The Effects of Video Shooting Project on Learner Autonomy

Abstract

AbstractDevelopment of learner autonomy has been recognized as an important subject in education for a long time. Moving away from traditional way of teaching to learner-centred approach is highly emphasized in promoting the learners’ autonomy. There have been an increasing number of studies conducted by the researchers in Turkish universities to find out the ways of fostering learners’ autonomy. This study is based on a research conducted at an English Preparatory Programme of a private university in Istanbul, Turkey. It is a single subject experimental study including 20 pre- intermediate (B1) level students in a class. This study investigated the effects of a video- shooting project on students’ learner autonomy. During four week study, students were provided a project which included several steps to complete by collaborating with their group members and interacting with their teacher based on scaffolding communication. This project focuses on project based learning approach and socio-cultural aspect in ELT and aims to promote the learners’ autonomy. This study is based on mixed method approach and data was collected through the mixture of quantitative and qualitative research techniques and it was integrated for overall results. The quantitative data was collected by means of Autonomous Learning Scale (Macaskill &Taylor, 2010) given to the students at the beginning and at the end of the project and it was supported by semi-structured interviews conducted with eight randomly chosen students. The results of the study showed that video- shooting project had a positive impact on students’ learner autonomy.

Key words: learner autonomy, video-shooting project, project based learning, socio-cultural theory; scaffolding,