Seven ways to develop independent learners

Richard Cleeve
A woman sat outdoors reading a booklet

What is independent learning?

Students who are actively involved in deciding what and how they learn are typically more engaged and motivated.

That¡¯s not surprising, because independent learners are extremely focused on their personal learning objectives.

, independent learning is ¡°a process, a method and a philosophy of education whereby a learner acquires knowledge by his or her own efforts and develops the ability for inquiry and critical evaluation."

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Seven ways to develop independent learners
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In the context of language learning, independent learners can recognize their learning needs, locate relevant information about language and develop the required language skills on their own or with other learners.

There are many advantages of encouraging independent learning among your students:

  • Increased recognition of strengths, weaknesses and progress
  • Higher levels of confidence
  • More motivation
  • Better management of learning
  • Improved performance

Not only will these benefits help your students while learning English, but they¡¯ll also benefit them at school, university and even in their day-to-day lives.

How can I help my students to become independent learners?

Some of your students may already be independent learners; however, most will need your support to become more autonomous.

Here are seven ways you can help:

Make learning goals clear

Sharing learning goals with your class helps students to see what they¡¯re aiming for and they¡¯ll also be able to assess afterwards? whether they¡¯ve achieved it or not. This can be done at the beginning of a lesson or series of lessons or even as a lesson progresses.

Although many teachers set the goals themselves, if you want to create a really independent learning experience, elicit them directly from the students. A simple question could be, ¡°What do you think this activity is helping you get better at?¡±

Personalize learning goals

Another thing to consider is setting different goals for different learners, depending on their strengths and weaknesses. This will be much easier if the students are setting their own goals. For example, when doing a task focused on the speaking paper in an exam course, one student¡¯s objective might be to give extended answers, while another might want to use more discourse markers.

Focus on the process as well as the goal

Once your students have set their goals, they need to start thinking about how they¡¯ll reach them.

One way to help them get on track is to provide them with a set of ¡®success criteria¡¯, which acts like a roadmap for the different tasks they need to complete. If your students understand what they need to do to be successful, they¡¯ll progress much faster and be more motivated when they see how far they¡¯ve come.

If one of your student¡¯s goals is to improve their grammatical accuracy in the C1 Advanced speaking exam, for example, you could give them a rubric (like the one below) which they can use to assess their own performance.

Keep your assessment categories as positive as possible (for example, 'solid', 'good' and 'acing it') and link it to the official exam criteria where possible.

Provide opportunities to reflect on learning

Students should constantly be encouraged to reflect on their performance and whether they¡¯ve met their learning goals. This will help them become more aware of their strengths, weaknesses and the progress they¡¯re making. Recognition of progress will help build confidence and motivation.

Opportunities for assessment and reflection don¡¯t need to take a lot of time. Spending two minutes at the end of the class asking students questions like ¡®What can you do better now than at the start of the lesson?¡¯ will help learners develop critical meta-cognitive skills.

Offer feedback on learning

Teacher feedback also helps students develop the skills needed to become more independent. Offer feedback in a supportive and sensitive manner, making positive observations alongside any criticism.

Effective feedback should allow learners to understand where they currently are in their learning, where they¡¯re heading and how they¡¯ll get there.

Encourage peer feedback

Feedback shouldn¡¯t only come from the teacher. You should also get students to evaluate each other¡¯s progress during and after an activity. Peer feedback is not only advantageous to the student receiving it, but there are also many reflective benefits of giving feedback to someone else.

Transfer learning decisions to students

It¡¯s impossible for students to become independent learners if you make all the decisions for them. Giving students the opportunity to make decisions about their learning will give them greater autonomy. However, this should be a gradual process and not all students will be ready to take 100% control from the outset.

Start with small decisions first and ask questions such as:

  • Do you want to do the task alone or in pairs?
  • Would you like to use a set of useful phrases for support when doing the speaking task?
  • Would you prefer to discuss questions about this topic or another?

This devolvement of responsibility built up over time will help learners to become more independent.

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  • Children sat outdoors reading a book together

    Why should you use storytelling to teach English?

    By Richard Cleeve
    Reading time: 5 minutes

    Stories can make us laugh, cry or tremble with fear. They can teach us valuable life lessons and transport us to other worlds. They've been around since the beginning of language itself, but can they actually help us learn a language?

    Stories are one of the most useful tools?when teaching children?English. Not only do they help with listening and reading skills, but they can also support speaking and writing skills by providing context, language and structure.?

    Very young learners may already be familiar with stories ¨C they may hear them in daycare, school or at home with their parents. Therefore, incorporating these into their language classes may help them to feel more comfortable in their surroundings. And if children feel comfortable, they are more likely to be receptive to learning.?

