Abstract:

Autonomy has now become a key idea in language education policy internationally and in Hong Kong. Although quite a number of studies have been conducted to investigate the development of teacher autonomy by engaging in-service language teachers in action research and reflective practice, there is a dearth of work exploring issues of autonomy in pre-service language teacher education. While teacher education programmes have a crucial role to play in developing teachers to be autonomous in their own learning and teaching, to date there have been very few reports delineating how these programmes attempted to promote autonomy by employing pedagogical strategies. This project investigated the impact of the introduction of pedagogical strategies for autonomy into several modules taken by the English majors at HKIEd. The study was based on classroom observation and collection of evaluation data within these modules. The expected outcomes of the project included an interactive website where resources in developing learner and teacher autonomy are provided, and good teaching practices were shared by publishing the module lecturers’ reflective accounts of their understanding of the processes involved in preparing students for autonomy-oriented teaching that can contribute to the improvement of language teacher education programmes in Hong Kong and internationally.

Code:

T0083

Principal Project Supervisors:

• CHUK, Yim Ping Joanne

Subjects:

• English language -- Study and teaching -- Chinese speakers
• English teachers -- In-service training
• Teaching
• Freedom of
• Action research
• Learner autonomy

Start Date:

02 Jul 2010

End Date:

31 Aug 2011

Status:

Completed

Result:

The major outcomes of the projects are:

An interactive professional website where good teaching practices are shared by publishing the lecturers’ reflective account of their understanding of the processes involved in promoting autonomy in their students.
The project website features practical experiences of how seven lectures promoted autonomy in their courses conducted in Semesters I &II in 2010-2011, learner and teacher autonomy bibliographies, link to Independent Learning Centres/ Self-Access Centres, relevant conference proceedings, and language learning websites. The popularity of the project website can be reflected by the visitorship (hit rate) which has reached 5,109 as of 30 November 2011. The site usage statistics from August to November 2011 suggest that the average number of subpages viewed by each user is around 3, which means that the users are interested in reading two more subpages of the site besides the homepage. Besides, resources in developing learner and teacher autonomy are made available to the public through our project website at http://www.learner-autonomy.org/ as well as Facebook and Ren Ren, the equivalent social networking site in mainland China.

Impact:

The TDG project gas been highly effective in supporting teaching and learning development. This was evident from multiple sources of data, including the extremely positive results of the evaluation questionnaire administered to all participating students at the end of the courses and students’ qualitative comments on the course experiences during the focus group interviews. All the lecturers who were involved in the project were also highly appreciative of the opportunities of learning form one another during the project. The time spent on exchanging views on quality teaching and learning during the project was most invaluable.

Deliverables:

Benson, P., & Ying, D. I. (2011, October). Engaging students in autonomous language learning through peer teaching in a General Education course. Paper presented at the 7th International Symposium on Teaching English at Tertiary Level, Hong Kong.
Wang, L., & Taylor, T. (2011, October). Promoting learner autonomy through student-authored Wikibook project. Paper presented at the 7th International Symposium on Teaching English at Tertiary Level, Hong Kong. 
Chuk, Y. P. J. (2011, October). Fostering learner autonomy through reflective journal writing in class. Paper presented at the 7th International Symposium on Teaching English at Tertiary Level, Hong Kong.
Hazell-Yildirim, A., & Lavender, H. (2011, October). Interactive Assessment: Involving learners in assessment for learning (AfL). Paper presented at the 7th International Symposium on Teaching English at Tertiary Level, Hong Kong.
A presentation on “Fostering learner autonomy through reflective journal writing in class” by Dr Joanne Chuk at the Hong Kong Association for Self-Access Learning and Development (HASALD) on 26 October 2011. (No. of participants: about 15) 
A presentation on “Engaging students in autonomous language learning through peer teaching in a General Education course” by Prof P. Benson and Dr I. D. Ying at the Departmental seminar on 16 December 2011. (No. of participants: about 15)
A presentation on “Promoting learner autonomy through student-authored Wikibook project” by Dr. L. Wang and Dr T. Taylor at the Departmental seminar on 16 December 2011. (No. of participants: about 15)
A presentation on “Fostering learner autonomy through reflective journal writing in class” by Dr J. Chuk at the Departmental seminar on 16 December 2011. (No. of participants: about 15)
A presentation on “Encouraging autonomy through advising ‘conversations’” by Dr H. Lavender at the Departmental seminar on 16 December 2011. (No. of participants: about 15) 
A website on “Promoting autonomy by employing pedagogical strategies in the language classroom” http://www.learner-autonomy.org/Home.html

Financial Year:

2009-10

Type:

TDG