Learner Autonomy at a Defence University: Comparison
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Please note this is a comparison between Version 2 by Nora Tang and Version 1 by Emily Abd Rahman.

The success of nurturing learner autonomy lies in the collaboration between two parties—teachers and students. A mismatch of perception and expectation of the desirable level of learner autonomy that should be given in class may lead to failure in developing learner autonomy. The teachers and students are involved collaboratively in carrying learner autonomy. However, all of the significant differences pointed out a higher degree of support for learner autonomy of the students and a lower degree of support for learner autonomy of the teachers. The success of promoting learner autonomy is influenced by the teachers’ beliefs, motivation and encouragement, and also students’ capacity to be autonomous, namely ability, willingness and opportunity.

  • defence university
  • ESL
  • learner autonomy
  • sustained learning
  • tertiary education

1. Learner Autonomy

The term learner autonomy is well-known in language teaching since the 20th century. Despite the popularity, the term often leads to a significant conceptual misunderstanding to teachers and students due to its multidimensionality, since learner autonomy is derived based on concepts from different disciplines including language, politics and philosophy [5,23,24][1][2][3]. However, in the domain of language teaching and learning, the root of these misconceptions comes from the term itself [25][4].

2. Learner Autonomy in Teaching and Learning

In language teaching and learning, there are two broad definitions of the term learner autonomy, which are the characteristics of being free from external constraints that render students unable to take charge of their learning, and the other definition revolves around the situation where the learner is totally free for all decisions in learning [24][3]. The difference in definition of terms represents different degrees of students’ involvement and teachers’ engagement [25][4]. The degrees range from having total student control, to partial student control, to indirect teacher control. The first term is more suitable to the current research as it involves students having some degree of control over their learning.
Most literature on autonomy refers to students “acquiring autonomy” or “becoming more autonomous” [26][5] as autonomy is a matter of degree, not an “all-or- nothing” concept. Learner autonomy should be fostered from inside the classroom as learner autonomy includes students making decisions for their own learning [24][3]. Therefore, all the decision making in which a student is involved in their classroom experience is reflected as being autonomous in their learning. The classroom is a context where learner autonomy is fostered and practiced. The teacher’s role is not to transmit knowledge, but to create possibilities for students’ own production or construction of knowledge [27][6]. The teacher must teach the students to have reflective habits and monitor their progress as the teacher’s responsibility is to create and sustain a classroom whose “language learning is a function of its language use” [28][7]. The teacher needs to provide thorough care and focus on satisfying the students’ social and psychological needs to achieve learner autonomy [12][8]. This importance of cultivating learner autonomy for language learning is realized by most teachers in the area of education [11,29,30,31][9][10][11][12].

3. Teachers’ Role in Learner Autonomy

Learner autonomy is a shared responsibility between teachers and students as both need to work hand in hand to create an autonomous language learning classroom. As highlighted by [9][13], the teachers need to assist and guide students as facilitators in the learning process because the capability to be autonomous needs to be trained to the students. Learner autonomy can be achieved by offering students information and advice so that they could make the most informed decision [32,33][14][15]. Teachers also have a very important role in the development of learner autonomy because they can provide the proper motivation and encouragement for student to be more responsible and independent in learning [34][16]. The students’ motivation can be improved by providing a safe context for support and guidance [35][17]. The extent of how much learner autonomy is promoted in a classroom depends on the teachers’ beliefs of autonomy and what is desirable and feasible in certain contexts [9][13]. Apart from that, the teachers’ beliefs of the effectiveness of a method as an agent of change can also influence the other members of the teaching and learning community to be accepting towards the method [36][18]. Therefore, it is important for teachers to have a positive belief of learner autonomy to ensure the promotion of learner autonomy to happen in the classroom and that the community in the institution also accepts it.