    Storytelling usually happens as part of a group in the classroom. This means that it becomes a bonding activity for children where they can communicate and subconsciously pick up the key language. While having fun listening and interacting with the story, they?soak up information without even realizing they¡¯re learning.

    So, what storytelling activities can we use with young?learners? Let¡¯s find out.?

    Practical activities for storytelling with young learners

    Often, we think of storytelling simply as reading a book aloud to children. Yet, there are other activities you can do. These include:

    1. Choral repetition

    To get young children interacting with the story, first read out a sentence alone. Then, have the children repeat the line with you as a group. Repeat as many times as necessary, until the children feel confident with the language.?

    2. Individual repetition

    If your learners are happy to, ask them individually to repeat the sentence after you. Make sure each one has a turn and praise them for being brave and trying to use the language.?

    3. Play acting

    An activity that works well with children is to act out the story¡¯s characters. For example, there may be animals, fairies, monsters or other exciting characters that they can each act.?

    Ask them to make the noises of the animals, the wind, or the scenery to create an atmosphere while you read. This gets them interacting with the story and the rest of the group, which will help their communication and listening comprehension skills.?

    4. Use puppets or dolls

    Young learners react particularly well to visual aids and realia. Why not use puppets or dolls to act out the characters, or even ask students to have a go with them? They will engage more with the story and the language.??

    5. Dive into the pictures

    Children¡¯s story books are usually quite visual with illustrations and pictures. Make the most of these while telling the story. Try asking students questions about the images to get them using the vocabulary.?

    You could ask them, ¡°what can you see?¡±, ¡°what¡¯s he wearing?¡± or ¡°can you find an apple?¡±. This is another great way to reinforce the vocabulary they¡¯re learning in class.?

    Use these activities individually or?incorporate a mix into your lessons. Either way, storytelling will help your learners with more than just developing their English language skills.?

    Storytelling with adult language learners

    While we often think of storytelling as a pastime for children, it can also be a useful language learning activity for adults.?

    Stories are part of our daily lives, from news to social media to books and movies. Therefore, they can be extremely beneficial tools for English language learning.?

    Yet, the way we approach storytelling as a class activity for adults differs to that of young learners. While we typically read fairy tales to young children, we can bring in a much wider range of content for adults, such as:

    • News stories?¨C There may be a current news story that learners are interested in. Ask them to bring in an article to retell in class.??
    • Traditional folk stories?¨C?Ask learners what traditional folk tales or ghost stories they were told as children growing up in their hometowns. This can be really interesting for both language and cultural awareness.??
    • Personal life stories ¨C Our lives are a series of short stories that can make for very interesting reading. You can either ask students to share stories in class orally or have them write up a ¡°chapter¡± from their lives to tell the class. It could be something funny that happened to them or an anecdote from their childhood, for example.?
    • Movie plots?¨C Ask students what their favorite movies are and have them either tell the group the summary of the plot or write it up to share at the end of the lesson.
    • Advertisements?¨C?There are some fantastic advertisements which tell mini stories in under three minutes. Have students choose one, show it to the class and discuss it as a group.?

    Storytelling can be a wonderful language learning tool for both children and adults. If you¡¯re looking for a new way to engage, inspire and motivate your learners, why not try it in your next class??

  • A woman standing at a whiteboard in a office with two others sat down.

    How to bring soft skills into the business English classroom

    By Richard Cleeve

    Anyone who¡¯s ever taught a business English class knows that their students are busy people. Sometimes they get sidetracked by their other tasks - even during class. This means we have to make the most of the time we have with our learners and focus on what they really need.

    How you do this depends on the sector your students work in (or plan to work in), their previous experiences studying English and their own strengths and weaknesses.

    Teachers often focus on teaching hard skills, such as writing reports or running meetings. We do this because it can be challenging for many business students to do these things in English and also because hard skills have an immediate and positive impact on their workdays.

    But, if there¡¯s one thing that all business people can benefit from, it¡¯s soft skills.

    Soft skills are interpersonal or people skills. They include things like active listening, teamwork, decision-making and influencing skills. Mastering these skills will help students progress more rapidly and become more independent learners. However, isolating the specific vocabulary or grammar structures that these skills use is complex and they often get overlooked in language learning classes as a result.??

  • Two students sat on stairs smiling at a laptop

    How to keep your students motivated during summer intensive courses

    By Richard Cleeve

    Summer is here and so are English language intensive courses. Adults and teens are lining up at your classroom doors, full of enthusiasm and ready to learn English. But soon they¡¯re staring out the windows, looking up at the bright blue skies and wishing they were on the beach, or - frankly - doing anything but studying English for the next 100 hours.

    So how can you turn it around and keep your learners on track and motivated this summer?

    ?

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