THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY GRADUATION PAPER Topic LEARNER AUTONOMY IN ENGLISH LEARNING OF SECOND YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY Supervisor TRAN THI THU HIEN, MA Stude[.]
THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY GRADUATION PAPER Topic: LEARNER AUTONOMY IN ENGLISH LEARNING OF SECONDYEAR ENGLISH - MAJORED STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY Supervisor: TRAN THI THU HIEN, MA Student: PHAN THI PHUONG Class: K55N2 Student Code: 19D170105 HANOI, 2022 HÀ NỘI - 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This graduation paper would not have been accomplished without the guidance and help of some people, who in one way or another, contributed and extended their valuable assistance in the preparation and completion of this research First of all, I would like to sincerely thank the support of Ms Tran Thi Thu Hien, MA, who guided me during the past several days For the invaluable support, guidance, time encouragement she gave me throughout my research I am truly grateful for her advice and suggestions right from the beginning when the study was only in its formative Besides, I would like to sincerely thank 121 students in the second year of the English Faculty at Thuongmai University They provided helpful information to help me in the course of completing my research by completing the survey and interview questionnaires Last but not least, I want to express my deepest gratitude to all the English teachers at Thuongmai University who have wholeheartedly taught me during the past years Due to the limitation of information resources other documents as well as the inexperience of the writer in this issue so the research unavoidably contains certain mistakes And I look forward to receiving suggestions from teachers and supervisors so that my work can be improved Thank you sincerely! Hanoi, October 10th, 2022 Student Phan Thi Phuong i ABSTRACT This study tries to investigate the students’ awareness of learner autonomy in the English language at Thuongmai University The researcher collected first-hand data from the second-year students of English Major at this University This study analyses students’ beliefs and reflections on learner autonomy Moreover, the present study relates and connects two theories in the process of developing and shaping it It emphasizes the students’ perceptions toward learning autonomy and the researcher anticipated mentioning the students’ perceptions of English language teaching learning in government-aided schools In this study, the researcher worked with 121 students from three separate classes of English majors of the English faculty All data were collected through survey questionnaires and interview questions After analyzing and discussing the results of the survey, the difficulties suffered by students in learning autonomy were discovered The result1wws indicated that students not reflect a high level of autonomous learning Based on these difficulties, we would propose some recommendations to improve the quality of the English Majors’ autonomous learning at Thuongmai University The results also showed that autonomy does play an integral part in English learning ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS .iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES .v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.2 Previous studies 1.2.1 Studies in Vietnam 1.2.2 Studies in the world 1.3 The aims of the study and research questions 1.4 Research Subjects 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Research methodology 1.7 Significance of the study 1.8 The organization of the study .8 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 10 2.1 The nature of learner autonomy in language learning .10 2.1.1 The definitions of learning autonomy .10 2.1.2 Learning autonomy in the language 11 2.2 The difficulties that students faced in autonomous English learning 12 2.2.1 Internal causes 12 2.2.2 External causes 14 2.3 The solutions for students to improve the quality of learning autonomy 15 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 18 3.1 Survey questionnaires for students .18 3.1.1 Demographic information 18 3.1.2 Students’ awareness of autonomous English learning .18 3.1.3 Students’ perception of activities in autonomous English learning 21 iii 3.1.4 The difficulties in learner autonomy of second-year students faced .23 3.1.5 The causes and solutions for students to improve their autonomous learning 24 3.2 Interviewed questions for students .26 3.3 Research Conclusion .28 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS .30 4.1 Recommendations 30 4.1.2 Recommendations for teachers 31 4.1.3 Recommendations for Thuongmai University 32 4.2 Limitations of the study 32 4.3 Suggestions for other studies 33 CONCLUSION 34 REFERENCES 35 APPENDIX .39 iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Chart 3.1: Students’ awareness of autonomous English learning 19 Chart 3.2: Self-assess Learner autonomy at the students’ level .19 Chart 3.3: Students’ time of autonomous English learning 20 Chart 3.4: The benefits of Learner Autonomy for students 20 Chart 3.5: Students’ perception of activities in autonomous English learning inside the classroom 21 Chart 3.6: Students’ perception of activities in autonomous English learning outside the classroom 22 Chart 3.7: The difficulties in learner autonomy of second-year students faced .24 Chart 3.8: The causes of difficulties that students faced 25 Chart 3.9: Solutions for students to improve their autonomous learning .26 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Terms English Meanings Vietnamese Meanings TMU THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY Trường Đại học Thương mại LA Learner Autonomy Quyền tự chủ người học EFL English as a Foreign Language Tiếng Anh ngoại ngữ VOA Voice of America BBC CNN TOEFL British Broadcasting Corporation Cable News Network Test Of English as a Foreign Language Dịch vụ phát sóng đa truyền thơng Mỹ Hiệp hội phát Anh quốc Mạng Tin tức Truyền hình cáp Hoa Kỳ Bài kiểm tra dành cho người học tiếng Anh ngôn ngữ thứ Test of English for International hai Bài kiểm tra tiếng Anh giao Communication International English Language tiếp quốc tế Hệ thống Kiểm tra Anh ngữ Testing System Quốc tế Vân vân thứ khác TOEIC IELTS 10 etc Et cetera 11 IT Information Technology tương tự vi Công nghệ thông tin CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale of the study Nowadays, the importance of English cannot be denied since English is the most common language spoken in the areas of the world As a result, it has become