Looking Back at Autonomy: Setting the Groundwork for Building Autonomy in the Classroom
By: Mark Zolotar
Autonomy and not choosing to be here
Autonomy, derived from the Greek words auto (self) and nomos (law), classically refers to self-governance. Essentially, it’s the ability to make one’s own decisions. But what happens when students are in our classrooms because courses are mandatory or because their parents nudged—or even coerced—them into attending? Public schools, post-secondary institutions with language requirements, and children’s language schools often face this dilemma. Thus, from day one, many students haven’t exercised autonomy in simply being present. This raises a critical question: How can we foster learner autonomy in students who haven’t chosen to be there? And can we do so in good faith?
Starting off by addressing students’ autonomy
To be authentic in our encouragement of learner autonomy, we must acknowledge that many students are not studying English in our classrooms based on any self-motivation. By recognizing their lack of choice and showing empathy, we establish a connection that helps guide them toward autonomy and toward wanting to excel in English (or other subject). On the first day, the instructor could say, in the students’ native language if needed: “I understand that some of you are here because it’s a prerequisite, but trust me—once you start seeing the progress in your ability to communicate in another language, you’ll appreciate how rewarding it can be.” Further, to avoid alienating those students who are there by choice, it may be a good idea to add: “For those of you who are here because you understand the importance of a functional English ability in today’s quickly changing global world, I welcome you and I want to assure you that, in this classroom, you can learn and grow as much as you want by putting in equal effort. And I, as your instructor, will be here to support you every step of the way.” By expressing our willingness to understand where students are coming from, and reaching out an open hand that will guide and nurture, we create a constructive bridge. This gives students the permission to cross that bridge and take ownership of their learning.
It cannot be overstated how important it is to properly set class structures and expectations early on. This does not just mean making grading expectations and milestones clear to students, but also creating a supportive atmosphere that encourages making and learning from mistakes, as such an environment promotes growth in language mastery. Start off by empowering students on the very first day, and this will forge a clear path ahead.
But why does giving an unsolicited motivational speech work, as it relates to autonomy? And is it sufficient? It works because, for one, autonomy is a psychological state, and not so much about knowledge mastery or linguistic proficiency. To be effective educators, we need to recognize when to step outside our role as teachers and act as mentors and facilitators of the students’ psychological and academic growth. When we do so, I think it is best done without the students’ knowledge that we are anything special for them, so as not to take away their sense of self-accomplishment.
Hu and Zhang (2017) emphasize that the path to learner autonomy is paved by satisfying psychological needs. In their work, they argue that satisfying learners’ needs moves learners toward greater independence. By creating a supportive psychological environment, we essentially unlock the doors for students to move forward on their own terms.
Learner autonomy and self determination
For setting up and studying the positive effects of promoting learner autonomy, Hu and Zhang draw from Self-Determination Theory (SDT), as outlined by Deci and Ryan (1985, 2009). According to this theory, three core psychological needs must be satisfied for students to develop greater autonomy: autonomy itself, competence, and relatedness. These may sound straightforward, but the nuances lie in how we apply them in a classroom setting.
Autonomy means giving students control over their learning—letting them set personal goals, choose activities, or decide what they want to improve. Competence involves equipping students with the right tools, but more importantly, building their confidence to use these tools effectively. And relatedness emphasizes the role of collaboration—students must feel connected to their peers and supported in their learning journey. Let us delve deeper into each.
1. Autonomy
It is my view that fostering autonomy in a practical setting is done by listening to students’ goals rather than dictating goals to them. One of the first questions I ask Japanese adult students who come to my language school is about the purpose behind their desire to improve their English. I say something like: “I understand that you want to learn x and y, but I need to understand why. Please tell me.” I facilitate a discussion that draws upon my expertise as a language teacher and aims to illuminate the path between the student’s starting point and their final foreseeable goal(s). In other words, I explain to the student what milestones they will need to achieve in order to reach their destination.
