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ELT FORUM 11(2) (2022) 

 

Journal of English Language Teaching 

 
http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt 

 

 

Students’ practice on autonomous language learning behaviors: A narrative inquiry  

 

Ai Fatmawati1, Yanty Wirza1 
 
1Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia 

 

Article Info 
________________ 
Article History: 
Received on 15 June 
2022 

Approved on 29 July 
2022 
Published on 31 July 
2022 

________________ 
Keywords: 
autonomous; behaviors; 
challenges; learner 
autonomy 
____________________ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract 
___________________________________________________________________ 
The ability of learners to take an active role in their learning has attracted attention in 
foreign language learning as the focus of language teaching practice and theory have 

shifted to a student-centered approach. Thus, this study aimed at exploring how 
students employed autonomous language learning behaviors, such as planning, 

monitoring, and evaluating their learning, including the challenges that the students 
may find. By applying a narrative inquiry, this study focused on examining students’ 

experience in doing autonomous language learning behaviors and their challenges. 

The data were obtained using a semi-structured interview with four bilingual students 
who live at private Islamic boarding school. The findings revealed that they 

implemented autonomous language learning behaviors, yet they met some difficulties 
in doing those behaviors, such as the dilemma in determining the goals or the priorities 

to learn, the lack of motivation in doing those behaviors, the need of others to help 
them doing the behaviors and misunderstanding of the autonomous behavior 

concepts. The findings imply that the participation of the teacher's assistance and 

encouragement in implementing autonomous behaviors is crucial. Due to the limited 
data obtained in this study, future research can be done to explore more about 

autonomous behaviors. The findings of this study are expected to shed some light on 
autonomous behaviors implemented by students living in Islamic boarding school, 

specifically who are bilingual. 

  
Correspondence Address: p-ISSN 2252-6706 | e-ISSN 2721-4532 

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia  
Jalan Dr Setiabudhi no 229, Kota Bandung, 40154 
E-mail: aifatma96@upi.edu 
 

 

 

 

http://issn.pdii.lipi.go.id/issn.cgi?daftar&1333515478&1&&
http://issn.pdii.lipi.go.id/issn.cgi?daftar&1576658845&1&&


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INTRODUCTION  

Indonesia’s recent curriculum, the 2013 curriculum, has required teachers to use student-centered 

learning in the classroom. It has been promoted for about seven years. Since the focus of language 

teaching practice and theory has switched to a student-centered approach, the ability of learners to 

take an active role in their learning has received attention in foreign language learning. However, in 

Asian societies, language learning is still known to be teacher-authoritative, encouraging obedience 

and reliance on the teacher (Hsieh & Hsieh, 2019). Although it is difficult for some teachers to 

implement student-centered classroom, it still cannot be ignored due to the significance. One of the 

purposes to implement student-centered learning is to make students become autonomous learners. It 

has been argued that active participation in learning outside of the classroom is vital especially for 

foreign language students (Hsieh & Hsieh, 2019).  

Learner autonomy is mostly known as the ability to take responsibility for their own learning 

(Holec, 1981, cited in Little, 2017). It includes the responsibility for determining the objectives, setting 

the content and progress, choosing the methods and techniques to be used, monitoring the acquisition 

process, and evaluating what has been obtained. Cotterall & Crabbe (1999) argued that students will 

be autonomous when they are: (1) promoted to self-monitor and self-assessment; (2) promoted to 

objectively focus on their learning process; (3) provided opportunities to choose content and learning 

activities, as well as opportunities to assess their own progress: and (4) promoted to find their own 

language knowledge and build their own learning assignments. The term ‘promoted’ shows that 

teachers need to foster autonomy to the students. It is stated by Lengkanawati (2017) that no matter 

how experienced a teacher is, if the students do not make efforts by working independently outside 

the classroom on their learning and by becoming active participants in the teaching and learning 

process, the good learning outcome will not take place.  

Geddes and Strurtridge (1997, cited in Kemala, 2016) argued that autonomous learners decide 

what they want to learn or why they need to learn, and then decide how to tackle the problems. 