a compulsory subject taught at universities or colleges in Vietnam and the outcome standard is mandatory for students Especially, when our country is on the way to rapidly integrating and developing, the demand for a highly qualified education sector has been the most concern of our Party and Government To adjust these requirements, class-based learning is not adequate According to Uncle Ho, the former president of Vietnam, learner autonomy is the main part of studying Learner autonomy is very important to students at any grade, particularly at university In fact, on an average weekday, students just have to attend the class for about five hours, thus the role of it is more interesting The only task of the school is to facilitate learning autonomy If this process is not carried out, the school will lose the meaning of its existence Being aware of this issue, Thuongmai University (TMU) has highly recommended students’ autonomous learning in general and English self-study in particular However, from some informal interviews, the researcher in this study realize that the majority of students have still not put the theory into reality There are some reasons for this Firstly, many English learners are not adequately aware of learning autonomously Most of them think that it means they all exercises that the teacher gives Others state that they only learn what they like and when they want Secondly, students have not yet balanced their learning and attending university activities such as singing, dancing, etc Some indicate that they feel tired after activities, so they cannot focus on learning Moreover, many lack strategies for effective autonomous learning and expect to be provided with the best ways of studying For all the reasons above, the researcher hopes to investigate the current situation of second-year English-major students in their learning of English autonomously The researcher hopes that this study may help to find out the challenges and difficulties that second-year English major students at TMU have to face in the process and to suggest some solutions to improve their autonomy in learning English in particular and learning quality in general 1.2 Previous studies Although much research has been conducted to investigate teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding learner autonomy in various contexts, only scant attention was given to how students perceive and practice autonomous learning 1.2.1 Studies in Vietnam In Le’s (2018) research, the aim was to explore Vietnamese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students’ voices, including both their perceptions and practices, on learner autonomy Learner autonomy in this study was analyzed based on a fouraspect framework: (1) the awareness of learning responsibilities,(2) the ability and willingness to create learning plans and identify objectives, (3) the selection of methods, strategies, and resources to perform learning activities with and without the assistance of teachers, and (4) the evaluation of learning processes and outcomes To collect data for the study, sixty English-majored students were selected to participate in a narrative interview voluntarily It was found that all the participants recognized the significant role of learner autonomy in higher education and supported the need for students to develop the ability to act autonomously The results also showed that they demonstrated different levels of practice regarding autonomous learning More recent is the research done by Truong et al (2019) in a Vietnamese context With the participation of eighty EFL students at Hung Vuong University, the study investigated learner perceptions about autonomous learning across four dimensions: (1) the importance of learner autonomy, (2) the responsibilities of learner autonomy, (3) the abilities of learner autonomy and (4) the behaviors of learner autonomy A mixed-methods approach, including a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview, was used for data collection and analysis The results revealed that the students emphasized the importance of learning autonomy in English language learning Although they were aware of their autonomous responsibilities, such as determining learning objectives, selecting learning activities and strategies, and evaluating their learning progress, they reported that their autonomous abilities were limited to some extent As regards the students’ autonomous learning behaviors, they preferred peer interaction to student-teacher interaction inside the classroom, and there was a disparity in the selection of activities that they did outside the classroom Since learner autonomy is a multidimensional concept, the term itself cannot manifest a satisfactory meaning from just a single perspective As seen from most of the above studies, the researchers divided learner autonomy into different aspects of focus, among which autonomous responsibilities, abilities, and behaviors were commonly investigated The similar results found in these studies were that EFL students had positive perceptions towards autonomous learning, and they engaged in various activities, despite at different levels of engagement, with the intent to become autonomous learners However, it was concluded in Scheb-Buenner’s (2019) study that, notwithstanding their agreement on the importance of learner autonomy in language learning, the student’s knowledge of the relevant concepts was limited In Vietnam, only a few studies on university students’ perceptions and practices of autonomous learning have been recorded in the literature until the present Exploring learner autonomy from the teacher perspective, Nguyen’s (2014) and Nguyen’s (2011) studies arrived at a similar conclusion that most teacher participants did not believe that their students were capable enough to take charge of their learning (as cited in Nguyen, 2016) This result concurred with that of each of the works mentioned earlier, showing an inconsistency in the perceptions of Vietnamese students’ capacity to act autonomously Therefore, there is a need to provide more evidence on what learner autonomy means to Vietnamese students in terms of importance and the extent to which they can act autonomously, and what autonomous learning activities they take part in whereby the further understanding of Vietnamese student’s capacity to take control of their learning could be drawn out The present study attempted to investigate Vietnamese EFL students’ perceptions of the importance of learner autonomy in language learning, their perceived abilities to act autonomously, and their practices of in-class and out-of-