Critical Analysis

Assalamualaikum and good day to Dr Ehsan and everyone.
On this day, I would like

to present my article critique on the article “Language Learner Autonomy: Rethinking
Language Teaching” written by David Little.
Before that, let me introduce myself. My name is Dg Syuhada Nabilah binti Abdull
Majid.
This presentation is divided into 6 parts; which are the summary of the article,
strengths, weaknesses, key findings, the research implications and conclusions.
I would start with the first part of this presentation, which is the summary of the
article. For this part, I have summarised the article into 6 parts. The first part would
be the introduction. The article presents purely theoretical arguments on the
autonomy of the second language learners to “choose” their own learning. Besides,
David Little also addressed the issues that arose in language teaching, especially in
second language teaching. Next, the author has highlighted how he first encountered
the concept of language learner autonomy. He got the idea from Henri Holec’s 1979
report to the Council of Europe, Autonomy and foreign language learning. He also
discussed the autonomy classroom as a learning community by taking Leni Dam’s
Danish teenagers’ classroom as a reference where he stated some of the
characteristics of a language learner autonomy classroom. Some of the
characteristics of language learner autonomy classroom are the learners can set
their own objectives, select their own learning activities, made their own learning
materials, monitor their own progress, and evaluate the outcomes.
Besides that, the article also gave some insights on the main three pedagogical
principles and theoretical reflections related to language learner autonomy. The three
pedagogical principles that he mentioned are use of the target language, learner
control and reflection. Meanwhile, the three theoretical reflections are unconscious
learning (implicit), long-term memory, and spontaneous language use. Last but not
least, the fifth part summarised the impact of autonomous learning in various aspects
of education such as pupils frequently undertake ambitious language-related projects
on their own initiative, they have high levels of language awareness and they are
agentive in the use of multiple languages. Lastly, the author has briefly discussed
the future prospect of language learner autonomy where he stated that language
learning outcomes in the school systems of many countries remain disappointing,
unreasonable to expect teachers to follow the principles of language learner
autonomy and advantage of autonomous learning in successful language teaching
practice.
Next, the second part of this presentation is the strengths of the article. From my
point of view, I could list out 4 main strengths of the article. The first strength of the
article is, it is very focused. The article is focused towards one idea only, which is the
language learner autonomy and teaching practices. Then, the article is clear. The
author has written a very clear points, discussion and arguments in his article. The
past studies regarding language learners’ autonomy that he put in his article are
sufficient enough to support his points and arguments. It is clear from the introduction
that the author is truly interested in investigating the concept of autonomy learning.
He believes that learners are responsible for their language learning in which they
can plan, implement, monitor and evaluate on their own learning or in simple words,
they have full freedom to their own learning. Besides, it was quite easy, direct to the
points and easy to follow since the author used first person point of view. Apart from
that, the article has quite a number of evidence and references from various past
studies and research. Lastly, the article is very organised which make it easier for the
readers to understand the contents since the author has divided his article into
different parts under different headings and subtopics.
Despite the strengths of the article, there were also some of the weaknesses based
on my point of view. First, the article is quite biased towards one side, which is the
good side of the language learner autonomy only. Besides, there were no statistical
data provided, which the author only provide readers with the author’s personal
experience only, but it is a qualitative type of research.
The key findings of this article has shown that language learning autonomy provides
a lot of opportunities and advantages for language teaching practices, whereas
autonomy can act as individual variable. Next, the author found that there is no light
on language learner autonomy.also, empirical methods can be used to explore
language learner autonomy. Hence, through language learner autonomy approach,
the learners are the fluent users of target language.
Moving on to the next part in this presentation, the research implications. The
research implications can be divided into 3 main points; the first one is the principles
of the target language use. The implication of the research can be seen where it is a
highly effective approach and ensures a high level of pupil attention and participation.
On the other hand, in terms of learner control, it is impossible to gauge the overall
impact of language learner autonomy with any accuracy. Lastly,the research
implication can be seen in the reflection to the implementation of autonomy learning
in which it has given rise to an apparently endless stream of questionnaire surveys
that seek to describe what teachers think about the concept or to measure learners’
and ‘readiness for autonomy’.
The last part of this presentation would be the conclusion. In my opinion, language
learner autonomy can build interest especially among teachers or educators to
implement language learner autonomy concept. As an English as a second language
teacher, this article has inspired me to try the language learner autonomy approach
in my own classroom. I believe, so far the autonomy learning might be suitable for
level 2, year 4,5 and 6 pupils since children nowadays are already quite matures to
think of their own learning. Besides, it has given a new insights to me as an esl
teacher on language learner autonomy as it is practical to be used in classroom; just
by taking Leni Dam’s classroom as an example where she has succeeded in
producing learners with amazing language proficiency and ability. Last but not least,
language learner autonomy is beneficial especially for multi language users because
they can always take control of their own learning as they can change to any
language they are fluent on. Lastly, children or learners have their own freedom to
choose and decide their own learning. Thus, all in all, it can be concluded that
language learner autonomy can bring a lot of positive impacts and improve the
teacher teaching practices.
That’s all for now. Thank you.

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Assalamualaikum and good day to Dr Ehsan and everyone.

On this day, I would like

That’s all for now. Thank you.

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