Lastly, I do my utmost to ensure that the students feel a sense of accountability for achieving these milestones, while reassuring them that I will be at their side every step of the way as a pillar of support. As I said earlier, fostering autonomy and providing a sense of support often go hand in hand. The child learns to walk with the help of the parent, and support can be decreased and removed as greater autonomy is reached.
In a group lesson setting, such as in an EFL college course, I consider how I can emulate this experience for students. One example is encouraging students to engage in self-assessment and having it as part of their coursework. Personally, I think that it can feel wasteful to spend too much class time on self-assessment since the curriculum is filled with myriad speaking activities and other language practice, so I usually allocate self-reflection as homework.
Students take time to think and write critically about their progress, often with specific questions about the completed lesson, as well as by more generic but effective questions: “What did I do well today? Where can I improve? How can I improve that area?” This simple practice promotes autonomy without taking away from valuable interactive class time. It is then important to follow up by reading students’ self-assessments and encouraging them to take it upon themselves to improve. Thus, we offer students comfort by being a supportive agent, as they feel that they are not completely left to fend for themselves, yet we remind them that it is ultimately up to them to take the initiative to learn and grow.
2. Competence
Since learner autonomy is deeply connected to the students’ attitude and psychological state, we should emphasize the importance of imbuing students with the feeling of competence. I have seen advanced students leave my classroom with their heads hanging in shame because they felt like complete beginners after struggling with an exceptionally difficult task. Upon reflection, I realized that the task I gave them was indeed too difficult and, unfortunately, was demoralizing. Meanwhile, I have seen beginner students take greater ownership of their English language education because they felt more competent.
In my first year of teaching EFL to college-age students in Japan, almost a decade ago, my senpai and mentor Paul Searle told me that one of the most important goals when teaching short mandatory language courses is for students to walk away with the feeling that English proficiency is something both enjoyable and achievable. If we grade them too harshly and they walk away with a sense of defeat and dread, we would be doing them a disservice.
In the 15 lessons that I would teach them in one semester, I wasn’t going to take them from level A1 to C1, and that’s fine. If they could leave the classroom believing that improving their English skills is a fulfilling endeavor, and something that they can do, then that would be a far greater learner outcome. That is because if I could at least empower my students, then they would be much more likely to carry on being interested in and learning English, and that would be the surer path to more of them continuing to enjoy, learn, and use English, and it would be their own choice to do so. In my view, this aligns closely with the concept of learner autonomy.
The practical application of my current philosophy on expectations, grading, and instilling a sense of competency in my EFL students—especially those in college with whom I have limited time—is as follows. I, for lack of a better word, trick them into believing that they will have to work very hard to get good grades in my classes, which leads to them putting in a considerable amount of effort. Then, I grade them quite leniently to give them an enormous boost of confidence and feeling of competency. After all, teachers could devise an English language test challenging enough to defeat all but the most proficient learners, but to what end?
Just a note of caution: I take a very different, meticulous, and long-term approach with private students whose goal it is to get a band score of 8.0 or above on IELTS. The checkpoints and assessments that I set need to be realistic and sufficiently challenging so that the student understands the difficulty of the undertaking and commits fully to achieving their goals. In any case, the milestones are scaffolded at achievable intervals which build the feeling of competence that deepens the students’ motivation for learning.
3. Relatedness
Learning in isolation can hinder autonomy1. Hu and Zhang’s study, as well as other studies, informs us that collaborative learning—working in groups, peer monitoring, and sharing feedback—help to fulfill the need for relatedness by fostering a sense of belonging and shared purpose. This, in turn, propels students to take ownership of their learning to achieve greater growth. When students engage in teamwork, they challenge each other, share diverse perspectives, and feel supported. This communal aspect is essential, as it connects individual autonomy with a collective learning experience, making the process more engaging and meaningful. As others have rightly pointed out, including in a previous newsletter which was a major inspiration for this article, autonomy does not simply equate to total independence or self-study.
