English teachers Learner Autonomy What is it all about and how can you use
it in the classroom? Let's go
I'm Deirdre Nicholas from Palm Tree Teaching TV teacher speaker and your
personal English language coach. Now you've probably heard of learner
autonomy. Learner autonomy was first discussed in English teaching over 30
years ago and has been talked a lot about by academics so I'm going to
explain this powerful tool that will boost your teaching and make your
students better learners and watch to the end to get practical help with how
you can use it in the classroom so what is learner autonomy
it's about learners taking responsibility for their own learning
both what they learn and how they learn it now as a teacher don't worry that you
may be losing control of your students you're not because by guiding them to be
better more independent learners you're helping them and without you they would
not be able to do any of this you're very much in charge of the whole process
you as the teacher will be encouraging your students to find ways of learning
that suits them what works for them and means something for them
so therefore you'll improve the quality and the results of their language
learning you'll help learners to understand their
learning and become aware of their own strengths and areas that they need to
work on you will be teaching students to
evaluate themselves and what to do to improve and you will guide students to
work outside the classroom to to build on their English so you teachers are
incredibly important for learner autonomy it just can't be done without
you it is you the teachers who will help and
guide your students in doing this show them the way you're the leader
the director and the empower are so why is learner autonomy important well by
showing your students how to be autonomous learners you will set them up
successfully for life by creating autonomous learners you'll help them
think critically about their learning and understand what they need to do to
improve our research has shown that good learners are autonomous and successful
people are autonomous as well and this skill starts at the age of eleven so
doing this at school helping them in that age is the perfect time and you can
build all this into your lessons even if you have to follow a course book which I
know many of you have to do you can still help your students to be
autonomous learners so how can you do this in the classroom well there are
lots of ways that you can engage your students in their learning with
resources technology different classroom relationships and so on but the most
important thing to do is to raise your students awareness of their learning how
do you do this well every lesson or every week whatever is right for you and
your class get your students to write down the answers to these questions what
have you learnt what have you found easiest
what have you found most difficult which you think you could do to improve so
already they're becoming aware of where they are in the learning process and
they're more active in their own learning and as the teacher you can tell
them what you'll be doing in the lesson and why they are doing it it helps them
to understand the learning path they're following
the second thing you can do is get them to assess themselves I don't mean
actually test themselves no you do that of course but before a test
ask them to predict how they think they're going to do what grade do they
think they're going to get what areas are most concerning for them then when
they've done the test and you've given them the results ask them to compare the
marks that they've got with the marks that they thought they would get were
they right did they have problems in the areas they thought would be difficult
and ask them how they think they can improve for example do they need more
resources more exercises online work or whatever they need number three don't
just give them the answers immediately ask your students to share their answers
in class first get your students to explain their own or answers why they
think they're right and discuss this with their friends in class this will
create a great debate I will increase their confidence in their own opinions
to Oh before I go on to the next practical way
you can encourage your students to be more autonomous don't forget to hit the
subscribe button and the bell so that you don't miss any of my videos or
lessons and of course if you would like to have me as your personal coach or
your teaching coach as well to give you some consultancy or online teacher
training do email me on the email below this video deirdre at palm to teaching
comm I'd love to hear from you and to be able to help you number four menu
lessons now many lessons are great for many reasons and I don't mean lessons
about food I mean giving a menu a list of choices of activities and exercises
for your students firstly of course menu lessons provide more choice for the
learners to choose their own way of learning but also creating
differentiation in the classroom by having menu lessons your students
whatever labeled level of ability they are will always be able to find
something which they can access and do and of course this increases their
engagement in the whole learning process so you could offer a
menu of skills work vocabulary building working from their course book drama
activities anything you want and it can all be related to the course book that
you have to work on as well and whilst you do this of course you monitor and
support the students and set targets then at the end of the lesson get the
students to share what they've learnt with the rest of the class and get them
to reflect on what they've done and why they chose that activity your students
will love your lessons number five outside class now learning English
inside school is clearly a great start but to really develop students need to
get into the habit of taking their English outside the classroom learning
English outside class with your guidance as the teacher will benefit them hugely
in terms of their English development and in terms of their skills for life
now the internet also means that anyone can find any information so get them to
research things on the internet at home and digital tools also mean there are
lots more opportunities to be more independent as a learner now have more
control over their own learning and you as the teacher guide them to do this so
for example a reading project why not give your students reading projects get
the students to find something they actually want to read it could be a book
or it could be something online then get them to set personal goals on how much
reading they're going to do or when they're going to read you could even get
them to focus on a particular language feature or maybe to find new vocabulary
also you need to get them to think about what's good about reading how they feel
they're improving their English when they're reading it's up to you of course
the second thing is also why not give them speaking projects why not get your
students to create their own English clubs with their friends after school
let's say they have to talk English on to lunch times a week or one evening
after school a week for example writing projects a great way to get them to
reflect on their English is to get your students to write learner Diaries in
English or they could also write a normal diary of what they've done each
day but in English experiment project the goal is to encourage your students
to experiment with different out of class activities that they do in their
free time you could provide a few ideas yourself of course which they can choose
from at the beginning of class get your students to talk about what they've
tried doing why they chose that particular thing how they benefited what
they enjoyed and what they're thinking of doing next it could be a nice little
warmer into your class now of course I've got lots of other videos on my
channel made to support you as an English teacher at which you should
watch and I'll put the links below for you so you can have a look at those are
and I hope you really enjoyed this video don't forget to Like share and subscribe
to this amazing channel enjoy your English enjoy your English teaching and
I'll see you in the next video bye