BUILDING LANGUAGE LEARNING AUTONOMY IN THE ESP CLASS: PRACTICAL STEPS FOR REFLECTION AND INTERACTION
Sonia-Carmen Munteanu
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Abstract
This paper reports on a class activity with first year undergraduate students meant to provide information about the success of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and reflect on the steps needed to develop learning autonomy in the context of learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The paper focuses on practical action in the classroom rather than on theoretical conceptualisation. Starting from the assumption that autonomy is a necessary and desirable component of adult language learning, the classroom-based activity reported here shows how learning behaviours acquired step-by-step can lead to enhanced autonomy. The results indicate that students are aware of the challenges in managing tasks to achieve learning objectives and are able to point to areas that need improvement to overcome these challenges. These results suggest that the activity achieved its aim of contributing to autonomy development in the ESP class.
Keywords: ESP; Autonomy in language learning; Reflection; Scaffolding; Self-driven learning.
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How to cite this paper: Munteanu, S.-C. (2022). Building language learning autonomy in the ESP class: Practical steps for reflection and interaction. Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE, 15(1), 127–140. https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2022.15.1.8
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