Furthermore, Dang (2012) divided the characteristics of learner autonomy into three categories: 

initiating, monitoring, and evaluating. Understanding personal learning preferences, defining goals, 

preparing study plans, and providing learning opportunities are all aspects of the beginning learning 

process. The monitoring learning process, which is likely the longest and where the majority of 

learning occurs, comprises traits linked to learning engagement and maintenance, such as selecting 

appropriate tactics, adjusting learning paths, and bargaining with others. The evaluating learning 

process predicts characteristics such as proofreading an assignment and evaluating a piece of writing 

while reviewing learning results. 

However, fostering learner autonomy is still difficult. Nakata (2014) states that fostering learner 

autonomy in EFL contexts face full of constraints and limitations and thus there is no much freedom 

because of, for example, fixed curricular goals, large class sizes, textbook and exam-oriented teaching, 

and teacher-faced instruction.  Another clear challenge is the socio-cultural background in which 

students respect the teachers and make them reluctant to speak up about their wants. As Harmer 

(2007) asserted that for certain students from some educational backgrounds and cultures who have 

been led to believe that it is the teachers’ role to provide learning, this message can be challenging. 

Tomita & Sano (2016) investigated students’ needs in developing their learner autonomy by dividing 

them into low and high proficiency levels obtained from their TOEIC scores. The findings revealed 

that the students need the support of the teachers in developing their autonomy levels. Research 

conducted by Tuyen & An (2019) also studied the challenge in fostering autonomy. The findings of a 

study encountered that students themselves might be one of the challenges that the teachers find in 

promoting learner autonomy. The students with a low level of proficiency prevented the teachers from 

implementing strategies in their teaching. That can also be because the students are not motivated. 

Some previous researchers in Indonesia such as Agustina and Fajar (2018), Khotimah et al. 

(2019) and Ramadhiyah and Lengkanawati (2019) discovered how learners view autonomy in 

language learning. For example, Agustina and Fajar (2018) found that although students believed that 

being autonomous and independent is important, they have not been able to sustain their autonomy 

as English learners because of a variety of reasons, such as their lack of motivation, consistency, 

willingness as well as supportive atmosphere. The findings are supported by Chan et al. (2002) who 

said that motivation is an important aspect in determining whether or not a student is ready to learn 

independently. Similarly, Ramadhiyah and Lengkanawati (2019) discovered that despite the fact that 

the students believed they were capable of controlling their own learning, they delegated that 

responsibility to their teacher. It could be due to socio-cultural factors in the Indonesian environment, 



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which keep teacher-centered learning in place. A study conducted by Khotimah et al. (2019) 

discovered that not all students comprehend the concept of autonomous learning in English lesson. 

They also found that among the autonomous behaviors, the monitoring phase, according to the third-

year students in the study, was more important than the other two stages. Other findings by Kemala 

(2016) showed that independent learners are primarily impacted by their own desires, followed by the 

environment, learning activities, teachers, and materials. The majority of high autonomous learners 

were motivated to study English by their desire to advance their careers in the future, as well as other 

factors. 

The findings above indicate that being autonomous learners is influenced by many factors. 

Since students may have various backgrounds and cultures in language learning, it will sometimes 

provide different situations in implementing autonomous language learning behavior. The students 

may have their own reasons why being an autonomous learner is challenging for them, especially the 

students in the dormitory area. It then becomes significant to be studied since students studying and 

living in Islamic boarding school have many agendas outside their study at school which can be one 

of the factors to influence how they implement autonomous learning behaviors. The author, then, had 

curiosity on how students’ studying in private Islamic boarding school who are in bilingual class 

implement their autonomous language learning behaviors. The previous studies had not covered 

autonomous behaviors from students living in Islamic boarding school, specifically who are bilingual. 

This study is going to search how students who live in private Islamic boarding school, specifically 

who are bilingual, do autonomous language learning behaviors, and the obstacles that they encounter 

in implementing the behaviors by using a narrative inquiry. Hence, the research questions of this study 

is ‘How do the students plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning?’. 

