Positive Roles that English Language Teachers Can Play in Computer-Enhanced Language Learning Environment: Perspectives

 

Janpha Thadphoothon

(Ed. D. candidate in Education, School of Languages and International Education, University of Canberra)

 Abstract

 Guiding and supporting, not telling or controlling, are positive roles that English language teachers should play in the new learning environment where the Internet has become an increasingly important part. Firstly, this article explores new educational environments driven by computers and IT technologies at the start of the 21st century in terms of their impacts on language education. Secondly, it discusses new power relationships between teachers and students, especially, with regards to the new environments in which online-communication influences the status of the knowledge’s holders, thus, power relationships. Finally, it proposes positive roles that English language teachers should play under the dynamic environments, based on the language learning principles postulated by A-P Lian (1993): Awareness, Autonomy, and Achievement.

  

Recently there has been a rapid growth of interest in the uses of online communications for language education. It is undeniable that information technology is playing an increasingly important role in our lives, and the field of language education is no exception. The rapid emergence of IT with more speed and efficiency and new features has brought about new teaching and learning environments in terms of methodologies and power relationships. Such environments have empowered not only students but also teachers. Internet accessibility means that bodies of knowledge can be accessed independently, regardless of time and place, which means that knowledge is not exclusively held by the teachers or certain specialists as before. Under these changing environments, what roles should teachers play? Changes bring both a promising future and resistance. It is not wrong to believe that technology will never replace teachers; yet, it is also worth observing that teachers who use technology are replacing those who don't. Like other organic professions, language teachers need to adapt to such changes. New environments mean new roles for people to play, which are challenging and unavoidable. This paper, thus, explores roles and power relationships between teachers and students under new environments. Its main focus is on positive roles that English language teachers can play in enhancing language learning by highlighting three principles: awareness, autonomy, and achievement.

 

I. New Educational Environments

 

Every second changes take place everywhere if we are aware of them. We are getting older as time goes by. More babies are born. New products are being put on the market. In fact, nothing is permanent: wars emerge, end, and re-emerge. Changes are natural phenomena and therefore inevitable. What matter is our attitude towards such changes. Consider a Chinese saying regarding the time of changes in relation to human behavior and perception:

 

When the wind of changes comes, some build a wall; some build a windmill.

 

Broadly speaking, there are two types of people: those who welcome changes and see golden opportunities in them, and those who resist changes and feel uneasy about them, if not hostile. Which type of person are you: the former or the latter? This article advocates the former stance that the teacher should build the windmill.

 

 Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) wrote in Walden, in one of his chapters on reading:

 

If we live in the Nineteenth Century, why should we not enjoy the advantages which the Nineteenth Century offers? Why should our life be in any respect provincial?

 

If we live in the Twenty-first Century, why should we not enjoy the advantages which the Twenty-first Century can offer? We deserve the best of this century. Information technology is obviously one of the things that this century is offering, including numerous inventions. Since the rapid development of computers and information technology, we are now capable of doing things that might have been very difficult, if not impossible, in the past, i.e. sending and receiving information, be it in video, audio, or text modes, with greater speed and amount, anytime, anywhere.

 

In terms of Language learning and teaching, computers, in various ways, have been integrated into the system in order to enhance students’ progress in their learning. At this stage of progress, computers are being used to enhance existing technologies and methodologies, not replace them.

 

At this point in time, most of us English teachers are familiar with computers and the Internet, Online Communication or the World Wide Web. Two decades ago, the following terms: PC, RAM, memory, hardware, software, platform, application, bits and bytes might have sounded mysterious to most of us. The computer building on the other side of the road used to be like a sacred and strange place and very few people have set foot on it. Several years later, computers have been made to be user-friendly. 

 

The Internet, The World Wide Web, online communication, and computers are the terms used interchangeably throughout this article, despite the fact that each has been defined slightly differently, but for everyday language all the terms mentioned are not significantly differentiated. See Microsoft’s Computer Dictionary (1997) for the definitions in detail. Computers have a rather short history, and the Internet’s history is very recent. Its history dates back to the late 1960s when US researchers first developed protocols that allowed the sending and receiving of messages via computers (Hafner and Lyon 1996). Warschauer (2001) summarizes the Internet history in relation to education realms that, “ On-line communication first became possible in education realms in the 1980s, following the development and spread of personal computers (p. 100).” He also divides the background to online-communication in language teaching and research into two distinct periods, marked by the introduction of computer-mediated communication in education in the mid-1980s and the emergence of the World Wide Web in the mid 1990s.

