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.

3. Monitoring

Monitoring strategy involves the strategy to check, verify, or correct the students’ performance in accomplishing the task O’Malley and Chamot, 1990 cited in Benson, 2001: 82. In other words, monitoring their learning implies monitoring how they are doing. Based on the result of the interview session, it was found that nearly all participants had same ways of monitoring their task accomplishment: re-checking and comparing. First, the students re-checked their project. In this respect, they checked again whether they have guessed the meaning of the unknown words correctly. Four participants agreed that re-checking the meaning that had been guessed was directed to make judgment whether their guessing was correct or incorrect. As it was uttered by Ms. Black and also Mr. Blue, they verified it by re-reading the text, checking its part of speech and replacing the unknown words with the meanings they have guessed. Second, they monitored their task accomplishment by comparing the last task with the previous one. Being able to compare the result of the two assignments implied that the students still kept in their mind what they have ever performed. It was a good thing for they recorded their own learning in their mind. Interestingly, all participants who expressed that they compared their first and second task accomplishments admitted that they performed better in the second one. It was as three of them uttered in the interview session. First, Mr. Brown expressed that he felt the result of the second assignment was better because he had understood the concept and the implementation of contextual guessing strategy better. Second, Mr. Blue said that he realized the result of the second task was better and he actually could accomplish it faster. And third, Ms. Black said that she has understood the steps better so the result was also better.

4. Evaluating

Evaluating strategy refers to checking the process and the result of the students’ performance after completing the task O’Malley and Chamot, 1990 cited in Benson, 2001: 82. The discussion on the evaluating strategy employed by the participants was categorized into two: the process and the product. First, the students evaluated the process of accomplishing the task. They performed it by comparing how they were performing the task. According to the result of the interview session, it was recognized that nearly all participants admitted that in evaluating the process of accomplishing the task they compared how they performed it. A participant, Ms. White, confessed that she was not satisfied with the previous task. She also admitted that she could perform the next task quicker and better for she had understood better how she would carry out the task. The same condition also occurred in Ms. Black’s confession. She admitted that at last she had better understanding on how to accomplish the task, so the process of task accomplishment itself was quicker. In this case, both of them realized that there was a correlation between their current conditions with the process of performing the task. Their understanding of the related strategy supported how well they could perform the learning tasks.