them counteract their conviction that “that’s the teacher’s job”?

  3. 3.

    How much choice do your learners have about learning materials, activities, objectives etc.? Could you give them more than they already have?

  4. 4.

    Many teachers say, “I’ve tried learner autonomy. The students don’t like it,” or “It doesn’t work,” and have given up. Bearing in mind the educational background of your students, how can you “scaffold” the transition towards autonomy, whether by introducing responsibility step-by-step or by explicitly discussing the rationale behind what you are doing?