 

Like other fields, within the realms of language education in general and in English education in particular, despite many criticisms of misuses and psychological and societal impacts (see Wallace, 1999), the Internet has features that can be utilized to support and enhance language learning and teaching.  I should like to tap on the two dimensions: Time and Place.

 

As far as the time dimension is concerned, the Internet can offer us:

 

     A synchronous mode of communication, whereby the students and the teacher communicate in real time via chat or discussion software, with all participants at their computers at the same time;

     An asynchronous mode of communication, whereby the students and the teacher communicate in a delayed fashion by computer, e.g. by email.

 

Computer conferencing, which includes email, bulletin boards, mailing lists and thread discussions, is central to distance education and can be used to enhance on-campus tutorials.

 

Another valuable feature of the Internet is that it permits people to communicate irrespective of where they are. In short, it is place-independent, which has made the Internet an ideal mode for all types of education, especially distance education. Nowadays the Internet makes available automated courseware production systems, automated pedagogical advice systems. For example, WebCT, introduced at the University of Canberra in first semester 1999, facilitate teaching and learning on the Internet. WebCT course tools enable students to:

 

 (Student Guide to Using WebCT at the University of Canberra)

 

The World Wide Web offers its users access to authentic audio-visual content, for example, www.voa.gov, www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice, or www.abcradio.com. Various sites such as www.cnn.com or www.abc.com offer up-to-date news and events. The Internet allows people to communicate with native speakers and users of English around the world via international chat rooms.

 

II. New Teacher-Student Power Relationship

 

Among other things, what moderates the teacher-student relationship is the availability of knowledge, particularly from the Internet. Knowledge can mean many things. Some believe it to be absolute, yet some relative. In this article, by knowledge I narrowly refer to specific information about a subject, for instance, Chemistry, Physics, or English. Knowledge, whether it refers to something in a person’s faculties or simply specific things, is, upon reflection, never absolute. In fact, everything is relative, including a thing called knowledge. Therefore, no one really knows how things are. All knowledge is social; it has been constructed against the principle that historically, and not logically, makes sense (Lian, 2001).

 

A great deal of information is available and accessible on the Internet. Log on and search, one can almost have access to everything you wish to know. But is it worth anything? It depends on one’s ability to make sense of such inputs. In order to make sense of the information, one needs to have the ability to filter out what is relevant and what is not, what does matter and what does not. Above all, one must bear in mind that the only thing that exists is the story one is telling oneself. No one knows how things are.

 

Power has different connotations in different contexts. In the political context, Thrasymachus, in Plato’s Republic, or Machiavelli, would agree that Might is right regardless of morality: if those who are strong can benefit from exploiting the weak, it would be foolish of them not to do so. On the other hand, Rousseau has argued in his Social Contract that Might can produce no Right; legitimate authority in human socities is Agreement. Most academics nowadays who are more democratic would be more comfortable with the belief that knowledge is power. On his book, Power, Bertrand Russell, states that power over human beings may be classified by the manner of influencing individuals, or by the type of organization involved. According to Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), an individual may be influenced by:

           

 

In many parts of the world, teachers still have all forms of power mentioned above. They can physically harm the students by whipping them if they do not do homework or if their answers are incorrect. They can also verbally or psychologically harm the students, for instance, when they misbehave in class or simply happen to be noisy.

 

If knowledge is power, teachers have power because they possess or have been believed to possess knowledge, and such power has been agreed or approved by the society. In ancient societies, most teachers were priests and prophets, and the teachers, accordingly, enjoyed prestige and privilege. Nowadays many conservative teachers may feel that their prestige and status have been lowered. Some of them have decided to abandon the teaching career. The main reason behind such feeling lies within newer definitions of knowledge that is not exclusively held by teachers or certain specialists as before. This implies new power relationships between teachers and students. Unlike the past, knowledge as specific information similar to the thing most teachers used to teach is everywhere, particularly on the Internet. Modern students have access to the information they want via the Internet. Language courses offering on line are booming with lower fees. Students have more freedom than before. In many places, however, power is still under teachers’ control.

