Beatriz Lupiano 1

February 2010

Autonomous learning: A personal account

Last year I taught 5 very different classes and for some reason I started thinking more
than before about autonomous learning, its characteristics and the processes involved in
its acquisition. I remembered myself at 17 in my first Self Access Centre (SAC)
experience, feeling completely at a loss despite having always been a good learner in
class. I also remembered my first job theyear after that working part-time at a SAC and
seeing it almost deserted,except for one or two “regulars” (a teacher looking for
supplementary material and a student preparing for an international exam). During the
months in between those moments I prepared for and sat FCE; I think that was a turning
point in my life as a learner.

The SAC didn’t have a physical room at the school that year (it would have one the
following year, where I’d work) so I’d have to go to the Head Teachers’ office every
time and ask one of them for advice, then find an empty room to work. I tried a couple
of different books and didn’t have a clear purpose in mind; I just wanted to learn. I was
taking a course so most of the bases were covered anyway. One day I opened a book on
phrasal verbs and loved it so much that except for one or two practice tests I wouldn’t
work on anything else from the SAC for the rest of the year. The general comment came
to be: “Before locking up we always check everywhere to make sure Beatriz has left
and won’t get locked in”.

During that year I feel I took not only responsibility for, but also control of my own
learning. I started browsing at bookshops that sold EFL materials, I started consciously
trying out strategies my teachers suggested, I started to read unabridged books in
English with the same relish as I’d always had for those in Spanish.

Over the years I feel I’ve built up a wider repertoire of learning strategies, not only as
far as English is concerned, but also about teaching, other languages and even unrelated
activities like dancing or drawing. My attempts at learning Russian with a self-study kit,
however, never really took off in spite of my high motivation.

Pondering on all this began to give rise to certain explicit beliefs about what –in my
view- autonomous learning encompasses and on what characteristics an autonomous
learner shows (or has, but then I would be treading a path too full of assumptions).

Autonomous learning, to me, then is:

 not subject specific (once you seize control of your learning in one area you
have the ability to transfer that to other areas)
 not necessarily sought or perceived (if I’d been asked why I was spending so
much time at the SAC I’d have said, “I don’t know” or “I like it”)
 cummulative (when I started my first unabridged book in English I got myself a
dictionary as well –huge!- and I’d look up unknown words as they appeared. I
dropped it after page 5, I think, and just went on with the book. When I read my
second book I turned to the dictionary after finishing my reading for that day
and only if I was very curious about a word –I was reading Christine by Stephen
King and there was a lot of vocabulary related to the parts of a car (which, by the
way, have stuck and stood the test of time...)
 consistent (once I started to actively participate in my own learning I didn’t stop)
Beatriz Lupiano 2
February 2010
 key to life-long learning (for most of the reasons discussed above)

Autonomous learning is also collaborative –it is not synonymous with studying

alone. The autonomous learner knows how to ask for help and who to turn to for it
and when.

So what characteristics do autonomous learners seem to have in common?

They are:
 curious
 not afraid of asking questions or failing
 aware of how they tend to experience learning and tasks (I don’t mean –
only- learning styles but also that reassuring self-awareness that, for
example, in my case, is stated by the little voice inside my head like this: you
know the first time you try a new task you do horribly. You also know the
second time you always do a lot better)
 good observers and possess the kind of alertness that helps them make the
most of incidental and peripheral learning opportunities. They have a special
place where those things get somehow stored to be further processed at the
right time
 are able to apply critical skills and act upon them, regardless where the
artifact was encountered or who created it.
 realistically humble: in other words, they’re fully aware of their strengths
and weaknesses and don’t get (too) dizzy by either.
 able to find interesting bits even when the main focus of the task is too easy
for them.
 able to ask for, and give, constructive criticism
 are able to actively participate in a learning community (once again, mostly
because of the implications of the points discussed above)

The remaining question is: can autonomous learning skills be taught? Autonomous
learning needs to be acquired; I don’t think it can be taught. It can be modeled, it can be
nurtured and scaffolded; it cannot be forced. Forcing learning strategies into learners
seems to me to be counterproductive and short-lived.

Autonomous learning is intertwined with life-long learning; with pleasure and curiosity;
with the desire to share it and perhaps pass it on to others and receive from others. It
cannot happen overnight. It needs time. It doesn’t always need to start with the teacher –
and it reaches its apex when the teacher her(him)self becomes a true peer in terms of
learning.

(This article first appeared in the TESOL Arabia Learner Independence Special Interest
Group’s 2010 Conference Newsletter)