 

METHODS 

This study used a narrative inquiry method. It is the study of the ways in which people experience the 

world (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). DeMarrais & Lapan (2004) claimed that narrative inquiry 

represents the researcher who wishes to understand a phenomenon or an experience rather than to 

formulate a logical or empirical theory. A narrative captures human experience through the creation 

and reconstruction of personal and social stories; and learners, teachers, and researchers are 

storytellers (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990; Webster & Mertova, 2007). In language teaching, narrative 

research attempts to recount the learner’s perspective with his language learning experience 

(Barkhuizen et al., 2014). It is relevant to the purpose of this study, which was to explore the students’ 

experiences in planning, monitoring, and evaluating their learning, including the challenges they 

encountered. This study asked the participants to share their experiences by letting them tell their 

stories, which was a part of a narrative inquiry. 

As this research aimed at exploring students studying and living in Islamic boarding school 

doing autonomous language learning behaviors, this study was conducted in private Islamic boarding 

school in Central Java with four bilingual students that speak Arabic and English for their daily 

activities. The school was purposively chosen because it provides two languages to be used by the 

students. It also provides autonomous learning environment in terms of English or Arabic study club 

after the school hours. Two of the students were in the second grade and the rest were in the third 

grade. All the names in the findings were pseudonym. They were chosen because of their availability 

in participating in the study. According to Hamied (2017), in qualitative data, the participants can be 

based on the researcher’s convenience, hence the number of participants is insignificant. 

The data were collected using semi-structured interview. As Connelly & Clandinin (1990) 

stated, interview can be a tool to collect data in narrative inquiry. The interview questions were the 

elaboration of the questionnaire created by Karababa, Eker, & Arik (2010) who had studied the skills 

of autonomous learning notion in Turkey. The items covered students’ planning abilities, monitoring 

abilities, evaluation abilities, and the obstacles that they encountered during the process of 

autonomous learning behaviors.  

During this study, COVID-19 pandemic was arising. The study in the private Islamic boarding 

school was still conducted offline. Yet it could not receive any visitors. Since the researcher could not 

visit the school, the researcher contacted some students who were going back to their homes because 

of their individual reasons. At first, the author asked the students to be her respondents. They were 

going back to their home because of certain conditions so the author could reach them through phone. 

The collection of the data was done from 16 to 19 November 2020. After they agreed, the author sent 

the list of the questions to them by WhatsApp. The author focused on asking how the students plan, 



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monitor, and assess their learning and the challenges in implementing it. The researcher allowed the 

students to answer using English or Indonesian language depending on their preferences. Adhikara 

and Nanda answered using Indonesian language, and Rijal and Rohman answered the questions using 

English. Adhikara, Rohman, and Nanda answered the questions by typing them. Meanwhile, Rijal 

answered the questions by sending the researcher a voice note. Some of the answers were not clear 

enough, so the researcher clarified it by validating the answers or by asking the participants another 

question regarding the answer to avoid misunderstanding. For instance, when the researcher asked 

Rohman about how he evaluated his learning, the researcher asked another question to validate his 

answer.  

After the data had been gathered, the interview data from the voice note were transcribed. The 

transcription and the data in written response was coded and arranged into certain themes, such as 

planning the learning, monitoring the learning, and evaluating the learning; and based on the themes 

a further interpretation was developed. According to Kim (2016) data analysis involves interpretation. 

Analysis implies objectivity and interpretation implies subjectivity. After the narrative was created, to 

ensure the trustworthiness (developed by Lincoln & Guba, 1985 as cited in Elo, et. al, 2014) of the 

data analysis, the author sent it back to the participants to check whether it represented their ideas 

correctly and to have their comments and feedback. The participants stated that the interpretation 

matched to what they have told the researcher. 

 

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 

Planning the learning 

Students’ autonomous behavior was discovered by asking them how they planned their learning. 

From the six participants’ answers, it can be seen that they plan their learning by setting goals and 

priorities to be learned. They have different goals and priorities in learning English. For example, 

some of the participants stressed their English learning in memorizing new vocabularies, and some of 

them prioritized mastering the grammar. Adhikara, Rijal, and Rohman shared their experiences: 

 

Adhikara: “Yes, before learning a language, I set goals and priorities. The first priority for my learning, 

I stress in memorizing new vocabularies that I didn't know before. Usually in the beginning 

I always try to memorize new vocabularies as much as possible, after that I begin to think 

about how to pronounce it, then understand grammar and study English literature.” 