Freire (1972) criticizes education system in which students have been oppressed. He lists the following attitudes and practices which reinforce the banking concept of education:

(Freire, 1972, pp. 46-47)

 

In the ELT context, Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) have analyzed the English used by teachers and pupils in the early 1970s. In terms of linguistic aspects, they have found that the teacher is a knower, and is in control of the classroom interaction. Typically, the teacher asks a question, then the pupil responses, followed by the feedback of the pupil’s response from the teacher.      

 

Teacher            Can you tell me why do you eat all that food?

                        Yes.

Pupil                 To keep you strong.

Teacher            To keep you strong. Yes. To keep you strong.

                        Why do you want to be strong?

(Ibid. p. 21)

  

The students contribute to the discourse when the teacher allows them to; the teacher has the right to speak whenever he or she wants to. Obviously, the core of the matter lies within the teacher’s integrity as Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) reflects in Emile that teachers can subtly keep students under control:




 “ Let him always think he is master while you are really master. There is no subjugation so complete as that which preserves the forms of freedom; it is thus that the will itself is taken captive. Is not this poor child, without knowledge, strength, or wisdom, entirely at your mercy? Are you not master of his whole environment so far as it affects him? Can not you make of him what you please? His work and play, his pleasure and pain, are they not, unknown to him, under your control? No doubt he ought only to do what he wants, but he ought to want to do nothing but what you want him to do. He should never take a step you have not foreseen, nor utter a word you could not foretell.”




(J-J Rousseau, 1966, pp. 84-85)




 Biologically, human beings are not independent. Socially, we are conditioned. So, our freedom is, by default or design, limited. Wright (1987) identifies social and psychological factors influencing the ways teachers and students behave, interpersonal factors and task-related factors. The real issue, therefore, is whether the teacher is benevolent and competence or in other words, to what extent he or she is benevolent and competence. Will the teachers ever become aware of themselves? The emergence of the Internet coupled with the humanistic educational movement, as well as the democratization of the world, power has been proportionally more balanced than before.




 In the ELT context, largely as a result of the development of functional/notional approaches and related insights in sociolinguistics, curriculum developers and course designers have constructed theoretical models based on speculated students’ needs (see for example, Munby 1978, Van Ek 1980). New trends have brought about new approaches in language teaching and learning: the communicative approach, in which the students’ needs and interests are taken into account, systematically, aiming to develop communicative competence in students, in addition to linguistic competence (Widdowson, 1978: 1979). However, students’ needs that emerge during the learning process, when they engage in communicative activities, are left unattended (Litlejohn, 1985). Furthermore, since the learning activities have already been specified in detail by syllabuses, on what to learn and how to learn, the teacher, especially within rigid institutional constraints, directly and indirectly, acts at best as an interpreter of reality. 




 




Computers and ELT




 

Much research has been carried out to find out the effects of computers on learning and teaching. Research conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project (2000) shows that teenagers use the Internet as an essential study aid outside the classroom and that the Internet increasingly has a place inside the classroom. The research has also reported that:

 

 

In addition, parents of those youths have positive attitudes toward the use of the Internet with 87% of them believing that the Internet helps students with their schoolwork and 93% believing it helps the students learn new things.

 

One of the attempts has been to maximize the potential of the computers in language classroom. Such attempt broadly seeks to move away from conventional instructional approaches, in which the teacher does most of the talking and the students listen passively and follow instructions, to learning environment that provides complex challenges through the integration of authentic learning tasks and cooperative learning (Warschauer, 1997; Peter, 2001). Research has been carried out and supportive results have been published.

 

The WWW provides ample opportunities to extend the classroom beyond four wall (Dyrli and Kinnaman, 1995). They outline several ways in which this might happen. Among other things, with the integration of the Internet, the students and teachers can:

 

“ …bring worldwide electronic resources- lesson plans, articles, books, maps, diagrams, photographs, film clips, sound bites, and even multimedia software- to the classroom instantaneously; create and compile their own educational content electronically, and share it with other students, teachers, and classes anywhere in the world .”

 

The integration of the Internet with existing classes has been reported to have positive effects on students’ autonomy in terms of their perceived locus of control. Warschauer & Lepeintre, (1997) have reviewed several studies whose results were supportive:

“ Kern [1995] and Sullivan [1993] provide quantitative evidence that students participate more frequently in computer-mediated communications as compared to traditional oral classroom discussions which tend to be dominated by teachers.

