Students’ Perspectives on Mix Language Learning Strategies

(Mix LLS) in Improving Their Learning Autonomy (LA): Indonesia

EFL Context

Kiky Soraya

, Nenden Sri Lengkanawati

Language Center, Primary Teacher Education Department, Faculty of Humanities, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta

Indonesia, 11480

English Education Department, Graduate School, Indonesia Education University, Bandung, Indonesia, 40154

Keywords: Learning Autonomy, Mix Language Learning Strategy, Long Life Learning

Abstract: In this 21st Century era, learning process is directed to support students to be a long-life learner, creative

and innovative. However, in Indonesia, spoon feed tradition and limited teachers that tried to teach the

students how to learn (to be autonomous) tend to be the major issues and problem nowadays. Since, many

experts suggested numbers of strategies to improve the students’ Learning Autonomy, there is no single

learning strategy that is suitable for the whole students. Therefore, it is very crucial to know the students’

responses toward the mix LLS that have been applied in their classroom for the further teaching and

learning improvement. Mix Language Learning Strategies (Mix LLS) was applied in the classroom and Mix

methods were also used in this study. The result shows that (1) Students’ perception about the Mix LLS is

positive; (2) Mix LLS proves in helping the students in improving their English skills; (3) The common Mix

LLS-Activities enjoyed by the students during the implementation of LA are project and portfolios but they

are not really like to create the learning schedule and diary or self-reflection.

1 INTRODUCTION

Century Learning having a lot of aspects to be

considered such as the Key Subjects of century

Themes and 3Rs (Resourcefulness, Responsibility,

and Respect), Life and Career Skills, Learning and

Innovation Skills (4Cs: Critical Thinking,

Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity), and

Information and Media Technology Skills. It means

that language education in the 21

-century demand

complex skills to be mastered through a long-life

learning.

Since we know that the big problem of Education

in Indonesia context is the spoon feed tradition in

which teacher has not been ready yet for the

changes. LA is rarely used in Indonesia due to

several challenges such as lack of teacher readiness

(Dwee, 2017). In contrary, students can be able to do

autonomous learning when they were taught how to

learn and how to be autonomous learner

appropriately. Students can evaluate their own

learning by themselves rather than waiting for

teachers to do so (Reed, 2017). Regarding to this

case, teachers need to change the habit and try to be

committed to dig out and implement the appropriate

strategy that can be suitable for their students.

To overcome the autonomous problem in

Indonesia context, many experts suggested numbers

of strategies to improve the students’ Learning

Autonomy. Since there is no single learning strategy

that is suitable for the whole students. Therefore, in

this study, the researcher tries to combine some best

practices teaching strategies to cope with an

autonomous learning problem. The strategy called

Mix LLS or 2MRS1W that will be explained further

in the Literature Review.

This study is aimed at finding out the students’

perception toward the implementation of Mix LLS;

finding out whether Mix LLS significantly help the

students in improving their English Skill, and

finding out the common Mix LLS-Activities enjoyed

by the students during the implementation LA. The

research questions of this study were formulated as

follows: What does the students’ perception toward

the implementation of Mix LLS?;Does Mix LLS

significantly help the students in improving their

Soraya, K. and Lengkanawati, N.

Students’ Perspectives on Mix Language Learning Strategies (Mix LLS) in Improving Their Learning Autonomy (LA): Indonesia EFL Context.

DOI: 10.5220/0010008500002917

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities (BINUS-JIC 2018), pages 385-390

ISBN: 978-989-758-515-9

385

English Skill?; and What are the common Mix LLS-

Activities enjoyed by the students during the

implementation of LA?

Since many research talk about LA and the

implementation of LA from the teacher’s belief or

view. This study area then focused on the other point

of view that is the students’ perspectives on Mix

LLS implementation. Because of the appropriateness

and complexity of the situation, the data were gained

from the students responds toward Mix LLS

implementation and used Mix methods analysis

(quantitative and qualitative analysis) at Bina

Nusantara University Indonesia in such period.