Rijal:   “I set a goal to be able to speak to native speakers fluently. Another goal that I set was to 

watch a movie without any subtitles. To reach the goals, What I did was memorize as many 

vocabulary words as possible. 

Rohman: “Yes, the first goal I plan is mastering English grammar, then speaking.” 

 

Planning a learning is one of necessary aspects that students studying and living in Islamic 

boarding school must have to become autonomous learners. Thus, they can manage what to learn and 

do first among many agendas they have. In relation to the question regarding the importance of 

planning students’ learning, they all agreed that planning their learning is essential to their English 

learning. Adhikara, for example, asserted that planning his learning was important since he thought 

it was difficult to learn many things at once. So, he needed to plan his learning to see the first to the 

least learning priorities. Then, he could start to learn English based on the priority. Although the 

participants believed that planning their learning was important, they often found difficulties in 

planning their learning, determining the priority to learn, and deciding the strategies to reach it. For 

instance, Rijal said that there was a lack of media as the source of learning in the dormitory to support 

his learning. So, it sometimes makes a little bit difficult to plan what to learn. Meanwhile, Rohman 

thought that it was difficult to find the methods that suited him the most. 

 

Monitoring the learning 

In monitoring the learning, most of them would compare their progress by talking to their friends. For 

example, Adhikara would compare his friends’ ability to his or listen to a song or watch a movie to 

know whether he understood the story. He thought that he would be good in English when he 

understood what the native said. It is also stated by Rijal and Nanda who often talked to their friends 

to see their progress. Rijal usually observed his speaking and writing ability day by day to check his 

weaknesses to improve it. Rijal said that: 



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“I often had a discussion with my friends. I write and I speak to find out my weaknesses. I observed it from 

my friends’ and my point of view so that I will always develop my English ability.” 

 

Meanwhile, Rohman observed his learning progress by doing a test, to what extent he could 

answer the test at school and how long he could speak English fluently.  

From the four participants, only one who was aware of his weaknesses and strengths. Rijal said 

that his ability to speak or talk about a topic in front of many people was his strength in learning 

English, while his weakness was that he still found obstacles to watch a movie without any subtitles. 

The rest of them was not certain about it. 

 

Adhikara: “Sometimes I am aware and other time no.” 

Rohman: “To be honest, I know a little about my strengths and weaknesses. I feel I am strong in 

grammar and analyzing a structure of a sentence. While my weakness is in 

vocabularies. 

Nanda: “Yes, I am aware that I am not really good in learning English. English is something 

relatively new for me.” 

 

Regarding the question about who took the responsibility of monitoring their learning, 

Adhikara thought that it should be the teacher’s task. He thought that the responsibility of his learning 

was not solely his job, but it needed a connection between him and the teacher. Meanwhile the other 

participants believed that it was their own responsibility to monitor their learning. Nanda put in words 

like “Of course my learning is my responsibility. No way it is going to be another person’s responsibility.” 

Rohman, in contrast, said that his learning is his responsibility, but he did not give much attention to 

his language. 

The participants also shared the problems that they found during monitoring their learning. It 

seemed that all participants could not monitor their learning well. Adhikara said that he needed other 

people to monitor his learning. He told the author that only a few of his friends could monitor his 

English mistakes and progress in learning.  

 

Adhikara: “Yes. There is no person who can always monitor my English mistakes and see my progress 

during my studies.” 

 

Rohman thought that monitoring his learning was challenging since he did not know his ability 

well. In the meantime, Rijal and Nanda argued that laziness was what made monitoring their learning 

did not work well. Being able to monitor their learning by themselves is one of the characteristics of 

autonomous learners. In this part, students studying and living in Islamic boarding school must be 

able to see how far they have made the progress.  

 

Evaluating the learning 

Evaluating the learning is the last autonomous behavior that is discovered in this present study. It was 

revealed that all the participants evaluated their learning. From their story, it can be seen that they 

evaluate their learning in different ways. Adhikara sometimes evaluated his learning with his friends 

who were smarter than him to ask the materials that he did not understand. He understood that by 

evaluating his learning, he would get a maximum score. Rohman evaluated his learning by doing a 

test, such as the TOEFL test without brushing up the materials. When he was able to finish it, it meant 

that he learned it well. However, when he did not do well on the test because he did not know or 

forget the materials, he would learn it again. He put in words “Usually I do practice with some questions 

such as TOEFL without brushing up the materials. If I do not know or forget about some of them, then I will open 

my English book again. If I can answer the questions, it means I still remember the materials.” 