1 Editors’ Note: See our September 2020 issue on the social brain.
Relatedness is tricky to do well, because weaker students often feel inferior to students with stronger language skills who, almost literally, talk circles around them. It is easy, yet perhaps misguided, to urge students not to compare themselves to their peers and to strive to be better English speakers today than they were last week. It is natural for them to judge themselves in comparison to others. To be honest, I struggle in dealing with this aspect of student motivation, and many strategies that I have tried have failed. For example, I tried telling a student who was much weaker than the others in grammatical accuracy that her fluency, creativity, and ability to speak spontaneously about any topic are remarkable and worthy of praise. But to her, as someone desperately striving to improve her grammatical accuracy, my words could inadvertently be seen as daggers which confirm to her that her grammar skills are weak. The best I could do then was to give her specific suggestions on what to work on and how to improve her grammar, then send her on her way with a few words of encouragement. There may be a better way to handle this, and I would urge you to consider this deeply for yourself. But it may also be the case that some obstacles are ones that an individual must overcome by themselves.
Other complications arise with relatedness when students are asked to work together and help each other grow. Primarily, this is because many students are reluctant to give criticism. They are afraid to hurt another student’s feelings. I have tried to explain that they are hurting the other students more by withholding valuable insight into how their peers can grow. Constructive feedback sessions are meant to be judgment-free. Peer feedback activities in my classroom are solely there to let students support one another’s growth when I cannot spend substantial time with each student.
When doing peer feedback, I advise students to start off by giving some positive feedback, followed by a constructive suggestion, and closing with another point of positive feedback so that the conclusion feels positive overall. By framing feedback in this way, we strive not to discourage others and to create a culture of positivity. I take it a step further by explaining to students that hearing negative feedback may make their egos uncomfortable, but acting to improve upon weak points often leads to success, so it is best to welcome as much constructive criticism as one can handle. I want students to understand how being overly sensitive, resulting in not being able to give or to accept constructive criticism, confines their ability to grow. By having this knowledge, students can begin self-overcoming. For me, the key to relatedness done well is that it leads to self-overcoming, and in this way, it is directly linked to greater autonomy.
Wrapping up
I have now touched upon the three core psychological needs and some approaches that I have had some success with, providing theoretical or philosophical support where possible. I’d also like to highlight one of my favorite exercises for fostering autonomy: the one-minute speech, a technique I learned from Leis (2014). In the one-minute speech, the teacher provides a topic or open-ended questions for students to speak about, uninterrupted, for one minute, to a partner. The partner counts the number of words used and relays it to the speaker, who keeps a record and strives to improve their word count with every consecutive lesson and one-minute speech. Here’s why it works: students choose what they want to talk about (autonomy), they push themselves to speak more fluently (competence), and they share their thoughts with a partner (relatedness). This activity addresses all three psychological needs. Furthermore, students feel they are in control.
In conclusion, building learner autonomy isn’t just about teaching language skills—it’s about creating an environment where students feel psychologically supported, competent, and connected. By acknowledging where they start, guiding them with empathy, and introducing activities that foster autonomy, we can help them grow beyond the confines of a required class and guide them toward taking ownership of their learning.
References
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. Springer.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2009). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry 11(4), 227-268.
Hu, P., & Zhang, J. (2017). A pathway to learner autonomy: A self-determination theory perspective. Asia Pacific Education Review, 18, 147–157. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-016-9468-z
Leis, A. (2014). Every minute counts: A warm-up speaking and listening activity to build fluency. The Language Teacher, 38(2), 31-32. https://jalt-publications.org/tlt/departments/myshare/articles/3657-every-minute-counts-warm-speaking-and-listening-activity-build
Illustrations
All images in this article were generated by AI using DALL-E 3, prompted by Mark Zolotar.
Mark Zolotar is the owner of Beyond, a language school in Sendai, Japan that specializes in creating custom-made curriculums. Mark is interested in AI-assisted learning. For example, he wrote a program in which students debate ChatGPT at varying difficulties and receive feedback on their argumentation skills and grammatical accuracy.