Planning Enhancing Students’ Autonomy in Learning Vocabulary
The students’ effort in carrying out problem-solving strategy could also be examined in their effort of planning the task accomplishment. First, it was shown
in their planning of time. As common students, they had many duties that should be performed. They had much other homework to do and many other
extracurricular activities to follow that made them should be able to manage their time wisely. It was as what Mr. Brown and Mr. Blue affirmed in the interview
session that they had many other assignments from other teachers and also many school activities. Because of that reason, they should think about a solution so that
every of their assignment could be performed well without any disturbance to each other.
Second, their effort in carrying out problem-solving strategy was also reflected in their planning of selecting a source of learning to attain a suitable
reading passage. The second homework given forced the students to find a reading passage that would be used as the source for them learning new vocabulary. If
they did not have one, then they could not accomplish the task at all. Therefore, they should think about a way to find one. Several participants planned to make
use internet to look for a suitable reading passage, while another participant planned to occupy English course-books he has possessed.
Out of the discussion on problem-solving strategy in relation to the students’ planning of time and source of learning, other efforts on problem-solving strategy
were also recognized. Mr. Brown admitted that in accomplishing the task of finding the unknown words meaning by guessing from its context, he found many
unknown words that could not be guessed. He reasoned that it was caused by the limited clues needed to guess.
The problem faced by Mr. Brown was also confronted by Ms. Red. She argued that there were words that could not be guessed its meaning although she
has tried hard. She considered that there were only little clues to guess available in the text.
Other participants also admitted that they encountered the same problem. Four of them, Ms. White, Mr. Blue, Mr. Black and Ms. Red tried to solve their
problem in accomplishing the task by trying to find the answer again and again. They reread the text many times. However, when finally it did not work anymore,
they decided to consult it with their friends or the teacher. Only one participant, Mr. Brown, did not have any effort to solve the problem he encountered. He
confessed that he did not do anything to solve his problem. He elaborated that he did not try to finish it, so his worksheet remained incomplete when it was
collected. Regarding to the elaboration presented above, it was concluded that
problem-solving strategy was important to overcome the obstacles found upon the process of accomplishing the task. Being able to solve the problem faced was an
inevitably aspect of learning autonomy. It was so because assisting learning autonomy in educational context was directed to foster students to be problem
solvers Benson, 2001.