Some problems appeared from the participants’ story. The same problem that Adhikara and Rohman 

encountered was they were too lazy to evaluate their learning so that they did not do it regularly. 

 

Adhikara: “I did not regularly do it because I was not so serious in learning. That was why the difficulty 

of evaluating my learning was the continuity since I evaluated my learning depending on my 

mood.  

Rohman: “Yes, evaluating my learning important. But usually, I am still too lazy to do it. I did not 

evaluate my learning very often. Maybe around once in two months. It was also because I 



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studied many subjects at school, so I found difficulty in seeking the time to evaluate each 

subject, including English subject.” 

 

In contrast, Rijal told the author that he often evaluated his learning, even when he was at home 

having his holiday. He could play on his mobile phone when he was at home. 

 

Rijal: “When I was at home where I could play on my mobile phone, I usually uploaded my speaking or 

writing so that other people could see it and could give comments to it. When other people gave 

comments about my speaking or writing, I could evaluate it.”  

 

While he was at the dormitory, he usually evaluated his learning with the groups for learning 

English, such as English daily mistakes, English debate group or the other small groups. Lastly, Nanda 

usually evaluated his learning progress by checking whether he had reached the targets in the time he 

planned. 

It can be seen that the participants need help in evaluating their learning. For example, Rijal 

stated that he believed that evaluating his learning was important because it helped him know what 

he would do next. He said that he should develop himself from many sides. Yet, he still found difficulty 

in evaluating his learning. He needed other people to help him evaluate or appraise his learning, but 

he could not find it easily. He was sure that he made a lot of mistakes, but no one reminds him. 

Therefore, he thought he should be brave to ask them in person. Meanwhile, Nanda thought that 

evaluating his learning was not difficult. On the contrary, he also said that what was difficult for him 

was to find out why the targets were not reached and how to fix it. He put in words “For me, evaluating 

is not difficult. What is difficult is to observe why the goals are not reached and how to fix it, or I am too lazy to 

fix it.” He believed that evaluating his learning was important because it could help him realize what 

he had done or learned. Students studying and living in Islamic boarding school must have the ability 

to evaluate their learning since they cannot depend on their teachers or friends to check on the progress 

that they have made. 

 

Discussion  

From the participants’ story, it can be perceived that they planned, monitored, and evaluated their 

learning, and they encountered some challenges in doing those behaviors. Some participants did 

autonomous behaviors due to their needs in reaching something. For example, Rohman has planned 

what to learn because he wanted to successfully speak to foreigners when he joined School Outing 

Program (SOP) conducted by his school. It is in line with the finding discovered by Kemala (2016) 

who stated that the majority of high autonomous learners were driven to study English for a variety 

of reasons, including a desire to enhance their jobs in the future. In planning their learning, some of 

the participants have difficulties determining the goals and methods they should use to reach them. It 

is aligned with the study conducted by Cirocki, Anam, & Retnaningdyah (2019) that revealed students 

in Indonesia were not ready to set learning objectives and choose learning resources for classwork or 

home study. Whereas planning is a thinking skill that helps them develop strategies to reach their goals 

and take full control of their own learning. Therefore, both parents and teachers need to guide the 

students to plan effectively including their learning strategies; since as stated by Jin and Cortazzi (1996, 

cited in Talley, 2014), students are skeptical of changing their learning methods, as these changes may 

have a direct effect on their learning outcomes.  

Monitoring and evaluating learning are two behaviors that are also crucial to do. From the 

participants’ story, it can be understood that most of them could not monitor their learning well. 

Adhikara, for example, believed that monitor his learning is one of his teacher’s jobs. It is similar to 

the finding of Ramadhiyah and Lengkanawati (2019), who found that while believing they were 

capable of regulating their own learning, students assigned that task to their teacher. Most of the 

participants. In monitoring students’ own learning, it is important to be aware of their strengths and 

weaknesses. From the participants’ stories, two of them are aware of their strengths and weaknesses. 