2 RELATED THEORIES

A really closed theories show the global agreement

that teachers were agreed of the effectiveness of

Learner autonomy, it is developing students’ ability

and responsibility to control their learning with the

teachers’ supervision and teachers were willing to

extend further investigation about LA in their

classroom although there were some obstacle and

special finding in each context (Loi, 2016, Keuk &

Heng, 2016, Tapinta, 2016, Valdez, 2016,

Lengkanawati, 2016, Otsman & Wood, 2016).

Moreover, to be successful in the application of

learner autonomy, LA, Singleton, et al. (2006) on

the one hand, state concentrated time enjoyed by

learners in their learning would appear to facilitate

significant linguistic gains. Furthermore, the

interrelationships between teacher and learner

autonomy can be seen clearly since it depends on

how much the process of these concepts are applied,

interpreted, and situated in the contexts (Lamb &

Hayo, 2008).

Mix LLS or 2MRS1W was a combination of

Language Learning Strategies that is basically

mixing Metacognitive Strategy, Mobile-Assisted

Language Learning (MALL), Reflective Dialogue,

Reflective Learning, Self-Access Learning Center

(SALC), Scaffolding Technique, and Weblog. It

means that the Metacognitive strategy used in this

class is mixed with the use of mobile phone,

dialogue with the teacher, self-reflection, self-

practice in the Language Laboratory, sharing basic

knowledge to the students, and “Binusmaya” as the

Learning Management System and “Weebly” as the

media of writing.

The term Mix LLS was taken from some

following theories. The dynamic metacognitive

system perspectives have a big positive impact

toward LA (Zhang, 2016). Then, examine the

improvement of LA through the explicit use of LLS

in EFL learning through a mobile-assisted language

learning (MALL) among English as a foreign

language (EFL) in Arabic (Alzubi & Manjet, 2017).

The research consequently resulted in the

improvement of LA in virtual learning

environments. This strategy mostly teacherless. It

helps students to control and manage their own

language learning in almost independent learning

settings, freedom in place, access, resources, and

material choices.

In addition, Theuse of instruction mediated by

smartphones in EFL reading context to improve LA

(Alzubi, 2017). Many experts also suggested

numbers of strategies to improve the students’

Learning Autonomy through Self-Access Learning

Center (SALC) and reflective Dialogue, weblog.

reflective learning, scaffolding technique (Huw,

2017, Azari, 2017, Liu & Wenqian, 2017,

Weinstein, 2017). Based on the previous research,

the researcher agreed to use Mix LLS to

accommodate the student's multi-characteristics

rather than use only one LLS.

A study showed that write an article verifies the

pedagogical literature that giving an opportunity for

the students to autonomously learn and develop

confidence is crucial for the independence that they

need to achieve a successful career and life (Henry,

2017). To achieve this goal, become an Autonomous

Learner is crucial. Many experts in some countries

such as Vietnam and Arabic, believed that

promoting learner autonomy was a desirable goal

and described how they tried to achieve this goal in

their teaching (Nguyen & Ian, 2017, Borg & Yousif,

2017).

In terms of the beginning definition of LA,

researchers state that there are different views and

interpretations of learner autonomy (Palfreyman &

Richard, 2003). Some writers are concerned with the

language used independency; independent language

learning; or learner autonomy interpretation in

general. The idea above basically related with a

theory that each individual learner holds their own

unique complex set of self-beliefs, which influence

not only the way learners choose to act and the kinds

of decisions (Mercer, 2011). These two theories are

underlying the basic concept of Learner autonomy

belief which regards the individual uniqueness

individual process in learning the language.

Moreover, a very related research report indicate

3 major findings that the satisfaction of the students

in terms of their independent learning help the

students to improve their English proficiency and

collaborative study are also included in this study

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386

then important to check whether mix methods can

really help the students in developing LA and

English Skills and try to dig out the best activities to

be used in Indonesia context (Hu & Zhang, 2017). In

addition, self-learning, collaboration, and self-access

are also the key success of implementing LA (Little,

2017).

