Learner autonomy in learning English reading skills

Learner autonomy in learning English reading skills is an area not being extensively explored in Vietnam so far. This study aims at investigating first-year English majored students’ perceptions of learner autonomy and their practices of learner autonomy in learning reading skills at a university in Vietnam.

1 INTRODUCTION

Learner autonomy is a topic of much concern for

scholars in the world However, in Viet Nam, few

researchers such as Dang Tan Tin (2010), Nguyen

Thanh Van (2011) had studies on the topic It is

obvious that in Vietnam, students are accustomed

to being obedient and passive in class and teachers

function as dictators in the class, i.e., not giving

students opportunities to decide on what and how

to learn In addition, research on learner autonomy

in reading skills is not widely found, particularly

in Vietnam This paper aims at reporting the

results of a research study on learner autonomy

NGO PHUONG ANH * , DAO THI HONG THUY **

* Hanoi University of Science and Technology,  anhbkhn@gmail.com

** Hanoi University of Science and Technology,  thuy.daothihong@hust.edu.vn

Received: 27/4/2019; Revised: 07/5/2019; Accepted: 17/5/2019

perception and practices of learning reading skills

in Vietnam More specifically, it attempts to find out evidence of students’ learner autonomy (LA)

in learning EFL reading skills, their perceptions of

LA concept, their habits and strategies in learning English reading skills

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Learner autonomy is defined by Holec (1981)

as the ability of students to take charge in their learning The concept bears the meaning of the students’ ability to observe and participate in new experience and then incorporate new knowledge

ABSTRACT

Learner autonomy in learning English reading skills is an area not being extensively explored in Vietnam so far This study aims at investigating first-year English majored students’ perceptions

of learner autonomy and their practices of learner autonomy in learning reading skills at a university in Vietnam Instruments used in the study consist of a questionnaire survey and depth interviews The structured questionnaire was administered to 99 participants and an in-depth interview was followed up with 11 students who were selected by their mark range from below average, above average and very good mark Two instruments were employed to triangulate data to fulfill the main aim of the research The results of the survey and the in-depth interview reveal that almost all the students understood the concept of learner autonomy and were aware of learning autonomous activities However, the in-depth interview results indicate that the students still wanted to be reliant on their teachers in class to gain better results It is suggested that teachers should make learners independent in their learning process In addition, teachers should create favorable learning environment to facilitate learner autonomy in learning reading skills

Keywords: learner autonomy, autonomous learners, reading learning strategies

LEARNER AUTONOMY IN LEARNING

ENGLISH READING SKILLS

into their existing knowledge and modify the latter

when needed

2.1 Autonomous language learners

According to Holec (1981), an autonomous learner

is a manager of his or her own learning processes

and he/she has the ability to determine the goals,

contents and progressions; choose and use methods

and techniques to achieve those objectives and

what has been acquired A quite similar opinion

is given by Sheerin (1997) i.e., learner autonomy

is the capacity of analyzing needs; setting

objectives; planning a program of work; choosing

materials and activities; working unsupervised and

evaluating progress Sheerin agrees with Holec

about three features of autonomous language

learners including (1) determining the objectives;

(2) selecting materials and techniques and (3)

evaluating what has been achieved; however, she

points out two other characteristics of working

without supervision Voller (1997) says that

“The truly autonomous learner would not need

a teacher at all” (p 107) Besides, in Ding’s

(2015) viewpoint, autonomous learners take

responsibility for (1) working without supervision;

(2) choosing material; (3) setting long-term and

short-term objectives; (4) prioritizing objectives;

(5) deciding when and how long to work on an

objective; (6) assessing progress; (7) evaluating

programs; (8) having a degree of knowledge of the

language system; and (9) being self-motivated and

self-disciplined The author also emphasized that

above all, autonomous learners must be disposed

to take responsibility and creative learners who are

capable of “stepping back” from learning in order

to assess what they are doing and why

From what are discussed earlier, an autonomous

language learner should be the one who (1)

takes responsibility for their whole learning;

