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LEARNING AUTONOMY DEMONSTRATED
IN ENGLISH AS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE:
VIETNAMESE STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES
Tran Thi Ngoc Ha
Thuyloi University, email: hattn@tlu.edu.vn
1. INTRODUCTION
Learner Autonomy (LA) is crucial across
educational approaches for improving
students' English proficiency (Benson, 2011).
In EAL (English as an Additional Language)
contexts, LA is highly valued (Noels et al.,
2019). In the context of Vietnam, for example,
LA was declared an objective and
requirement in higher education by the
Vietnamese Education Law and Higher
Education Reform Agenda (HERA) from
2006-2020 (Vietnamese Government, 2005;
2012). The law mandates training students to
work independently and creatively, promoting
self-study, self-research, and creative thinking
(Vietnamese Government, 2005a, 2005b).
It has been widely agreed in the literature
on LA that beliefs that students have about
autonomy, language learning and autonomous
language learning may have a great impact on
their autonomous language learning behaviours
(Cotterall, 1995; Chan, 2001a).
This paper reports the findings about
students’ perceptions of LA from an empirical
study on Vietnamese English language
teachers’ and students' perspectives on LA in
EAL programs to develop a context-sensitive
understanding of the concept.
2. DEFINITION OF LA
The language education literature has
varied interpretations of learner autonomy
(LA) over the last four decades. Holec (1981)
first defined LA as “the ability to take charge
of one’s own learning” (p. 3), emphasizing
that this ability is acquired, not inborn.
Excluding actual behaviours from the
concept of LA can reduce its practicability in
education, as it makes it difficult to
empirically investigate autonomy that is not
displayed in real-life situations (Lamb, 2017).
Thus, researchers have supported Holec’s
view of LA as an ability but also recognize
the importance of behaviours in manifesting
this ability (Little, 1991; Macaro, 1997).
Benson defines LA as “the capacity to take
control of one’s own learning” (2011, p. 58)
and argues that 'control' is practical and open
to empirical investigation. He proposed that
LA consists of desire and ability, mediated
by freedom. Without freedom, LA lacks a
crucial component which includes
opportunities for learners to demonstrate their
autonomy (Boud, 1988; Benson, 2013;
Willison et al., 2017). Some researchers view
autonomy as being shaped by the learning
environment rather than an attribute to be
attained (Boud, 1988). Learners may not
always demonstrate their autonomy due to
constraints on freedom. Therefore, LA can be
seen as the interaction between learners and
various factors in a learning environment.
Learning Autonomy Demonstrated (LAD) is
the extent to which students take control of
their learning in different situations with
varying autonomy (Willison, 2020). Students
demonstrate autonomy when given freedom
and opportunities and when they have the
ability and desire to do so.
This study uses a framework for autonomy
to analyse students’ perceptions of Learning
Autonomy Demonstrated (LAD). This
Tuyển tập Hội nghị Khoa học thường niên năm 2024. ISBN: 978-604-82-8175-5
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framework is based on Littlewood’s model of
reactive and proactive autonomy (Littlewood,
1999). In addition to proactive and reactive
autonomy, compliant autonomy is included
as the first level in the LAD framework to
acknowledge the role of dependency or
compliance in autonomy demonstration (Van
Lier, 2010).
3. RESEARCH METHOD
To investigate students’ perceptions of LA,
16 non-English majored students from a
university in Vietnam were selected on a
voluntary basis for semi-structured interviews.
These interviews focus on (1) students’
definition of LA, (2) students’ description of
an autonomous learner, (3) role of LA in
language learning, and (4) role of teachers and
students in language learning. All interviews
were conducted in Vietnamese. They were
transcribed and analysed using qualitative
content analysis approach (Schreier, 2013).
4. RESULTS
4.1. Students’ definition of LA
Of the 16 students interviewed, 11
interpreted LA as a learner’s ability to be self-
reliant, self-regulated and to display initiative
in learning, four saw LA as the ability to self-
regulate their learning to meet the requirements
of an other-initiated agenda and one saw it as
something to be discovered from deep within
oneself. Students elaborated on meaning of
LA as “not depending on anyone but
yourselves”; “without waiting to be forced or
urged by others” or “others do not have to
urge and force you to learn”.
All interviewed students referred LA to the
ability to carry out learning without a teacher
or direct support from a teacher, and this was
reflected in students’ having their own
learning goals, learning plans and schedules,
learning methods, and learning motivation.
Four students conceived of LA as the
students’ ability to self-regulate their learning,
but this self-regulation was intended to meet
the requirements of an other-initiated agenda
(e.g., achieving an excellent course grade).
For example, a student stated:
Autonomy in learning means you have to
take the initiative in doing homework and in
self-studying. In short, you have to take an
active role in learning the subject.