4. Students’ Role in Learner Autonomy

Although teachers have a significant role in promoting learner autonomy, students also play a vital role in this matter [10,11][9][19]. It is the student who is most responsible for autonomous learning [24][3]. It is necessary for students to take up the roles to be a good student, a responsible student and finally an aware student [16][20]. With these roles, the students would become very active and engaged in their learning. The student must take up more responsibility towards their learning, guided by the teacher’s suggestions and facilitation. In this sense, students have more freedom in the selection of every aspect of learning and, at the same time, have greater responsibilities to be accomplished. However, it is vital to incorporate the notion of capacity (ability, willingness and opportunity) in learner autonomy [21,22][21][22]. The capacity of autonomous learning is developed by practice and needs to be nurtured and maintained [34][16].
Ability refers to knowledge and skills that helps an individual to be able to make choices [22]. Students are unable to become autonomous when they have low understanding of the importance of learner autonomy, insufficient skills to learn independently, and unfamiliarity with the idea of taking responsibility for their learning [37][23]. Students who are aware and equipped with knowledge of their learning process, have a better chance to become more autonomous in their learning [38][24].
Willingness refers to motivation and confidence that helps an individual to take responsibility for the choices required [22]. Studies found that students who are more willing to perform autonomous acts are more likely to acquire learner autonomy [39,40][25][26]. Ref [10][19] study also highlights the students’ lack of motivation also prevents teachers from promoting learner autonomy even when they believe it is important for language learning.
Opportunity refers to the material, social, and psychological constraints that a person is subjected to, which permits him from taking charge of his own learning [21]. Social factors may have a significant effect on the promotion of learner autonomy. Research shows that social influence is a significant factor affecting the adoption or acceptance of a new system or method [41,42][27][28]. Sociocultural factors are one of the things that can prevent learners from becoming autonomous despite having the proper ability and willingness, as their opportunity to become autonomous is affected by their thoughts and behaviours of what learning should be [43][29]. Students with hindrance from sociocultural factors may inhibit learner autonomy if they were placed in a different environment with the proper support and intervention that provides them the opportunity to become autonomous [44][30]. This notion is also supported by a study by [45][31] as the findings showed that most teachers in China understood the features and importance of learner autonomy. However, the real implementation was inhibited by various contextual challenges regarding students, teachers, the institution, and even due to the Chinese culture.
The three factors have a significant influence in a person’s capacity to become autonomous. The absence of one or more of the three factors could render the students from becoming autonomous in their learning. The presence of all three factors, on the other hand, could lead to a high degree of capacity for students to become autonomous. A study by [24][3] showed that Master-level students in a university in Nepal possessed a very high level of learner autonomy because the students had the ability, willingness and opportunity to take charge of their learning. Another study by [10][19] discovered that most university English language teachers in Saudi Arabia were less successful in promoting it in the classroom due to absence of opportunity (societal and curricular aspects), ability and willingness (student aspects). These studies demonstrate the importance of the three factors, which contribute to students’ capacity to become autonomous.

5. Learner Autonomy and Context of Study

The context of this study is Malaysia’s only military university that is specially tailored for the needs and development of the Malaysian Armed Forces. The university is a boutique university, different from the public and private universities in Malaysia as the students live in a military surrounding. Students have to go through academic and military training concurrently and have to be excellent in both [46][32]. A previous study conducted on the defence university teachers’ perspectives of learner autonomy indicated that the teachers had a positive view of the contribution learner autonomy has on language learning but promoting learner autonomy in this environment was viewed as relatively challenging since the lifestyle of these students is different from other universities [47][33]. However, the study did not focus on teachers’ perceptions and expectations of how much autonomy should be given according to the classroom experiences and it did not include the students’ perception on learner autonomy.
A mismatch of beliefs between teachers and students, for example in [48][34] where the teachers claimed that their students participated in autonomous learning activities to a moderate extent, whereas the students claimed to engage in them at a high level may lead to the failure of inculcating learner autonomy. There should be an aligned agreement between the two on the degree of learner autonomy appropriate for the class. One way of finding out the appropriate or desirable degree of autonomy between the two groups is by examining the teachers’ and students’ perceptions and expectations towards each other’s roles, by referring to their classroom experiences.

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