(2) determines achievable targets and overall

objectives; (3) plans a program of work to achieve

the objectives set; (4) selects materials, methods

and techniques; (5) evaluates ones’ progress; (6) uses appropriate learning strategies; (7) has appropriate knowledge about the target language and language learning; and (8) has instinctive motivation

The eight key characteristics noted above are explored in this researching context

2.2 Autonomous learning strategies for reading skills

The success of learner autonomy may require the understanding of how to use different reading strategies effectively and efficiently Hence, learning and practicing are necessary accordingly Benson (2001, p 75) argued that “…fostering autonomy does not imply that we simply leave learners to their own devices, but that we actively encourage and assist them to take control of their learning.” The possession of reading strategies is

an essential factor for students to be successful

in reading activities and to have better reading comprehension It may be also necessary for teachers to provide suitable guidelines and recommendations to students

In this study, some reading strategies selected are 1- cognitive strategies, i.e., approaches “in which learners work with and manipulate the task materials themselves, moving towards task completion” (Chamot and Kupper, 1989, p 14), 2- metacognitive strategies, i.e., involvement of thinking about the learning process, planning for learning, monitoring the learning task, and evaluating how well one has learned, 3- compensation strategies, i.e, the ones for compensating for limitations in their language, e.g., unfamiliar vocabulary and unknown concepts (Oxford, 1990)

2.3 Previous studies on learner autonomy

The most recent works on learner autonomy was

a review by Đinh Thị Hồng Thu (2017) about

learner autonomy in learning foreign languages

in Vietnam Before that, Nguyen Thanh Van

(2011) completed a study investigating the

perceptions of responsibilities and abilities related

to autonomous learning of the language and the

students’ autonomous learning activities in and

outside of class The study involved 63 non –

English majored students from 24 colleges across

Vietnam, the questionnaire consisted of three main

sections with 42 items The results show that the

concept of learner autonomy was still alien to both

the students and teachers The study suggested

that autonomous learning be incorporated in the

students’ language curriculum

Dang Tan Tin (2012) carried out a study of

learner autonomy perception and performance on

Vietnamese students in online and offline learning

environments with the objectives of fostering

learner autonomy in the higher education sector in

Vietnam Using a mixed method design, the study

relied on a 62 –item questionnaire Valid responses

were received from 562 EFL undergraduate

students in four universities in several countries

and semi-structured interviews were conducted

with eleven students at the end of the course to

gain more insights into their autonomous learning

behaviors The findings showed that students’

perception and performance of learner autonomy

were positively correlated with each other at the

beginning of the course However, this relationship

was not confirmed at the end of the course Other

finding suggested that preference, motivation and

attitude prominently contributed to the shaping

of students’ autonomous learning These findings

called for an approach in educational reforms

to foster learner autonomy, particularly in an

examination – oriented context as Vietnam The

strength of the study was that the results help

stakeholders design appropriate pathways to

promote learner autonomy The researchers have

applied with adaptations both the questionnaire

and interview from Dang Tan Tin (2012)

There are other researchers in the world

investigating learner autonomy For example, the

effect of learner autonomy on language learning was examined by Yanling (n.d) The author looked

at the benefits of developing learner autonomy and implementing autonomous strategies conducted

by Shanxi University of Finance and Economics The results indicated autonomous learning strategies helped improve EFL outcomes for this group of students in Chinese tertiary education Students’ motivation was aroused and most of them volunteered to find appropriate reading materials to read and to persist in listening to the radio station

in their spare time every day They could take an active part in all kinds of activities outside class, such as English speech contests and English singing contests at the university Students became used

to some learning strategies Every student made his/her owned detailed daily timetable for study and activities Students realized that, in the area of foreign language learning, an increased awareness

of the learning process was very important so they paid more attention to process than product of study and took an active role in class activities such as in pairs and small groups