Numerous composition and language teachers claim that this difference is not just quantitative, but qualitative with the locus of control in electronic discussion shifting to the students [Barson, Frommer, & Schwartz 1993; Batson 1988; Beauvois 1992; Chun 1994; Cummins 1991; DiMatteo 1990; DiMatteo 1991; Faigley 1990; Kelm 1992]

With teachers no longer dominating discourse, students are more free to select their own topics and themes [Kelm 1996; Tella 1992]

Easy transfer of documents and one-to-many communication facilitate collaborative thinking and writing [Barker and Kemp 1990; Flores 1990].

The written mode of communication helps students to better analyze the ideas being expressed [DiMatteo 1990; DiMatteo 1991; Kroonenberg 1994/1995].

Collaboration with students around the world combined with autonomous access to information facilitates a problem-solving approach to learning [Barson and Debski 1996; Barson, et al. 1993; Vilmi 1995].”

(Warschauer & Lepeintre, 1997: pp. 67-89)

 

DiGiovanni and Nagaswami (2001) have reported that the Internet enhances writing classes. Compared with face-to-face review, students are found to be more focused when they review their peers’ writing online. Fedderholdt (2001) examines non-native students’ email exchanges and find that virtual environment makes students become more self-confident in using English.

  

More empirical evidence will continuously be revealed and published to either support or caution us against the use and misuse of the Internet on language education. At the moment, among other advantages, it can be noticed that teacher-student relationship has become more balanced through the implementation of electronic computer networking in the classroom. Nevertheless, the teacher still plays decisive roles in determining the outcomes of the teaching. A recent study has found that many teachers tend to implement computer-based learning in ways that reflect their existing teaching strategies. Base on classroom observation, Hayes & Harriman (2001) have reported that many teachers are still using technology, including the Internet, as a replacement tool to provide tasks similar to those not mediated by technology. It seems that the fate of the students lies in the teacher’s hands: his or her competency, be it conscious or unconscious. So what roles should the teacher play?




 

III. Positive Roles Teachers Should Play

 

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines roles as:

 

 

Based on the above definitions and the earlier discussion, it is obvious that teachers’ roles are limited: they are culturally and historically controlled. Roles and status are highly correlated with responsibilities and power. Technology can to a certain degree mediate the power relationship between teachers and students.

 

Under the new environment as well as the notion that nothing is absolute: everything is relative, the teacher’s new roles should be similar to those of a mentor who, over a period of time, gives help and advice to the students. As Hanson-Smith (2001: p.113), has written: in light of the technology-driven pedagogy, the teacher’s roles “ become that of guide and mentor, encouraging students to take charge of their own learning, helping them to learn at their own pace. ”

 

I should like to cite two anecdotes to make my point of the proposed positive roles that the teacher should play regarding the use of the Internet in language teaching.

Anecdote 1:

It has been told that when Tzu Lu, one of Confucius' students, first met Confucius he took out an arrow and said:

" The arrow shaft is made of bamboo and it is naturally straight. He added: “ A craftsman doesn't need to bend it."

Upon hearing that the master answered:

"I know what you mean. You are trying to tell me that some people are born with talent, so they don't need to go to school, right? But I am telling you, an arrow flies straight not only because of the shaft of the arrow, you also need to add the arrowhead and the feather at the end to make it fly straight. So the talented people also need education to make them better."

After listening to what Confucius said, Tzu Lu went to visit Confucius and ask if he could become a student.

 (Confucius: Students and Followers).

Anecdote 2:

 

In the garden of a Shao-Lin Temple, an old blind monk and his apprentice (Grasshopper) are walking.

Shao-Lin Monk: Grasshopper, what do you hear?

Grasshopper:            Nothing Master!

Shao-Lin Monk: Grasshopper. Do you not hear the beating of your heart and the rush of the wind in the trees?

Grasshopper: “ Yes master. I am now deafened by the roar of my heartbeat and the tornado in the trees, etc., etc.! Master, how is it that you can hear such things?”

Shao-Lin Monk: Grasshopper. How is it that you cannot?

(Lian, 2000)

 

The first anecdote tells us that teachers’ roles are to guide and to support students. Confucius pointed out that what is relevant is not only the arrow shaft made of bamboo, but there are other things; the arrow needs the arrowhead and the feather to fly straight. The arrowhead is proper guidance form the teacher and the feather is his or her support.