All of those propose number of strategies have

positive and negative impacts for the Learner

Autonomy (LA) development. To take the benefits

and reduce the weaknesses, the researcher interested

in finding out the impact of mixing Learning

strategies toward LA. The basic reason of applying

mix methods was because no one best strategy that

is suitable for everyone. Therefore, teachers

Creativity in using the composing the appropriate

Language Learning Strategy (LLS) is important in

this context. This idea is supported by a statement

that EFL learners whose teachers had a high Critical

Thinking level showed a higher Learning result

(Nosratinia & Alireza, 2017).

3 METHODOLOGY

For the mutual benefit and protection of Authors and

Publishers, it is necessary that Authors provide

formal written Consent to Publish and Transfer of

signed Consent ensures that the publisher has the

Author’s authorization to publish the Contribution.

A mixed method was used in this study,

qualitative and quantitative data analysis were

implemented for the data interpretation. The study

pursued to find out the students’ perceptions toward

learner autonomy experiences and the Mix LLS

implementation in the teaching-learning process

through google form questionnaire using Likert

Scale. The study also tried to look at the significance

of Mix LLS during the English classroom on the

basis of the TOEFL IBT program through the Pre-

Test and Post-test. An online interview was also

distributed in Binusmaya to get more details about

the implementation. Besides, an observation

checklist was also used to give a specific illustration

of the classroom activity.

The quantitative data from the questionnaire in

the form of frequencies were described to answer

research question number one about the students’

perception toward Mix LLS and supported with the

observation result. Next, the result of quantitative

data analysis from TOEFL IBT Pre-Test and Post

Test used to answer research question number two

related to the students’ English skills improvement.

At last, the data from the previous questionnaire

once again was elaborated in the interview to answer

research question number three about the enjoyable

learning activity during the implementation of Mix

LLS.

The questionnaire was shared with 128

participants through google forms and 121 of them

filled out by the participants. There were 128

students participated in the Pre-Test and Post-Test of

IBT TOEFL examination to see whether there is an

improvement on their English Learning. Then, after

the test, there were 121 participants filled out and

participated in the questionnaires and online

interview. Seven of the students did not fill out the

questionnaire and interview without any detail

information. Accompany those data, the researcher’s

observation also used to give further details of the

Mix LLS implementation toward LA.

Data were collected from the questionnaire,

TOEFL IBT Pre-Test and Post Test, interview and

observations during the classroom. The

questionnaire developed and modified basically

from Macaskill and Taylor (Barnard & Li, 2016).

There were 15 items to be filled using Likert Scale

starting from strongly disagree, disagree, fair, agree,

and strongly agree. The Pre-Test and Post Test were

using TOEFL IBT Computer Based Test. There are

8 items of interview guidelines developed based on

Mix LLS Principles “2MRS1W” (Huw, 2017, Azari,

2017, Liu & Wenqian, 2017, Weinstein, 2017) and 5

items observation checklist by Benson (2003).

All questions covered in the questionnaire were

calculated using descriptive statistics to look at

frequency counts and percentages. Those 121 filled

out questionnaires were analyzed statistically using

Google Form. The results of the Pre-Test and Post-

Test were analyzed using SPSS to see the significant

improvement in the students’ English mastery.

Utilizing the mixed methods in nature of this study,

data analysis also involved data transcription,

interpretation,and description from the interview and

observation.

4 FINDINGS

Related to the first research question, almost half of

the respondents enjoyed and almost a quarter of the

participants really enjoyed and a quarter of them fell

common about LA new learning experiences. This

result can be seen at table 1 in which 49.6%

participants are agree and 24% of them are strongly

agree, 25.6% are in the fair position and only 0.8%

participant disagree about enjoying new learning

Students’ Perspectives on Mix Language Learning Strategies (Mix LLS) in Improving Their Learning Autonomy (LA): Indonesia EFL

Context

387

experiences using LA. In addition, the result from

the observation in the class is also supporting the

first finding about the students’ positive responses.

Based on the observation developed from Benson

theory (Benson, 2003), the class condition during the

implementation of Mix LLS was active, the students

know well what they should do and what they

should improve with teacher as the facilitator that

provides the opportunity to choose many topics. The

students can make a choice on the way of learning.

During the class, dialogic reflection is also used.

Finally, they showed a great enthusiasm to share

about what they have learn to the friends.

