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Learner Agency: Maximising Learner Potential

Authors:
Paul Driver at Anglia Ruskin University
Paul Driver
Diane Larsen-Freeman at University of Michigan
Diane Larsen-Freeman
Xuesong Gao at UNSW Sydney
Xuesong Gao
Sarah Mercer at University of Graz
Sarah Mercer
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Abstract

Learner agency refers to the feeling of ownership and sense of control that students have over their learning. Agentive learners are motivated not only to learn but also to take responsibility for managing the learning process. Learner agency emerges, grows, and is expressed through meaningful interactions within a community of stakeholders which includes policymakers, school leaders, teacher educators, teachers, and parents. Collaboration and a sense of shared purpose help to provide the context for developing agency. This is the essential framework which will help learners to grow in confidence, meet with success, and become lifelong learners. All learners have the potential to develop their agency further, and all teaching can be designed with learner agency in mind. Learning becomes more effective and efficient when teaching practices support learners to become active agents in their learning. Beyond the classroom, learners can use their agency in positive ways to shape both their personal and their professional lives. As members of local and global communities, they will possess the skills to connect, adapt, and flourish in a dynamic and fast- changing world. Our key messages in this paper are that: • learners with a sense of their own agency are more likely to be engaged and invested in their language learning • teachers play an essential role in facilitating the development of learner agency by providing opportunities for students to exercise and enhance their agency • agency does not reside solely in the learner but is negotiated and supported by all stakeholders in an ecology • students who develop agency are prepared not only for success as language learners but also for the challenges and opportunities in life beyond the classroom, in the present and the future.
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Larsen-Freeman, D., Driver, P., Gao, X., & Mercer, S. (2021). Learner Agency: Maximizing
Learner Potential [PDF]. www.oup.com/elt/expert
... This plurilingual awareness necessitates that language teachers acquire the skills to create opportunities for plurilingual individuals to employ their own linguistic and cultural resources in facilitating their learning and development as plurilingual individuals. This shift also entails the development of pedagogical activities aimed at enabling plurilingual individuals to enhance their agency, capacity, and inclination to use their linguistic and cultural resources for intercultural communication (e.g., Larsen-Freeman et al., 2021). Unfortunately, language teachers are not always adequately prepared to address the challenges of promoting intercultural communication and fostering the growth of plurilingual individuals in language classrooms. ...
... Language teachers also need to seize and create opportunities to enhance agency among plurilingual (Gao, 2019), pluricultural students so that they can better control language learning in a multilingual world and have a stronger sense of ownership of the learning process. Therefore, the critical goal of language teachers' pedagogical efforts should be to teach language learners to be the authors of their own lives-or in other words, to foster the growth of agency in language learners (e.g., Larsen-Freeman et al., 2021). ...
... Language teachers may focus on growing inner resources within language learners, empowering them to take control of and assume ownership of their learning. Language teachers should cultivate and enhance inner resources in language learners, enabling them to control the learning process better and take ownership of their learning (Larsen-Freeman et al., 2021). Plurilingual learners may also develop a growth mindset, believing that they can learn and adapt to shifting contextual conditions. ...
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... It is crucial to discriminate between learner autonomy and learner agency. The latter encompasses not only the capacity for self-direction but also the active involvement, decision-making, and empowerment of students in their learning process, surpassing the traditional boundaries of learner autonomy (Larsen-Freeman, et al., 2021). ...
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... The questionnaire used in this study is adapted from a self-assessment tool authored by Larsen-Freeman et al. (2021). The questionnaire includes twelve high-agency teaching practices. ...
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