Page 40 - Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

24 Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

Involving Students in Their Learning Process

Secundino Isabeles Flores

María M. Cass Zubiría

Guillermo G. Durán García

Universidad de Colima

Key words: autonomous learning, decision-making, learner attitudes, involvement.

Greater involvement of students in their learning process is a common feature of the latest teaching
approaches employed in language learning. Some teachers at the School of Languages in the Uni-
versity of Colima agree with this notion and have tried to involve students in their learning process as
much as possible. Thus, they conducted a research project to learn about what resulted from imple-
menting this teaching practice. The objective of this investigation was to learn about the effects of
involving students in the decisions made regarding their learning. The research questions that guided
this research were: Which decisions can students be involved in regarding their learning process?
And, what effect does involving them in making such decisions have on their learning?

Literature review
Current teaching methods and approaches call for greater student involvement in their learning pro-
cess (Harmer, 2015). For instance, Hirumi (2002) mentions that in student-centered learning (SCL),
teachers and students negotiate the selection of the learning objectives, the grading criteria, how the
class is going to be taught, as well as how they are going to be evaluated. Existing literature suggests
that allowing students to participate in the decisions made about their learning benefits them in dif-
ferent ways. When learners are involved, they develop a sense of ownership and a commitment to
their learning; which in turn makes it more meaningful and effective (Louis, 2006). In addition, based
on the results of a study, this researcher concluded that when students had a say in their decisions
regarding the materials and activities they wanted to do to improve their language skills; as well as
how they were going to be evaluated, students began to take control of their learning. Shawwa (ND)
adds that giving learners the opportunity to decide how to learn helps students set achievable goals,
plan what they are going to do to learn, as well as to develop the ability to solve unexpected problems
they may encounter throughout the learning process.