Advisor: Le Thi Bich Vy, M.A

Researcher: Le Thanh Binh
1
INTRODUCTION
Advisor: Le Thi Bich Vy, M.A

Researcher: Le Thanh Binh
2
1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH
Sinclair (2001) states that learner autonomy is also known as independent
learning. Those terms are interchangeable in educational dimension. Holec
(1981:3) defined learner autonomy as the “ability to take charge of one’s own
learning” and noted that this ability “is not inborn but must be acquired either by
natural means or by formal learning”. According to Fenner & Newby (2000),
autonomy in language learning is about people taking more control over the
purposes for which they learn languages and the ways in which they learn them.
These contentions are also right to the context of LHU. Students need to have
the ability of taking full responsibility for their own learning because most
English majors (over 52%) study for their future career, so they have to use their
language competence to work. In other words, to work well they need to have
real capability of English. Moreover, in order to study well at LHU, they need to
have good habits of self-study because of its syllabus that each subject has about
15 periods for self-study and know how to monitor their learning process and

suitable in university. Moreover, after four years studying English at Lac Hong
University (LHU), the researcher realized the reality that the number of English
majors that could really use their English was comparatively limited. Actually,
students who study independently are able not only to take more responsibility
for their own learning but also to evaluate and monitor their learning process
and progress (Holec, 1981). In addition, they have the capability to make better-
informed decisions on what and how they learn best and to select methods and
techniques to be used (Fenner & Newby, 2000). The above reasons have
prodded the researcher to carry out this study in order to get insight into the
issue with the hope of helping English majors realize the importance of
independent learning and take advantages of it.

Advisor: Le Thi Bich Vy, M.A

Researcher: Le Thanh Binh
4
1.3. JUSTIFICATION OF THE RESEARCH
Learner autonomy is the current educational trend in most universities in
the world, especially in Western countries (Hideo KOJIMA, 2006). Many
researches were done on independent learning as well as on how to promote it,
which considerably affects students’ study and their lives when they expose to
the real life. As most aspects of our daily lives are likely to undergo profound
changes, independent learning will enable individuals to respond to the changing
demands of work, family and society. Like guardians of the future, today’s
youth require the independent learning abilities that will empower them to act in
accordance with the principle of social justice and for the survival of our planet.
To some extent, the success of learning activity is contingent upon learners’
stance towards the World and the learning activity in particular, their sense of
self, and their desire to learn (Benson & Voller, 1997: 134-136). As a result, the
research was done with the hope of raising English majors’ awareness of

With the best effort the researcher is in hope of answering the three
following questions:
1. How much can the English majors of Lac Hong University be aware of
the importance of independent learning?
2.
What are the possible causes of their lack of autonomy and suggested
solutions to the problems?

3. What does the lack of autonomy affect students’ learning?
1.5. DEFINITION OF THE KEY TERMS
The term of learner autonomy is a fairly complicated notion to
explain exactly what it is. Most explanations of autonomy are subjective
depending on the different purposes of researchers in various fields. The ideas of
autonomy originally result from the radically student-centered educational
thought of writers such as Dewey (1916), Freire (1970), Illich (1971), and
Rogers (1969); In work on adult self-directed learning by writers such as
Brookfield (1986), Candy (1991), Knowles (1975), and Tough (1971). Learner

Advisor: Le Thi Bich Vy, M.A

Researcher: Le Thanh Binh
6
autonomy is also known by a number of other terms such as lifelong learning,
learning to learn, thinking skills and independent learning (Sinclair, 2001).
According to Benson & Voller (1997: 2), on general note, the term of autonomy
has been used in at least five ways:
• for situations in which learners study entirely on their own;
• for a set of skills which can be learned and applied in self-directed
learning;
• for an inborn capacity which is suppressed by institutional education;

developmental level of the student, the requirements of the material and the
effective transition from learning a skill to using the skill to learn. According to
Saida Hida, Souad Laîdi and Mariam Alamrani (December, 14
th
, 2005), students
who are not familiar with independent learning may be confused when they have
to take the full responsibility for their own learning. Autonomous learning skills
are as transferable key skills e.g. planning, monitoring, evaluating, reflecting,
decision-making, accessing and organizing information-way of coping with
explosion of knowledge as present.
Moreover, students need to achieve independent learning skill for many
reasons. First of all, in class the teacher usually decides what to teach, based on
the average level of the students. But this may not be the right level for most of
the students. For advanced students it will be too easy. For lower level students
it will be too hard. To independent language learners, they can decide what level
to work at. In addition, the topic of the lesson is also usually based on the needs
of the average students in the class, but other students may know the material
already if they are higher level, or not have the basic knowledge needed to