Zarei & Gahremani (2010) investigated the relationship between postgraduate students’ autonomy and their reading comprehension ability at Islamic Azad University, Takestan To this end, a 32 – item questionnaire and a 20-item multiple-choice reading comprehension test were administered to 90 participants The collected data were analyzed using the Correlation procedure, one way ANOVA and Regression analysis A number

of conclusions can be drawn from the statistical analyses and the obtained results The study indicated that there was a positive relationship between learner autonomy and their reading comprehension ability and another result was that proficient and autonomous readers were more confident in dealing with complex reading activities Recently, Channuan (2015) carried out a research study on promoting learner autonomy through an extensive reading (ER) program among second-year undergraduate students of Naresuan University in Thai Land Thirty-seven

undergraduate students who were enrolled in the

Reading Academic English course were classified

into high and low proficiency groups based on

their general English reading pretest mean scores

Quantitative data were then collected through

a general English reading ability pre- and

post-test and a learner autonomy training strategies

questionnaire After the 10-week ER program,

the test scores showed that the students’ English

reading ability was significantly improved The

findings from the questionnaire indicated students’

frequent use of cognitive and metacognitive

strategies in ER as well as an increase in their

positive attitudes toward both reading and learner

autonomy It could be concluded that ER enhances

reading ability and promotes learner autonomy

Louis and Pereira’s (2003) conducted a study

about remedial EFL students in an EST (English

for Science and Technology) reading course at the

Simon Blivara University in Caracas, Venezuela

Most of their students failed the regular courses

and many was not confident with read in foreign

language In an attempt to motivate their students

and help them find their own inner potential, they

turned to the research done in motivation, and

learning styles As they believed students played

a decisive role in their own learning process,

students were allowed to choose the reading

activities they considered most beneficial and as

fear of traditional type reading test was high among

them, portfolios and contracts were also offered as

an alternative form of assessment with regard to

the feedback obtained from their students, 96%

thought that the alternative assessment used to

evaluate their academic achievement in reading

comprehension during the parallel remedial

course had had a positive influence on them

The majority of the students (78%) said that they

were under less pressure and could work better in

class Obviously, thanks to autonomous learning

strategies, the students became more confident and

studied better

In summary, the previous studies under review

indicate a deficiency in the studies about learner

autonomy in learning English reading skills in Vietnam, this leads to the study being conducted

In addition, the questionnaire from Dang Tan Tin (2012) and the interview questions from Borg and Saleh Al-Busaidi (2012) in the review were adapted for this study

3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research design

Mixed method approach (Cresswell, 2005) which combines both quantitative and qualitative methods has been employed in this project A questionnaire survey (quantitative) was used for collecting data for the perceptions of students and practices, while the in-depth interviews (qualitative) are

to investigate the students’ thoughts and habits, and later to triangulate with the data from the questionnaire

In the first phrase, quantitative data were collected from the questionnaire being delivered

to all first–year students, i.e., 99 students at the university under study to identify their perceptions

of learner autonomy and the practices as revealed

in English reading

Based on what were learnt from the first stage, the researchers adapted the interview questions from Borg and Saleh Al-Busaidi (2012) and Dang Tan Tin (2012) to deepen the data gained from the questionnaire

3.2 The subjects

The participants of the present research were ninety-nine first-year English students at the researched university They are from 18 to 19 years old and have spent at least 7 to at most 10 years learning English at both secondary and high school They have never been given any training in learner autonomy in learning reading skills By the time the researchers gathered the data for this study, they finished the second term of the school year

The eleven students for the in-depth interviews

were chosen from the ninety-nine participants by

their scores of reading skills (i.e, according to

proficient, middle and bottom levels) in the first

semester They were representative of first year

top-, middle- and bottom- students respectively

3.3 Questionnaire design

The questionnaire is designed to answer the first

question “What are the student’s perceptions on

‘learner autonomy’?” and the second question

“What are the students’ actual practices in EFL

reading learning?” The type of semi-structure

was used to gather information in greater depth

The items of questionnaire are adapted from

Ustunluoglu (2009) with the study entitled

“Autonomy in language learning: do students

take responsibility for their learning” The main

purpose is to investigate the students’ perceptions

on learner autonomy and autonomous strategies

This questionnaire comprises three parts,

i.e., the background of the students, students’

