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experts have different characteristics of autonomous learners, the characteristics lead the students to be more independent, initiative, and active in their learning
process.
4.3 Level of Autonomy
The discussion of level of autonomy is important since autonomy is not an instant process. It requires the clear and ordered steps to be applied by the teachers
as teachers‟ consideration when they want their students to become autonomous learners. There are some writers offering levels of autonomy. Nunan 1997:195
provides a model of five levels that are learner action, awareness, involvement, intervention, creation, and transcendance. What are classified by Nunan is
involving the dimensions of content and process. For instance, at the awareness level, learners would be made aware of the pedagogical goals and content of the
materials, identify strategy implications of pedagogical tasks, and identify their own preferred learning stylesstrategies. In this level of autonomy, the learners
are made aware of the pedagogical goals and content of the materials they are using. They identify their own learning strategies. The second level is
involvement. In this level, learners are involved in selecting their own goals from a range of alternatives offered. They then make choices among a range of options.
The third level is intervention. The learners are involved in modifying and adapting the goals and content of the learning program. In this stage, they modify
or adapt the task. The fourth level is creation in which the learners create their own goals and objectives. They now create their own tasks. The fifth level is
transcendence. At the transcendence level, learners would make links between the content of classroom learning and the world beyond and become teachers and
27 researchers. In this level, the learners go beyond the classroom and make links
between the content of classroom learning and the world beyond. The learners at this stage become teachers and researchers.
From those level of learner autonomy, Nunan also provides nine step program to learner autonomy as: 1 make instruction goals clear to learners 2
allow learners to create their own goals, 3 encourage learners to use their second language outside the classroom, 4 raise awareness of learning processes, 5 help
learners identify their own preferred styles and strategies, 6 encourage learner choice, 7 allow learners to generate their own tasks, 8 encourage the learners to
become teachers, and 9 encourage the learners to become researchers Nunan, 2003.
On the other hand, Macaro in Benson 2006:3 proposes three-stage model involving autonomy of language competence, autonomy of language learning
competence, and autonomy of choice and action. ScharleSzabo in Dislen 2000 also provide three stages of process of the development of autonomy in
learners as raising awareness, changing attitudes, and transferring roles. While each of stages is about lower and higher level of autonomy, the
relationship between the development of autonomy and language proficiency is still debatable. Kumaravadivelu in Benson 2006:4 argues that it would be a
mistake to try to correlate the initial, intermediary, and advanced stages of autonomy with the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels of language
proficiency. It is because the stages of autonomy depend more on linguistic and communicative demands of particular tasks. Therefore, it is still necessary to do
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further research answer the question of how autonomy influences language proficiency as will be done through this study.
4.4 Teacher’s Role in Autonomous Learning
