Autonomy in language learning conference at the University of Nottingham 30th May 2008

On Friday 30th May 2008, the IATEFL LA SIG and the SWAN (Sheffield, Warwick and Nottingham Autonomy) Network held a joint conference at the University of Nottingham.

Our 8 speakers on the day were:

Dr Richard Smith (University of Warwick, UK)
Dr Zoltán Dörnyei (University of Nottingham, UK)
Felicity Kjisik (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Alex Ding (University of Nottingham, UK)
Sara Cotterall (Akita International University, Japan)
Dr Andy Barfield (Chuo University, Japan)
Dr Barbara Sinclair (University of Nottingham, UK)
Dr Ema Ushioda (University of Warwick, UK)

and we had 5 poster presenters:

Mona Aljehani (University of Sheffield, UK)
Anja Burkert (University of Graz, Austria)
Chien-Hsiang Chien (University of Sheffield, UK)
Carol Everhard (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece)
Chika Hayashi (University of Nottingham, UK)

The day ended with a question and answer panel session. As a follow-up to the event, the questions for each speaker are listed below. To continue the discussion, please click on the "comment" button under each post to write your contribution.

Tuesday 3 June 2008

Autonomy: Attractive but how useful?


Zoltán Dörnyei (University of Nottingham, UK)


Questions / comments / reflections for Zoltán
(When commenting, please indicate which number question/comment/reflection your comment refers to. The question asked during the Q&A panel session is shown in blue. Please also feel free to ask more questions!)

1. Can you say more about the idea of/importance of "vision" that you referred to briefly in your talk?

2. You claim that Autonomy is not central to your 'motivation' commandments, but they do, actually, contain many examples of what Richard Smith calls 'pro-autonomy practice' – many others would then see as belonging to 'LA'. Is the real problem the term 'Autonomy' again?

3. Could it be that 'implicit' learning – a style of teaching/learning which encourages autonomy in language learning takes more time, while everyone nowadays is in a hurry to learn languages and prefer a 'fast-food' approach and collect their certificates? Also, is this approach discouraging 'ownership' of the language in students?

4. What evidence is there to support your claim that implicit (informal, untutored?) learning/teaching "doesn't seem to be doing a good job"? Is there much research into learning in social contexts, informal/implicit (?) learning?

5. Talking about the group level: we always find language programmes where groups of students are exposed to same teaching and same environments BUT still only 10% of them end up successful language learners while the rest don't. (Being quanti person how would you explain this?) As for autonomy not very useful, I don't agree! Because I learnt English in a very traditional foreign context and managed to reach a level good enough to do a PhD (all myself!).

6. Are you trying to say learner autonomy is the 'end product' and not 'the process'? I honestly do not agree with you saying autonomy isn't really useful!

7. Inspiring lecture! What are the differences and similarities between group dynamics and the notion of teamwork and cooperative learning communities?

8. In your lecture, you mentioned audio-lingual approaches re-appearing in new guises. What guises did you have in mind, exactly?
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