Role of learner autonomy in intrinsic motivation in EFL writing

English Language Teaching, 2014

This study aimed to investigate (a) EFL learners' beliefs about writing autonomy and their autonomous writing practices and (b) the contribution of writing autonomy to writing performance in terms of level specific tasks. The participants of this study were 138 Iranian students at BA and MA levels in Alborz Institute of Higher Education. Three writing tasks at B1, B2, and C1 levels as well as the adapted version of the autonomy questionnaire developed by Chan, Spratt, and Humphreys (2002) were administered in this research. The results showed that the majority of both BA and MA students were found to be at B1 level, and only 17.3% of MA students were placed at C1 level. In addition, both BA and MA students held themselves more responsible for 'Making sure they make progress during writing lessons'. Concerning writing abilities, BA students reported to be more capable of 'Choosing writing objectives in writing class', while MA students were more able to 'Identify their weaknesses in English writing' and to 'Decide how long to spend on each activity'. Considering writing activities, in both BA and MA students' responses, 'Listening and taking notes about what they have been taught', was the most frequent activity, whereas 'Writing an informal review for a website' and 'Writing a personal blog' were the least frequent activities. The results of ordinal regression analysis also revealed that only writing activities and group (BA and MA) were related to the rated performance.

Journal of English and Education, 2016

In studying English as Second Language (ESL), learners’ autonomy is needed. As we know, learner autonomy has been claimed to be an ultimate goal of education for a long time and has been identified as a complicated capacity that potentially has a great impact on personal growth and achievement. The autonomy positively affects language learning and it is no doubt that learners’ autonomy is a prerequisite for effective language learning. This qualitative research aimed to describe the strategies to foster learners’ autonomy in writing class. Participants consisted of students at Bina Nusantara University. Qualitative research was conducted because the researcher wanted to understand the context or setting in which the participants of the study addressed an issue connected with the strategies to promote the learners’ autonomy in writing. The result showed that there were two strategies that foster learners’ autonomy in writing class that covered the uses of Computer-Assisted Language L...

2020

In the 2020 era, the corona pandemic has caused many impacts throughout the country that are very broad in all fields, including education. Learners and lecturers are no exception affected by the pandemic, and always strive to be able to carry out teaching and learning activities that can cover deficiencies in the field. Based on the current complex learning and living background, this article discuss the autonomous learning mode of College English learners, puts forward the discussion of constructing strategy from self-assessment to improve autonomous learning mode of college English in writing classess. In discussing this article, the writer used theoretical review and qualitative document methods which were observations, data collection, data processing, revisions, and documentation. Then, it can be concluded that the results of research on self-assessment can improve learner autonomy so that learners can get the ease from online writing classes during the pandemic and in the fut...

Research on humanities and social sciences, 2016

A general argument in rationalization for autonomy in language learning is that autonomous learners are strongly motivated and that autonomy leads to better, more successful work. Autonomy is defined as the ability to take control of one’s own learning but it is possible only with an active process of assistance and support to help learners expand and systematize the capacities that they already possess in them. The study on motivation in connection to language learning over the past few decades has been dominated by psychological approach to motivation of Gardner and Lambert, which gives small aid in attempts to relate autonomy and motivation. To discover such associations it is necessary to turn to the literature on motivation in language learning. This paper will review the literature on motivation and suggest that there is a significant relationship between autonomy and some educational theories of motivation. Keywords : Autonomy, Motivation, Psychological approach

The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between learner autonomy and attitude as well as the relationship between learner autonomy and motivation. To this end, 108 intermediate level Iranian EFL learners were selected. The participants responded to a language attitude questionnaire, a modified version of Gardner's Motivation Test Battery (AMTB), and a learner autonomy questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed using two Pearson correlation procedures. Results showed a significant but low positive relationship between motivation and learner autonomy, but a statistically insignificant relationship between attitude and learner autonomy. The findings of this study can have implications for both teachers and curriculum developers.