perceptions on learner autonomy & students’

practices in EFL reading, how these practices reveal

about their learner autonomy and autonomous

strategies of first– year English majors of the

university under research, when the students used

the strategies to master reading skills

In the first part, the researchers aimed to gather

the information relating to the participants’ gender,

age, living area, phone number In the second

part, nine statements are given to the students

to check their knowledge about the learner

autonomy They circle among five choices on a

five – point Likert scale (strongly agree =1, agree

= 2, neutral =3, disagree =4, and strongly disagree

=5) where appropriate, after that the perceptions

of the autonomy in learning reading skills with

ten items for students to put a tick to one in three

choices where appropriate In the third part, the

questionnaire contains thirty items, i.e., responses

to each item were measured in a five-point Likert scale (strongly agree =1, agree = 2, neutral =3, disagree =4, and strongly disagree =5), students marked one choice among the statements The questions focus on learners’ practices in learning reading skills, specifically, the aspects of learning autonomy practices or strategies such as planning learners’ learning, setting out learning objectives, deciding learning methods, choosing learning materials and learner’s self-evaluation in the processes of learning reading skills

The table 3.1 below shows the main content of each section of the questionnaire and the purpose

of each section

Table 3.1 Main content of the questionnaire and the purpose of each section

Part Content Purpose

1 The background of the participants an overview

of the participants

2 Statements about the participants’ perceptions

on learner autonomy in learning reading skills.

- Part 2.1

item 1, item 2, item 3, item 4, item 5, item 6, item 7, item 8 and item 9.

- Part 2.2

item 1, item 2, item 3, item 4, item 5, item 6, item 7, item 8, item 9 and item 10.

To understand the students’ perceptions

3 Statements about practices in EFL reading reveal about their learning autonomy.

- There are 8 items about cognitive strategy:

item 1, item 2, item 3, item 4, item 5, item 28, item 29 and item 30.

- There are 19 items about metacognitive strategy:

item 6, item 7, item 8, item 9, item 10, item 11, item 12, item 13, item 14, item 15, item 16, item

17, item 18, item 19 and item 20, item 21, item

22, item 23, item 24

- There are 3 items about compensation strategy:

item 25, item 26, item 27

To gain the practices revealing

in English reading

The data analysis focuses on what respondents assessed learner autonomy and reading strategies

in the process of learning reading skills The

questionnaire was distributed face-to-face to the

students by the researchers To make sure that the

students answer the questionnaire by themselves,

they were asked to complete the questionnaire

in the class after a language period in a large

lecture hall To avoid any misunderstanding, we

explained and gave clear instruction as well as the

purpose of the questionnaire In addition, we were

with the students during the time they filled out the

questionnaire to give any necessary explanation

or assistance They were informed that the

questionnaire was not a test and there is no right or

wrong answer Therefore, the students just needed

to give their own opinion It took about 15 minutes

for the students to complete the questionnaire

After, the data were transferred to a computer and

stored in a data file and printed out in hard copy

form for analysis

3.4 In-depth Interviews

With the expectation that by using interviews,

a researcher can freely use prompts to obtain

response clarity or additional information (Burke

& Larry, 2000), face-to-face interviews with the

researchers ‘were adopted to find out more about

students’ perceptions and practices at a university

in Vietnam This instrument is used to triangulate

the data about students’ perception and practices

which were disclosed via the questionnaire survey

In this research, we chose face-to-face

in-depth interviews, a lot of extra information can

be added to the verbal answer of the interviewees

on a question (Raymond, 2006) Additionally,

interview questions are structured and based on

the information from the questionnaires, aiming to

clarify data from the questionnaire

3.5 Data Collection procedure

The data collection procedure was taken place

around one semester at the university under

research, which was equivalent to 15 continuous

weeks The questionnaire instrument was used in

to investigate the students’ perception about LA at the end of the semester The questionnaire were delivered to 99 students and the main content of the questionnaire was about the students’ thoughts about LA and their practices of learning reading skills including strategies they used to learn The questionnaire results were collected and the data were analyzed by the use of SPSS program