Advisor: Le Thi Bich Vy, M.A

Researcher: Le Thanh Binh
9
understand the lesson if they are lower level. But it is simple that independent
learners can choose what they want to study, and can change it any time they
like. Last but not least, independent learning at university is preparation for
learning after university, when learners may not have teachers or courses to help
them. For instance, if someone wants to invest in shares, they will need to find
out what they need to learn (Needs Analysis), plan what to learn (Planning),
study the stock market and the causes of rises and falls in share prices

by learner interdependence. Kesten (1987, p.3) also claims that independent
learning is that learning in which the learner, in conjunction with relevant others,
can make the decisions necessary to meet the learner’s own learning needs.
Actually, they know how to learn best and meet their learning needs.
The literature indicates that teachers play the roles of guides to initiate
students in the autonomous learning by encouraging them and providing them
with feedback. Teachers can therefore create opportunities that stimulate
students to show their motivation and self-management. Les Brown says that life
is meaningful for those who have motivation, reasons and aims for their own
actions. Likewise, students need to have incentives and rationales to study and
set learning goals to strive for them. This makes them more active and helps
them easily overcome any difficulties or momentary obstacles they encounter
during their learning process even at risks of making mistakes. In support this
idea, the Teaching and Learning in 2020 Review Group (DfES, 2006 p4) proves
that learners are active and curious: they create their own hypotheses, ask their
own questions, coach one another, set goals for themselves, monitor their
progress and experiment with ideas for taking risks, knowing that mistakes and
being stuck are part of learning.
Actually, students who are better want to be more successful with their
studies and their lives need to acquire cognitive skills, metacognitive skills and
affective skills required for independent learning (Bill Meyer, Naomi Haywood,
Darshan Sachdev and Sally Faraday, 2008). In short, autonomy is not seen as a
steady state (an autonomous learner has the freedom to choose teacher-direction
(Pemberton et al. 1996, p.3)), according to Andrew Finch, and involves taking

Advisor: Le Thi Bich Vy, M.A

Researcher: Le Thanh Binh
11
responsibility for decisions concerning all aspects of learning: 1) determining

attitudes. It is well known that there are as many different learning styles as
many students are. Each student, thus, would reflect each aspect of learning.
Beside students, the researcher also asked for the help of some teachers
of English department. The researcher interviewed them for strong confirmation
on what he had got from students’ responses as well as for deeper insights into
the issue to be studied.
3.2 Data collection instruments
3.2.1 Questionnaires
A large number of researchers have used the questionnaire as a great means
to gather information in light of its adaptability to qualification, cheapness and
easiness for respondents to understand and answer (Cohen & Manion, 1989;
Weir & Robert, 1994). Therefore, the researcher also decided to use the
questionnaire as his main tool to collect data. The questionnaire was written in
English with precise and understandable 12 questions that were developed in
question and response (see appendix 2). Those were designed in 3 question
groups and mixed up, which serve the 3 research questions. Moreover, the
researcher invited enthusiastic and honest replies from the contributors. And in

Advisor: Le Thi Bich Vy, M.A

Researcher: Le Thanh Binh
14
order to get the explicit answers, the jargon was also avoided. The above reasons
were to serve the final, objective results of the study.
3.2.2 Interviews
In order to reach the better final result and to exploit a large amount of
necessary information for the study from the participants, the interviews for both
teachers and students were used. The questions are all in Vietnamese (see
appendix 2) so that the interviewees could feel comfortable and enthusiastic to
express their opinion as much as they could. As a result, the researcher could

After four years studying at LHU, the researcher found that there are a
comparatively-limited number of English majors who can use their English
effectively in real communications. This urged him to carry out the research on
this issue. In early August, the researcher began to design try-out questionnaires
which were then delivered to his classmates and interviewing questions which
were also applied to his classmates. After that the researcher collected the data
and asked them to let him know if there were any unclear points in both
questionnaires and interviewing questions. Therefore, the researcher had the
proper changes in order to make more perfect questionnaires and interviewing
questions which are to serve the study.
3.3.2 Administering the questionnaires and interviewing
2 weeks after the pilot study, the researcher finally had the proper
questionnaires and interviewing questions. Therefore, from August 24
th
to
September 3
rd
, the questionnaires were administered to six daytime classes of
batch 2006, 2007 and 2008. As soon as the researcher had got the data from the
questionnaires, he contingently chose 30 students and some teachers to
interview.

Advisor: Le Thi Bich Vy, M.A

Researcher: Le Thanh Binh
16
3.3.3 Collecting data
The researcher delivered the questionnaires to 164 English majors, waited
and gathered them right away when they were completely fulfilled so that the
number of missing questionnaire was ultimately reduced. In order to collect