International Journal of English Language and Literature Studies, 2019

Acquiring writing skills is a prerequisite for success in school and in jobs. This study emanated from the fact that middle and high school students in Nigeria have shown poor performance in national and international examinations. It has set out to answer questions like whether there a relationship between teachers' gender and teaching persuasive/argumentative essays in middle and high schools or whether there is a relationship between teaching experience and the teaching of persuasive /argumentation essays in middle and high schools. A questionnaire was designed to collect data. 100 English Language teachers from 15 junior secondary and senior secondary schools in South-South Nigeria participated and responded to the questionnaire. Data was analyzed using SPSS package. Findings revealed a positive relationship between teacher gender and the teaching of persuasive/argumentative essays, with more male teachers teaching argumentative essays than female teachers. It was also discovered that there was a positive relationship between teacher gender and the teaching of comparing and contrasting type writing with female teachers found teaching more this type of writing The study also revealed a positive relationship between teacher gender and communicating with students on drafts before final submission with female teachers communicating more than male teachers. Based on these findings several recommendations have been made that would help improve the performance of students in writing. Contribution/ Originality: This study contributes to our understanding of why middle and high school students in Nigeria show poor performance in national and international examinations in the area of writing. It is one of the unique studies that examined the relationship between teachers' gender and teaching writing types as well as relationship between teaching experience and teaching of persuasive /argumentation essays.

Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2016

The current research investigates the comparative effects of input-based and output-based task-induced activities on EFL learners' autonomy in writing. 35 learners were homogenized out of 70 Pre-intermediate EFL learners. The methodology was that at first session, a task of writing - similar to the writing tasks in their book- was given to all the participants in both experimental groups of input-based and output-based. During six treatment sessions some vocabularies related to the writing task is taught to the students. In input-based group the words are just taught and given to learners without asking them to use these words during the process of learning the lessons, but in the output-based group the teacher asks the students to produce the meaning of the words or try to use these vocabularies. At the seventh session, the same task is given to both groups as the post-test to see whether input and output-based instruction has positive effect on the results of their writing pro...

2014

This paper aims to investigate the student-teachers' beliefs about learner autonomy where English tends to be a target language. The idea of learner autonomy is not new. Yet it has been widely referred to in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) only over the last decade. Previously, the term referred more directly to practical interventions or situations of learning which were more favoured within ELT: 'individualization', and 'learner independence'. The overall study in this article indicates that student-teachers should have a positive approach towards the adoption of learner autonomy principles. Most student-teachers, however, do not want their future students to take part in the decision making process concerning the time and place of the course and the textbooks to be followed. In the light of the previous research done by the researches, teacher-educators are recommended to encourage their students to engage in out-of-class tasks, to involve them in...

2017

This research were conducted to identify and describe the condition of learners’ autonomy in out-of-class English writing learning activities of the third semester students of English Education Study Program of Universitas Bandar Lampung. Mixed method was used to conduct this research. I used both quantitative and qualitative approach, in form of questionnaire with five points Likert-scale and unstructured interview in collecting the data. The results of this research implied that the students were in medium level of autonomy measured by calculating the overall mean average of the questionnaire (mean=3.20). From the interview, I got that the students were lack of awareness of their writing learning outside the class.

J-SHMIC : Journal of English for Academic

Autonomous learning activity is an approach and process in which individual take responsibility for their learning. The method of this research is quantitative, sample took in Senior High School 1 Ma. Jambi. This study is aimed to investigate the students’ perception of their autonomous learning activities. The results of this study show that, in general, students’ learning autonomy is still in the medium level, but in details, in some particular aspects, it is at the low level. Significances arising from this study are: knowing students’ perception of their learning autonomy is able to assist EFL teachers, material and curriculum developers, and administrators to construct supporting programs and materials to foster students’ learning autonomy. Besides, by conducting such research, it can significantly contribute the ideas of how learning autonomy in EFL context is encouraged. English as a foreign language in Indonesia and its magnitude in this globalization era urgently needs to h...