 

The second anecdote, taken from Lian and Lian’s The Secret of the Shao-Lin Monk (1997), tells us that teachers can guide by raising students’ awareness of relationships between things. First, the student is unaware of other sounds because they don’t matter to him. Later, he begins to realize, by the teacher’s guidance, that other sounds: his own heartbeat and the wind and others. We perceive reality by making sense of the environment. To quote an old saying: “ The eye doesn’t see what the mind doesn’t know.”

 

Nowadays, more students can access information via the Internet. More and more of them feel no real needs listening to teachers if all they have to say is something outdated written in textbooks e.g. rules, words, or reading exercises that can be searched for from the Internet within minutes. Somewhere out there online, such knowledge can be retrieved within minutes. As a result, knowledge as the main source of authority is losing its robustness. The teachers can no longer claim themselves holders of knowledge. Teachers in this digital age must keep themselves up-to-date and possess critical thinking skills. Teachers do have roles in the new environment, as facilitators who guide and support.

 

Lian and Mestre (1985) suggest that the desirable teacher-learner relationship be as follows:

Awareness, Autonomy and Achievement

 

The following discussion is based on Lian’s notions of awareness, autonomy, and achievement (Lian, 1993: 1997: 2000. Such notions exist so because they rely on the first principle: Everything is relative.

 

In the new environment where computers and the Internet have gained greater roles in enhancing language learning, teachers’ new roles are guiding and supporting in order to (1) raise students’ awareness, (2) so that they become autonomous learners, and (3) achieve what they aim for.

Awareness

 

Awareness means different things to different people, depends on their beliefs and principles. Reber (1995) lists two notions of awareness:

 

                 (p. 79)

 

He also adds that the term used is not always clear. Awareness refers to “ a wide range of subjective phenomena from simple, primitive detection of very weak stimuli to deep understanding of complex cognitive and affective events.” (Ibid: p. 79)

 

To illustrate a wide range of meanings and connotations of the term, Reber has written:

 

“ A psycholinguist who argues that a person is not aware of the grammatical rules of language means something very different from a psychoanalyst who says that a client is not aware of unconscious attitudes.” (Ibid: p. 79)

 

One may ask, “ Do people learn a language with or without awareness?” For behaviorists like Watson or Skinner, consciousness or awareness is of “ marginal importance in explaining human behavior, including human behavior.” (Leahey, 1997, p. 430). For them, a language is simply a set of vocal responses learned because certain sounds we produce have been reinforced.

 

In the 1960s, various researchers, often under Chomsky’s influence, challenged the validity of learning without awareness. They argued with empirical evidence that the belief was inadequate. Those who doubted the automatic action of reinforcers carried out extensive experiments to show the necessity of awareness to human learning. As a result, by 1966, the area of verbal behavior was in an apparent state of crisis, notably after Chomsky’s successful attack on B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior and subsequent evidence by other researchers (Leahey, 1997).

This article is after the notion that a language can be learned consciously and unconsciously. According to Lian (1993), the ability to operate in a language requires a range of awareness of many different kinds. He gives its theoretical background:

“ The approach adopted for the development of awareness of linguistic and other communicative phenomena is based on the notion of optimal [Guberina, 1976] or critical elements as posited by theorists of the verbo-tonal system [Joy and Lian, 1981].”

Central to the theory is the belief that perception is based on the detection of “ critical elements.” Critical elements are those that “ matter to native speakers of a language, within the rich and complex whole in which they are found. ” (Ibid.). A Thai teacher teaching English in Thailand, for instance, may not be aware of his pronunciation shortcomings as such things do not matter, for his students understand his English. When he is in Australian classes, he will realize such matters.

Confronting tons of information, students are required to select things that matter, and often they fail to do so. Why is that? Lian (Ibid) has pointed out that students simply do not have the necessary means to organize what they hear or see. What then are the means?

How can we help students to be aware of the critical elements? By engage them in doing something: authentic tasks. To make my point, let’s look at the Radio Project as an example. The project began in August and ended in October 2001, at the School of Languages and International Education, by a group of international students in which I was a member. All are non-native speakers of English, and I was one of them. After discussing in class, they agreed that producing radio programs was a means to engage reality so that each member could learn what he or she wished. The one-hour program was named “ Bananas in the Moon.” The broadcast was on the community radio station in Canberra.