However, two the rest are sometimes aware and sometimes no. Hermagustina & Anggriyani (2019) 

argued that by being able to evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses, students will note other 

materials that they still need to improve and materials that they have already mastered. Besides, 

Gardner (2000) stated that self-assessments help students track their level of progress in particular 

learning tasks. Similarly, Pitaloka (2008) stated that self-assessment increases awareness among 

learners of students’ own learning the errors and accomplishments and gives them a tangible sense of 



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involvement in the learning process. As a result of aforementioned findings, it can be concluded that 

being autonomous learners is important because students who study and live in Islamic boarding 

school are fostered to be independent. When they do the aspects of autonomous behaviors, they can 

manage their time to study more effectively.    

However, from the participants’ story, there are two kinds of obstacles that they encountered. 

Firstly, some of the participants felt too lazy to monitor or evaluate their learning. The laziness may 

come because they had a lack of motivation. It is aligned with the finding discovered by Agustina and 

Fajar (2018) who stated that one of the factors hindering learner autonomy is the lack of motivation 

and consistency. Whereas the lack of motivation can prevent students from being autonomous 

learners. Therefore, before promoting learner autonomy, it is crucial to develop students’ motivation 

because motivation is a prerequisite for learning and responsibility development (Scharle & Szabó, 

2000 as cited in Talley, 2014). Similarly, a study conducted by Chan et al. (2002) revealed that students 

with greater motivation could achieve a higher level of autonomy. Another problem that this study 

found was that the misunderstanding of autonomy conception. For example, Nanda thought that 

evaluating his learning was not difficult, yet he said that what was difficult is to observe why his goal 

was not successful and how to fix it. The previous statement shows a contrary. It can be because he 

does not grasp the attributes of evaluating a learning. This finding is in line with what Khotimah et al. 

(2019) found that not all students in this study comprehend the concept of autonomous learning in 

their English classes. 

Secondly, the participants may have not understood how to do those behaviors, in which they 

need others to do so. It is assumed that since the ability to take charges of one’s own learning is not 

innate, learning to organize their work on their own must be taught. Students need a great deal of an 

encouragement and input from the teachers (Hermagustiana & Anggriyani, 2019; Masouleh & 

Jooneghani, 2012). It implies that a teacher plays a great role in encouraging and guiding students to 

do autonomous language learning behaviors. 

 

CONCLUSION 

This study was conducted to explore bilingual students’ experience in doing autonomous behaviors, 

such as planning, monitoring, and evaluating their learning as well as the challenges that they 

discovered during implementing the behaviors. Using the interview, it revealed that the students 

usually plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning. When the participants planned their learning, the 

problems they faced were the difficulty in determining the goals or the targets, the methods to apply 

in reaching the goals, the lack of the media to support the learning, and the lack of motivation, such 

as laziness. During monitoring their learning, the students encountered some difficulties, such as the 

need for other people to help them monitor their progress, the doubt on their abilities, the desire to 

move on to the other plan/ the inconsistency in the first plan, the lack of motivation, such as laziness. 

While in evaluating the learning, the problems that students encountered were the need for other 

people to help them appraise their learning, the limited time, the lack of motivation, such as depending 

on moods.  

Students who live in Islamic boarding school are being assisted to be independent. They are not 

watched by their parents directly. Moreover, the participants of this study are bilingual who often held 

some agendas by themselves to learn English or Arabic together. Thus, they need to be able to 

implement autonomous behaviors, such as planning, monitoring, and evaluating their learning. From 

the explanation above, it is assumed that in doing autonomous language learning behaviors, students 

still find many challenges. Some of them thought that monitoring a learning is not their task but the 

teacher’s. Yet, there is also misunderstanding about the concept of evaluating a learning. It seems that 

the participants are still not comprehend autonomous behaviors well. Therefore, the participation of 

the teacher’s help and encouragement is needed the most.  

The author believes that this study has many limitations. Firstly, due to the limited time and 

media, far distance, and unavoidable situation such as covid, the data was too little. In the future 

research, it can be carried out by having broader questions to have more data. Secondly, this study 

only explored the challenges that the participants found. Further research should be carried out to 

examine the solutions to the problems this study encountered.  

 

FUNDING STATEMENT 

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency. 

 



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