How Can I Foster Student Autonomy in ESL/EFL Writing Classes?

Student autonomy, with regards to teaching, is when students take charge of their own learning. That is, they are responsible for it and the teacher is more of a guide than the all-knowing one who imparts wisdom and knowledge. This is true in almost any learning situation, but I’ll focus more specifically on English writing classes for ESL/EFL learners.

Student Autonomy: Teacher-Editing vs Self-Editing

Let me start with a quick story! I used to teach academic writing in South Korean universities and there were always one or two other teachers with different sections of the same course that I taught. Our semesters would look very different.

These other teachers would focus on the teacher editing model, with 4-5 revision cycles for each essay the students would turn in. Needless to say that with more than 50 students, this took up much of their free time and they always had a slightly frazzled look to them.

Instead, I focused on teaching self-editing and would just give one round of feedback 4x throughout the semester (3 assignments and then on the midterm exam). Students could come to see me during office hours (5 hours/week) if they wanted more individualized feedback. Certainly, some of the students did take advantage of this and I hope that I helped them improve their writing! This took far less time than my colleagues, and in the end, my guess is that my students took a tangible skill with them out into the real world (self-editing of writing).

Why is Student Autonomy Important?

Of course, the question is why something like student autonomy is important in the first place. There are a few reasons why a teacher might want to encourage this. Here are just a few of them:

• Students will not always have a teacher looking over their shoulders, especially in the “real world.”
• It’s important to teach students how to learn for themselves.
• It’s much better for busy teachers with lots of students.
• Students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning.

Teacher as Editor Model in TEFL Writing Classes: Bad News!

I believe that the current model of teaching writing in most universities in Korea (and perhaps around the world where English is taught as a second or foreign language) does nothing to foster student autonomy. When I attend conferences, I hear people giving presentations about teaching academic writing without even a mention of self-editing, instead focusing on teacher, or peer editing, exclusively.

This model of teacher editor is basically where the student writes something and gives it to the teacher, probably with very little in the way of self-editing, if any at all.

In fact, it’s not so uncommon that the student (especially at lower-levels) will give something to the teacher that came straight from Google Translate. Then the teacher spends ridiculous amounts of time editing something that in some cases is barely understandable and gives it back to the student. They make the necessary changes, often mindlessly, and don’t really look at the mistakes in detail. And then hand it in to the teacher again. This is especially true of students at the lower levels.

This cycle can repeat endlessly without the students improving their English writing skills!

Peer as Editor: Bad News Also!

This same cycle can also be done with peer editing, which I am not a big fan of either. In both of these models, the learner essentially takes very little responsibility for turning out a quality product on their own because they know that the teacher or friend will just make the changes they need.

However, peer or teacher editing is 100% unlike real life. When students are taking an English proficiency test that involves writing, there is no teacher or friend sitting next to them, helping them along. Nor would they have this at any job. They would just be expected to turn out a decent email or essay or whatever else they would need to write by themselves.

How about Teaching Self-Editing Instead in English Writing Classes?

In an attempt to foster student autonomy by teaching writing strategies, I teach students to self-edit by giving them check-lists with things like:

• Check all the verbs: are they the correct tense?
• What is your thesis statement? Circle it! Is it stated or implied? Underline the topic sentences. Put a box around your restated thesis.
• Does each sentence have a capital letter and period/question mark/exclamation point? Circle them.
• Are all the words spelled correctly? Check if you’re not sure.
• Do all the subjects and verbs agree with each other?

Have your Say about Fostering Student Autonomy in ESL Writing Classes

Do you have any tips or tricks for fostering student autonomy in TEFL writing classes? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think about this. We’d love to hear from you.

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Last update on 2021-08-01 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API