Secondly, for research question number two, to

see whether there is a significant difference in the

students’ English skill before and after the

implementation of Mix LLS. It can be concluded

that there is a significant difference between the Pre-

Test and the Post-Test because t-table 0.000 is lower

than the significant level of 0.005. It means that mix

LLS is also improving the students’ English Skills

ability. The detail information can be seen from the

result in figure 1.

Table 1: Pre-Test and Post-Test Significant Result.

Pair 1. POSTTEST_PRETEST

Paired Differences Example column 2

Mean 13.805

Std. Deviation 3.988

Std. Error Mean 353

95% Confidence Interval

of the Difference- Lowe

13.107

95% Confidence Interval

of the Difference- Uppe

14.502

t 39.160

df 127

(

2-tailed

)

.000

Thirdly, answering the last research question,

based on the data from the questionnaire, showed

that in making schedule and diary there are less than

50% of students enjoy or really enjoy the activity.

That was different from the project and portfolios

responses that achieved more than 50% enjoyed and

strongly enjoyed comments. From the interview

analysis, the result also indicates that metacognitive

strategy used in this class with the assistance of

mobile phone, dialogue, self-learning, scaffolding,

and “Binusmaya” or LMS help the students much in

learning but for self-reflection after class that is not

really loved by the students. Further discussion on

the interview findings can be seen in the following

interview analysis.

Related to the students’ planning, the students

feel that they need improvement in planning. “My

planning for my English learning needs to improve. I

have learned a lot from the lecture and I think the

lecture is doing a fantastic job of giving a topic and

give some advice and self-learning. I think there are

a lot more things that I will learn not just in the

class but also in outside of the class.”

The role of the mobile phone in the English

learning is perfectly helpful. “I think it works

perfectly and just what I need to gather information.

Sometimes when you get unrecognized the words

sometimes I need a mobile phone or a laptop to

guide me there and sometimes the lecture gives an

assignment not in writing but in the mobile phone so

the mobile phone works just what I need.”

Teacher’s feedback through dialogue in the class

was helping the students to get feedback and

planning. “I think the teacher has to do a fantastic

job and giving a good feedback about what the

student needs to achieve and the teacher gives the

best dialogue spoken in English to help everyone

speak out and plan the next learning.”

The class reflection after the class discussion is

not really loved by the students. “I think is good

having a reflection but I think most of the students

disagree with that so its work to try.” Teacher’s

scaffolding is helping much for the future study.

“The basic was really helpful to get a lot of

information and achieve of what I will learn”

Self-Access Learning in the Laboratory was very

useful in improving the students’ English skills. “I

think it works good and I think is the best way how

we manage to improve our skill by practicing in the

lab and the application works so well.” LMS

facilitate the students in improving the learning. “I

think it helps me a lot in this semester and giving an

improvement. Hope it will be stay that way.” Mix

Language Learning Strategy can be a good propose

strategy to be applied in improving the students LA.

“I think the mix Language Learning Strategy is the

best way to be. It provides many ways of learning”

Since the interview mostly shows a similar result

with the questionnaire and the tests, shortly, for the

last research question, the most enjoyable activity on

Mix LLS implementation are project and portfolios.

However, the data also shows that they are not

manageable, not really like to create the learning

schedule, diary, and there is a willingness to make

excuses when there is a chance.

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5 CONCLUSION

The result shows that (1) Students’ perception about

the Mix LLS is positive; (2) Mix LLS proves in

helping the students in improving their English

skills; (3) The common Mix LLS-Activities enjoyed

by the students during the implementation of LA are

project and portfolios but they are not really like to

create the learning schedule and diary or self-

reflection. These findings can be understood. Since

we know, culturally Indonesia is not a written

society.

Although Mix LLS can help the students to

develop LA there were still some limitations in

making the students love to create schedule, diary or

self-reflection in a written form, and there are

students’ tendency to make excuses of tasks when

there is a chance because of the limitation of time.

Practically, based on the existing findings, the

teacher’s and students’ belief, assurance and

motivation are the key points to be successful in

applying LA in the classroom setting. However,

there can be a further research to dig out appeared

issues about written- form scheduling, self-

reflection, and excuses behavior.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

If any, should be placed before the references

section without numbering.

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