 

Before the program was pre-recorded, several things must be done first. For instance, at the preparation stage, the students have encountered real many life problems, and one of them was pronunciation. As none of the students was a native speaker, they found themselves in big troubles when it came to speaking English. Bearing in mind well the audience were native speakers, the students were aware that unless their pronunciation was intelligible with good accents and intonation, it would be difficult for the listeners to understand. So improving pronunciation appeared to be an urgent task. With that awareness, they opened up their world by listening to radio programs broadcast from both radio stations and the Internet. They have used tape-recorders as means to listen to themselves and practice pronouncing difficult words. Many asked others, especially native speakers to correct their pronunciation. They examined English radio advertisement. With the Internet, they can easily log on and listen to radio broadcasts like the BBC/Worldservice or ABC. On the Internet, they can have access to the transcript of the program as well.

 

By engaging reality, the students have become aware of some of the critical elements. They have become aware of their pronunciation problems in general, and their rhythms and intonation in particular. Moreover, they have become aware that the things they broadcast were to be validated by the world. What they have to say and how they say it are, therefore, equally important. The greatest awareness of all, Lian (Ibid) suggests, is that “ English is a language actually used by human beings to perform important and valuable tasks for various purposes.”

 

Through engaging reality like producing a radio program, the teachers will come to realize that the students need many kinds of support. In terms of pronunciation, for instance, they need to be able to get feedback from the reality e.g. comparing what they say with those of the real world. In this regard, the teachers can design a learning tool to support, for example, an audiovisual database MMBase (Lian, 1996) which enables the students to retrieve at will many categories such as language, dialect, subject, activity, function, register, participants, power relationships, attitudinal tones, time and place. Such categories are supported with two functions: transcript and comments. MMBase allows the students to search for the information they wish as the system provides links to other lessons. The students who need to examine how an Australian DJ introduces a program can search according to activity of introducing and a function containing related words. They will be able to listen to that part of the radio introduction with transcript and comments.

 

As English teachers, it is important to find ways of making students aware, at a personal level. What is matter for one student may be marginal for another student. The environment to be confronted with has to be complex, bearing in mind that the real world of communicating in English is of the complex one. If the students have not learned, maybe the environment is too simple.

 

Considering the notion of awareness and its significance, teachers can begin by using English in class as much as possible. In so doing, they can raise their own awareness as well as those of the students. As English is not the teachers’ native language, some problems are sure to occur. For instance, most Thai teachers, though they prefer using English in class, have Thai ways of using English i.e. pronunciation, mainly because they have found that using Thai accent is easier of the students to understand, and more importantly most Thai students expect that to happen. It is necessary for them to be aware of this fact and tries to break the program. In addition to trying to project their voice like those of native speakers, teachers and students can engage themselves to the real world. One way of using technology for this task, for example, is to collaboratively broadcast some radio programs on The Internet. Some real life problems are sure to emerge, and by solving problems, they can raise their awareness.

Nevertheless, one needs to bear in mind that raising awareness is easier to say than to do. The actual development of relevant awareness is a particularly difficult area to deal with. As Lian (Ibid) has put it: “ It is not enough to point out a particular phenomenon. It is important to find ways of getting students to accept and/or understand the phenomenon and to appropriate it at a personal or psychological level and, most importantly, in doing so, to break down any blockages, which are often translated into so-called language anxiety, which may be operating.” Like words which have their history, the learners carry with them loads of pre-conditioned habits and perception, which have been referred to as personal habitus (Bourdieu, 1995, cited in Lian, 1993; Bourdieu, 1993). This notion of intervening variables was nothing new. As early as 1930, it was recognized that there are things called ‘phonetic habits’ that people have acquired, influencing ways they use their languages (Firth, 1970).

To raising the awareness of the students, the teachers need to be aware that the environment must develop autonomy in them. Lately, much research has reported the Internet as a tool enhancing learners’ autonomy.

Autonomy

 

What is actually meant by the term ‘autonomous students?’ In ethics, according the Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy (2000), being an autonomous person means having capacity for self-determination; the ability to see oneself as the author of moral law by which one is bound. In psychology, being autonomous means being able to regulate oneself. It implies that students be independent; they possess attitudes relatively free from other opinions or beliefs (Reber, 1995). In this aspect, autonomy is a matter of degree. Students are said to be more autonomous if they can regulate themselves and to the extreme do what they prefer. Such notion, however, requires one’s ability to validate one’s action and thought against reality.

