HOWTOSUCCEEDINTHE

ENGLISHB1LEVELEXAM
CompetitivenessandInnovationFrameworkProgramme (CIP
Projectno.:62112

Elearning,CommunicationandOpendata:
MassiveMobile,UbiquitousandOpenLearning

AutonomousEnglishlearning

ElenaMartnMonje
UNED
emartin@flog.uned.es
@emartinmonje

Elearning,CommunicationandOpendata:
MassiveMobile,UbiquitousandOpenLearning

Table ofcontents
What is autonomous learning?
Characteristics ofan autonomous language learner
Steps into autonomous learning
Learning style preferences &learning strategies
Learning strategies
Cognitive strategies
Metacognitive strategies
Some stategies for learning English autonomously
References

Elearning,CommunicationandOpendata:
MassiveMobile,UbiquitousandOpenLearning

What is autonomous learning?

Autonomous learning takes placewhen students
take control andresponsibility for their own
learning,both interms ofwhat they learn and
how they learn it.(HardyGould,2013)
It involves having arange oflearning strategies
Those learning strategies canbe applied in
different contexts (e.g. how to useselfreference
tools)

Elearning,CommunicationandOpendata:
MassiveMobile,UbiquitousandOpenLearning

Characteristics ofan autonomous

language learner
Autonomous language learners
Have insights into their learning styles &strategies
Take an activeapproach to the learning task
Arewilling to take risks
Aregood guessers
Attend to form aswell asto content (placeimportance on
accuracy aswell asappropriacy)
Arewilling to revise&reject hypotheses &rulesthat donot
apply
Have atolerant &outgoing approach to the targetlanguage
(Lowry,2008)

Elearning,CommunicationandOpendata:
MassiveMobile,UbiquitousandOpenLearning

Steps into autonomous learning

Lowry,2008
Teacher becomes
less ofan
instructor&more
ofafacilitator

Teacher
decreases
importance as
main source of
knowledge

Students
capacity to learn
for themselves
encouraged

Students
encouraged to
develop their
own learning
strategies

Students
awareness of
their own
learning styles
encouraged

Students
encouraged to
make decisions
about what they
learn

Elearning,CommunicationandOpendata:
MassiveMobile,UbiquitousandOpenLearning

Learning style preferences &

learning strategies (Jepri etal.,2014)
Diagrams
Charts
Flashcards
Highlight
(colour coding)
Draw
boxes/circles

Visual

Auditory

Repeat info
Study with a
partner
Listento music
(nolyrics)
Talk to yourself
Tapeyourself

Kinaesthetic
Personalise info
Breakreading tasks into small chunks
Stopafter each chunk
Usefingers to keep track ofwhere you are
Useyour hands explaining concepts to yourself

Elearning,CommunicationandOpendata:
MassiveMobile,UbiquitousandOpenLearning

Learning strategies
Mentalstepsoroperationsthatlearnersusetolearna
newlanguageandtoregulatetheireffortstodoso
(Wenden,1998:18)
Someofthemainlearningstrategiesare(Thanasoulas,
2000):
Cognitive strategies

Metacognitive strategies

They operate on the

incoming information

They areused for

planning,monitoring &
evaluating the learning
activity

Elearning,CommunicationandOpendata:
MassiveMobile,UbiquitousandOpenLearning

COGNITIVE STRATEGIES(Thanasoulas,2000)

Repetition,imitating othersspeech
Resourcing (using dictionaries &other materials)
Translation
Notetaking
Deduction
Contextualisation
Transfer(Knowledge inL1applied to L2)
Asking for clarification

Elearning,CommunicationandOpendata:
MassiveMobile,UbiquitousandOpenLearning

METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES(Thanasoulas,2000)
Directed attention:Deciding inadvance to concentrate on
general aspects ofatask
Selective attention:Paying attention to specific aspects ofa
task
Selfmonitoring: Checking ones performanceasone
speaks
Selfevaluation:Appraising ones performanceinrelation
to ones own standards
Selfreinforcement:Rewarding oneself for success

Elearning,CommunicationandOpendata:
MassiveMobile,UbiquitousandOpenLearning

References

Chamot,A.U.etal.(2010).Developing Autonomy inLanguage

Learners:Learning Strategies Instruction inHigher Education.
Washington:National CapitalLanguage Center.Retrieved from
http://www.nclrc.org/guides/HED/pdfs/full.pdf
HardyGould,J. (2013).Learner autonomy.Retrieved from
http://oupeltglobalblog.com/2013/01/29/learnerautonomy/
Jepri,N.etal.(2014).Learning Strategy andLearning StyleAffecting
Second Language Acquisition.Retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/6088830/Learning_strategy_and_learnin
g_style_affecting_Second_Language_Acquisition

Elearning,CommunicationandOpendata:
MassiveMobile,UbiquitousandOpenLearning

References

Lowry,E.(2008).Approaches to Learner Autonomy inLanguage

Learning.Retrieved from
http://es.slideshare.net/irwyn12/approachestolearnerautonomy
inlanguagelearningpresentation786825
Thanasoulas,D.(2000).What is Learner Autonomy andHow CanIt be
Fostered?The InternetTESLJournal,Vol VI.Retrieved from
http://iteslj.org/Articles/ThanasoulasAutonomy.html
Wenden,A.1998.LearnerStrategiesforLearnerAutonomy.United
Kingdom:PrenticeHall.

Elearning,CommunicationandOpendata:
MassiveMobile,UbiquitousandOpenLearning

THANKYOU!

ElenaMartnMonje
UNED
emartin@flog.uned.es
@emartinmonje