4.2. Students’ descriptions of an
autonomous learner
13 out of 16 of students thought that
autonomous learners possessed positive
personal qualities, particularly diligence,
perseverance, consistency and self-discipline.
Autonomous learners were also pictured as
those who “have high achievement”, “learn
more effectively”, “are fast learners” and
“have good learning results”.
Ten students believed that autonomous
learners had a clear goal in learning, and they
had a clear learning plan, learning schedule,
learning method. Seven students thought that
autonomous learners had a love or passion
for what they were doing. To them, intrinsic
motivation was an important factor which
made students autonomous.
4.3. Students’ perceptions of the
importance of LA in language learning.
Ten students believed that LA was
important in language learning because of the
specific nature of this process. For example, a
student said:
I think autonomy is very important in
language learning because learning a foreign
language is not something over one night [sic].
Besides, to be able to speak a language, you
need to know a great amount of vocabulary,
which takes a long time to grasp. It also takes
time to practice and master language skills.
Five students thought that language learning
included not only language systems, but also
language skills, which required a lot of
practice. However, at university, they mainly
learned grammar rules and structures, and
there were not many opportunities for them to
practice language skills. Therefore, learning
English only at university was insufficient. To
be successful in learning a foreign language
Tuyển tập Hội nghị Khoa học thường niên năm 2024. ISBN: 978-604-82-8175-5
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(English, in particular), students had to be self-
directed and display initiative in their learning.
4.4. Students’ perceptions of teacher’s
role and their own role in language learning
All 16 interviewed students appeared to
appreciate the role of teachers in their learning.
nine students reported that they could not learn
English without a teacher, while the rest seven
students believed that they could learn without
a teacher, but also acknowledged that this
would be much more challenging. All
interviewed students stated that teachers
should only be the facilitators who scaffolded
their learning by showing them methods,
providing them with guidance when necessary
and orchestrating a learning environment.
5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Students had different interpretations of
LA. Their interpretations reflected their
understandings of LA in two senses: reactive
and proactive. Most students understood LA
in a proactive sense in terms of their ability to
be self-reliant and to display initiative in their
learning. Some other students understood LA
in a reactive sense, conceptualising it as the
ability to be self-regulated and display
initiative in learning. However, these students
tied their learning to a common learning
agenda determined for everyone taking part in
the course. This divergence is expected given
the complicated and multifaceted nature of the
concept. Nevertheless, students’ beliefs about
LA can have a significant impact on their
autonomous learning behaviours (Cotterall,
1995; Joshi, 2011; T. V. Nguyen, 2011). The
students’ varying understanding of LA
suggests that they are likely to demonstrate
various degrees of LA.
Students agreed that autonomous learners
possess certain qualities such as effective
planning, time management, having clear
learning goals and methods. They were also
seen as having intrinsic motivation in learning.
The students’ perceptions of an autonomous
learner corresponded with existing literature
on the characteristics of autonomous learners
(Holec, 1981; Littlewood, 1996).
The findings indicate that the students held
a positive view towards LA. It seemed that
from the students’ perception, an autonomous
learner very much resembled a good
language learner. The students’ perceptions
align with literature about the relationship
between LA and language achievement,
which often reports a positive correlation
between the two (e.g., Faramarzi et al.,
2016). Students also thought that LA was
necessary to compensate for the university’s
inadequate English syllabus, showing their
awareness of the language learning process
and the current contextual constraints on their
language acquisition and the actions they
needed to overcome constraints and be
successful in their language learning.
In conclusion, analysis of students’
interpretations and understandings of LA
indicates that they had a positive attitude
towards the concept and were aware of its
role in language learning, demonstrating that
students in this study had potential for LA.
However, some students’ understanding of
LA in a reactive sense might be barriers to
the effectiveness of their attempts to become
more autonomous. An implication of this
finding is that helping students understand
LA adequately is a significant step in
promoting them to demonstrate LA.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Benson, P. (2011). Teaching and
Researching Autonomy (2nd ed.). New York,
USA: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.
[2] Boud, D. (1988). Moving towards
autonomy. In D. Boud (Ed.), Developing
Student Autonomy in Learning (pp. 17-39).
Oxon, UK: Taylor & Francis.
[3] Holec, H. (1981). Autonomy and Foreign
Language Learning. Oxford, UK: Council
of Europe.
[4] Littlewood, W. (1996). “Autonomy”: An
anatomy and a framework. System, 24(4), 427-
435. doi:10.1016/S0346-251X(96)00039-5.
[5] Willison, J. (2020). The Models of Engaged
Learning and Teaching.Springer. doi:
10.1007/978-981-15-2683-1.