 

Holec (1979) narrowly defines an autonomous student as someone who is “ capable of taking charge of his own learning and nothing more (p. 3).”

 

According to Lian (1993), in any context, the notion of autonomy implies at least the notion posited by Holec and the notion of “ learning how to learn”.

Lian also suggests that what teachers should do is engaging students in communicative activities that would enable them to be in a position:

 

(Ibib)

 

Thus, autonomous students are those who have more control over their own learning, and are able to validate their learning. They are active rather than passive, contributors rather than receivers, accountable rather than unreliable. In short, they need to examine themselves against reality, as Socrates has said, “ The unexamined life is not worth living.” To be independent learners, students must regularly assess themselves by questioning their motives, interests, preferences etc, and those of the teachers’ and institutes’. Obviously, if students have to be spoon-fed by teachers and are put under their control, they are disempowered, hence, dependent.

 

The ability to learn how to learn is not necessarily something that comes naturally to all students. For some students, it has to be developed. In this regard, the crucial roles for teachers are in guiding and supporting students in and out of the class (Lian, Hudson, and Hoven, 1993). However, it does not mean that teachers explicitly tell students of such and such learning strategies to be used, for students are individuals, and labeling them as slow learners or fast learners and so on should be avoided. Recognizing the notion that things are relative and nobody knows how things are, what teachers can do is to engage them in reality. By creating conditions that students have to face real life problems e.g. creating radio programs, they will discover their strengths and weaknesses in the personal level e.g. their weird pronunciation. With resources available and the support system, they can make their own decision of what, when, and how to tackle the problem. Teachers are no longer interpreters of reality, but rather facilitators who guide and support designing learning environment in such ways that allow students to be aware of things that matter or critical elements, have more control over their own learning, and achieve what they aim for.

 

Technology has been applied to enhance language learning. The Internet in particular allows students to be more independent. They can study at their own pace anytime anywhere. Among other things, teachers should be able to give students sound advice of how to learn. If they know how to learn, they become more autonomous (Oxford, 2001). In particular, they need to possess knowledge of how to make use of what is available on the Internet. It may be true that most English teachers are no computer experts, but it is possible and beneficial if they have acquired basic skills of the Internet and be able to advice the students of how to use the Internet appropriately such as netiquette and illicit material or plagiarism. According to Jones (2001), to enhance language leaning, teachers need to be equipped with basic computer knowledge and ability to deal with those students who resist changes. To be successful autonomous learners, students need to be equipped with sufficient computer literacy (Toyoda, 2001). Though the information on the Internet is enormous, its worth lies within the sphere of human judgement. Further more, teachers can support by creating a learning environment online e.g. through a web site with course content, forum, database and links or using a commercial environment, for instance, WebCT.

 

The conditions should help raising students’ awareness as well as developing autonomy in them. In addition, it should to able to make students feel their own progress while actually making progress (Lian, 1993). The next discussion deals with the notion of achievement.

Achievement

 

What does it mean when people say they have achieved something?

 

This is up to what their aim is. It can mean that they have succeeded in doing something or causing something to happen. A student may wish to get the IELT score of 6.5 or 7 after finishing a language course. If he or she have got that score, it can be said that his or her aim has been achieved. Having a sense of accomplishing something brings satisfaction; on the contrary, having a sense of failing in doing something brings dissatisfaction. When students feel pleased after accomplishing something, they tend to develop positive attitudes towards it. They would love to do it again. If they are unsuccessful, they tend to avoid it. Psychologists like Skinner and Bandura would agree that one success leads to another, and one failure leads to the next. Successive failures lead to the state of feeling indifferent towards that failure or being helpless. However, how success or failure is measured is up to many factors (Leahey, 1997).

 

How can we tell that students have achieved something in their learning of English? We as English teachers usually rely on tests. If the students have managed to pass the final test, we give them grades. Hopefully we can infer from the validity and reliability of the instrument that they have learned or attained something such as being able to memorize more words, being able to tell what a noun is, being able to ask for directions, or having acquired more language patterns.

The notion of achievement here refers to not only what achievement tests can tell. According to Lian (1993), “ achievement necessarily supposes the explicit or implicit setting of objectives by both learners and teachers”. In addition, he adds: “ achievement can also refer to the feeling of satisfaction resulting from the attainment of such objectives.” Similar to Thorndike’s first law of human behavior: the law of effect, specifically the latter notion, achievement can be seen as a positive reinforcer or reward which is postulated to increase the target behavior (Leahey, 1997).