Finally, the researchers chose 11 students

to take part in an in-depth interview which took place in an empty classroom to avoid disturbance The interview with each student lasted in two hours (about 11 minutes for each participants) Before being interview fifteen minutes, the participants were given a list of questions and gave any explanation if necessary In addition, the participants were informed about the purpose

as well as the nature of the interview They were explained that there were no right or wrong answers

in the interview and their answers would have no effect on their study results Therefore, they were encouraged to say what they really did and to answer as honestly as they could The answers of the interviews were recorded in Vietnamese and translated into English

3.6 Data analysis procedure

The data were analyzed by “qualitative content and analysis” which is “a research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying theme and patterns” (Hsieh

& Shannon 2005, P.1278) Finally, the steps of data analysis are presented in the following steps The data analysis consisted of four steps, which are 1) transcribing the data, 2) pre-coding and coding, 3) producing a form of data display, and 4) interpreting the data and drawing conclusions These four steps were adopted from four phrases of the analytical process suggested by Dornyei (2007,

pp.246-257) In addition, suggestions on analyzing

coded data by Rubin and Rubin (2005,

pp.201-273), Atkinson (1998, pp 54-58), and Seidman

(2006, pp.112-131) were also taken into account

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Results from the questionnaire

4.1.1 Results of the perceptions of the concept

“learner autonomy”

As can be seen from figure 4.1, the percentage

of students understood the concept of the learner

autonomy at the beginning of the course occupies

88.3% and the minority (11.7 %) still did not show

their awareness of the learner autonomy

4.1.2 Students’ perception of responsibility.

at the beginning of the semester and 8.5% teachers are supposed to be responsible for progress during the semester of learning reading

The results were also illustrated through figure 4.2

4.1.3 Practices of learning reading skills

In order to identify the practices of learning reading skills, the researchers investigated how the participants learnt reading skills, specifically the strategies they used consisting of metacognitive, cognitive and compensation

The cognitive strategies (COG) were used the most frequently by the students They read the topic which attracted their attention (41.5%) and share the knowledge of science and technology with their classmates (39.4%) Moreover, they also looked for reading resources on the internet (37.2%) It can be seen from the results that the participants chose largely the topics of reading exercises and exploited reading resources on the internet They spent less time on looking for reading documentary in the library

The results were also shown through figure 4.3 Researched students also used the metacognitive strategies in the process of learning reading skill The statistics below describes the use of metacognitive strategies (MET) by ninety-nine students, most of MET strategies

Figure 4.1 Student’s perception of the concept

‘learner autonomy’

This graph gives an overview of the students’

perception of responsibility It is noticeable that

the students stick to the evaluation of the students’

progress every week and choosing reading materials

for learning to their foremost priority (over 50%)

whereas the students describe the teachers’

responsibility such as identifying the weakness

of the students in style of reading exercises and

choosing outside class tasks to improve reading

skills as the most important activity Only 3.2 %

students decide the objectives in learning reading

Figure 4.2 Student’s perception of responsibility

in learner autonomy

Students used MET strategies at “usually” level

more than other levels The most frequently used

MET strategies were to make use of available reading

materials & resources (39.4%) and reading academic

documents to improve their writing skills (39.4%)

Besides, they knew their strengths and weaknesses in

English reading (37.2%) and wrote down problems

faced when learning reading (26.6%)

It seems that students under research are

flexible in using the strategies in improving the

reading skills We analyze using their compensation

strategy

The participants appeared to be in favor of finding opportunities to work with specialists (38%) and asked the teacher questions when they did not understand- the second highest percentage (37.2%) The least frequent use was to visit my teacher for advice on how to overcome learning difficulties (33%)

4.2 Results of the interviews

Eleven interviewees were interviewed for more detailed information about their practices including the autonomous strategies they used in learning reading skills and what the interviewees experienced in learning reading skills In addition, the interviewees were asked to understand the conception of learner autonomy

