1. DEVELOPING LEARNER AUTONOMY WITH
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Olena Korol
Kyiv National Economic University

2. 2. Why ?
• long-life learning
• safe haven for learners
• a way of changing the pace and style of training
sessions

3. 3. Outline
• What? Where? How?
• Autonomous learners
• “Discover Yourself Journey” project
• Teacher roles in autonomy learning
• Evaluation
• Benefits and concerns
• Action plan

4. 4. What ?
“You cannot teach a man anything, you can only
help him find it within himself”
A wareness
U niqueness
T hinking
Outcome
N eeds
Objectives
Management skills
Optimism
U ser of language
S trategies

5. “Autonomy, like freedom, needs a frame work to nurture and
support it.”
Little, D, 1995 .

6. 6. How?
“DISCOVER YOURSELF JOURNEY”
Introduction (1)
(Teambuilding, Leadership, Appraisal, Conflict)
Teamwork (4) Independent work (4)
Joint presentations (2) Feedback (2)
Report (1)
Roundtable (1)
Let’s Take Action
“Free Microphone”

7. 7. Teacher’s Roles
• Facilitator
• Counselor
• Resource

8. 8. Facilitating
Don’t:
• back a particular opinion voice in the group
• offer your own opinion
• let the group unconsciously shy away from a difficult area
• lead the group towards you think is the right decision

9. “Failure is success: learning what doesn’t work is on the same
path as learning what does work”
• Entry stage
• Reactive stage
• Proactive stage
• Integrative stage

10. 10. Resources
• Must and Optional authentic literature
• Must and Optional Self-reflection questionnaires
• Common European Framework Reference for languages:
Learning, teaching, assessment
• Must and Optional Websites

11. 11. Teamwork
• jigsaw reading
• report back
• joint presentation planning
• presentation draft negotiating
• rehearsal
• proofreading

12. 12. Independent work
“They know enough who know how to learn”
Henry Brooks Adams
• personal “TO-DO PLAN”
• self-assessment according of CERF
• monitoring progress (self-reflection)
• IT skills
• search of materials on subject matter
• presentation preparing

13. 13. Skills
• Language (proofreading, delivering presentation, giving feedback)
• Professional (planning, communicating, discussing in groups, giving
presentations)
• Learning skills (setting the goal, self-awareness of learner type, choice of
learning strategies).
• IT skills (Power Point presentation)

14. 14. Learning strategies
A strategy is only right in the right situation when used appropriately
• Cognitive
• Meta-cognitive
• Social/affective

15. 15. Evaluation
• Self-evaluation
• Peer evaluation
• Teacher evaluation

16. 16. Benefits
• Unlimited space for creativity
• Authenticity: learning through doing
• Higher level of thinking
• Breaking the conventional “teacher-student” hierarchy
• Few disciplinary problems
• More spontaneous students
• Visible achievement - outcome
• Language for follow-up activities

17. “The greatest threat to teaching is satisfaction,
because the good is the enemy of the better, and the
better is the enemy of the best”
Howard G. Hendricks

18. 18.Concerns
Lack of experience in teamwork
• Hard preparatory teacher’s work
• Resistance of dependent learners

19. 19. Implications for teaching
“if you stop growing today, you stop teaching
tomorrow”

20. Thank you
elena_korol@list.ru