 

How can students know if they have achieved something? Many students will say that they feel satisfied or dissatisfied with their test scores. In this respect, this sort of feeling has been programmed by the society through the institutions. The scores [in numerical forms --- more sacred if expressed with two or three-digit decimals] obtained have significant implications because they can be used as instruments for doing something else such as getting jobs, promotion, or more education. What about their needs? Apart from the basic necessary of life such as food, clothes, fuel or medicine, our needs are vague, mostly contingent on cultural & societal modification. It is difficult to free oneself from such societal bondage. Few men have tried, for example, Thoreau who suggests that the only way to know oneself is to take time to listen to oneself. He wrote: “ If a man does not keep pace with his companions perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.” His point is that very few people examine themselves closely enough to know what their preference is. Most people simply join the marching band, though very few dare deviating. True, it is more secure and perhaps happier. But are we aware that even that feeling which we call ‘ happy’ has been subtly controlled? As Rousseau put it: “ Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains”. The society directly and indirectly governs the institution. The institution, in similar manners, controls the teacher who, in turn, imposes such agreements on the students. Achievement, as far as ELT is concerned, is a cultural thing that to a large extent can be manipulated.

 

In psychology, one of the needs is called need for achievement i.e. in H. Murrey’s Theory of Personality (Reber, 1995). It follows that anyone has carried with them this trait is likely to succeed in things they are doing, including education, career and life in general. Some psychologists explain that people with higher social status are different from those from the lower social status in values and beliefs associated with achievement. The higher status group is believed to be:

 

 

(Rosen, 1959).

 

Rosen’s findings, though not directly addressing ELT issues, imply that to be successful in learning, one needs to feel that one can control oneself and the environment. Students, therefore, need to be autonomous learners by making the best use of resources available within themselves and those provided by institutions.

In order to build up self-confidence in students, teachers can play roles by setting up goals that are manageable, yet challenging. Support system like centers for self-learning and online resources need to be available, for students, during the course of engaging reality, will have to solve their emerging problems. Any objectives, to be valuable, must be designed in ways that allow students to feel that they are making noticeable progress, step-by-step, and in fact are progressing. In time, such small steps in their progress will truly lead them to their long-tern objectives (Lian, 1993). After all, success requires that a person overcome obstacles or tackle things known to be difficult. To be successful in learning a language, like in other enterprises, it seems that one must not give up easily. William Hickson says it best:

           

“ ‘Tis a lesson you should heed,

Try, try again.

If at first you don’t succeed,

Try, try again.”

 

Nevertheless, it is always wise to be prudent when one is trying to achieve something, as The I Ching states:“ Perseverance in the right way brings good fortune.”

IV. Conclusion

 

With the emergence of the Internet and a more humanistic approach to language learning and teaching, the roles of the teachers have changed. The new roles suggested, as facilitators or managers of learning, though they no longer correspond with the traditional ones, remain very important and challenging. I see such changes in roles as the crucial step towards the profession of integrity. Let’s build the windmill. Amidst technological-driven changes, the teachers, in addition to realizing the fact that things are relative, needs to design their roles as well as the learning environments, which should be done in such ways that can raise the students’ awareness, promote their autonomy, and make them feel that they are successful and in fact have achieved something.

 

The Internet has its future in shaping the world civilization. It is undeniable that technology is changing pedagogic approaches. The Internet has greater roles in shaping the ways in which people learn things. We cannot yet predict its effects on language teaching and learning and other implications. It has a long way to go as Bill Gate, in an interview after the launch of Windows XP, has said, “ There had been huge advances in the past few years, but there was still a long way to go…We haven’t scratched the surface. The world is very inefficient compared with what it could be.” (Gengler, 2001, p. 29). Undoubtedly, it will profoundly affect the ways we teach English and our roles as the teachers.

 

The Internet itself is simply a tool and should be viewed as being neutral, and it can help enhancing language education if used properly. The teacher should be of the view that the students are human beings who need growth and self-actualisation, and they too like to be treated as human beings, to be comforted when they are in distress and to be encouraged them when they feel down. Similar to the mentor, the teacher main task may be to guide them properly i.e. pointing out the relationship between things --- and leave the rest in the students’ hands.

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