4.2.1 The students’ awareness of the concept of the leaner autonomy

Four of six interviewees understood the concept

of learner autonomy They focused on some responsibilities such as having the duty with their learning, evaluating their results and considering teacher as an instructor, choosing their materials or limiting weaknesses and developing their strength However, two of six interviewees did not fully understand the concept of the learner autonomy They thought that learner autonomy meant “self-studying”- a limited definition or “hunting the scholarship”

4.2.2 The students’ use of the strategies in learning reading skills

For the cognitive strategies, the researchers asked the question “Can you tell your experiences in learning reading skills?” The researchers realized that the participants knew to move towards the task completion They usually read reference books, foreign articles and magazines or do exercises to improve reading skills It meant that the cognitive strategies were used most commonly

Figure 4.5 Overall compensation strategy used by

first year students

Figure 4.3 Overall cognitive strategy used by

students under research

Figure 4.4 Overall metacognitive strategy used

by the first year students

by the students because they were easy to practise

in learning language

A range of responses was elicited, six of eleven

interviewees shared the experiences to learn

reading skills:

However, some students reported to encounter

difficulties with learning reading skills “The

curriculum is boring and inactive, the teacher

only check the key or “I’m lazier in studying”

Very few students are not autonomous learners

and dependent on the teacher

The researchers also wanted to know how

the students learn the skills by asking “What do

you do to learn reading skills such as scanning

and skimming?”The responses of the interviewee

illustrated that the students completed the reading

skills by different ways such as watching the tips

on the internet or asking their teachers for help

However, some still do not care about skills of

reading and only do exercises freely By analyzing

two questions above, the researchers realize that

the cognitive strategies were used commonly by

the students because they were easy to practise in

learning language

Regarding metacognitive strategies, Chamot

and Kupper (1989) mentioned that metacognitive

strategies involved thinking about the learning

process, planning for learning, monitoring the

learning task, and evaluating how well one has

learned All interviewees reported their use of

planning, monitoring and evaluating the process

of the learning reading

In order to check interviewee’s habits in

setting goals, planning, or evaluating reading

skills, the researchers asked the first question “Do

you have any objectives in learning reading skills

at the beginning of the semester?” The results

demonstrated that the majority of those who

responded to this item felt that they had objectives

when the semester began

Implications

In accordance with the findings in the discussion part, the study is concluded with several recommendations for improving students’ learner autonomy in learning reading skills

Firstly, the strategies, i.e., cognitive, metacognitive and compensation should be introduced to the students at the beginning of the semester Because some of them had an exact plan

at the beginning of the semester but they could not carry out those plans If they were supported with the strategies instructions clearly from the teacher, they may gain more positive results at the end of the semester For this reason, the teachers should engage their students in a strategy awareness and focus them more on the metacognitive strategies, which should be developed in advanced level of language learning

Secondly, it is essential for language teachers

to encourage students to be active in the classroom and use English outside classroom as much as possible such as participating in seminars and forums, making friends with foreigners The results indicate that students would like to change the way they are learning but they wish their teachers to control their studying so the teachers may need to understand this psychology to have suitable methods to motivate their study Also, practical actions are suggested in order to help students experience outside activities

5 CONCLUSONS

This study explores first-year English majored students’ perceptions on learner autonomy, and their practices in learning reading skills In addition, based on the findings of the study, useful recommendations are proposed to foster learner autonomy in mastering reading skills not only inside the university of this research but also in new contexts The most significant findings are made relating to learner autonomy perception

The data from the questionnaire survey illustrated

that the students understood the concept of leaner

autonomy However, they still wanted to rely on

the teachers in choosing the materials or creating

learning motivation

In the second place, the study examines what

the students’ practices in EFL reading learning

reveal about their learning autonomy Most

students did not frequently take part in activities

(joining reading clubs or forums and seminars)

that require arrangements, efforts or plans but

they tended to use the available documents on the

internet that reflects the changes in their studying

at a university

Last but not least, students knew to combine three

types of strategies, i.e., cognitive, metacognitive

and compensation in the process of learning and

they chose particular strategies for each phase of

one semester However, they tended to use more

cognitive strategies for reading skill learning./

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