The Cryptologic Korean Literature Course is an advanced Korean designed for 80 hours of instruction. The course is intended for students with the proficiency level 3 or better in listening and reading based on Interagency Language Roundtable scale. The course content includes a variety of genre – fictions, essays, poetries – from the three literary time periods: contemporary, pre-modern, and classic. The course requires students’ active engagement and participation in the use of target language. To promote a higher degree of learner autonomy in the learning process and also to facilitate students’ engagement, the main mode of instruction involves student-led lessons. Students will be asked to read and research selected materials, pre-study in advance to lead lesson and follow-up discussion on their own, complete writing assignments, including reflective writing and literary critiques, and deliver presentations on the selected works, associated research and reflections. The course objectives are for the students to enhance their language proficiency toward 3+, gain literary knowledge and socio-cultural awareness, increase communicative competence, develop autonomous learning, and broaden their world-view.

Recent studies on Second/Foreign Language (SFL) learning have demonstrated the significance of learner autonomy in achieving a higher level of language proficiency and global competence (Benson, 2006; Dam & Legenhausen, 1996; Little, 1991). Defei (2007) discovered that the students’ English proficiency was significantly related to their autonomy. Lowe (2009) revealed a positive correlation between learner autonomy and academic performance. These studies in common contend that learner autonomy involves learners taking control over their learning process using their rationals and psychological attributes. One of the key attributes of Transformative learning (TL) is the development of autonomous learning. TL involves a shift of learner perspectives through critical reflection on the structures of assumptions that they use to understand their experiences (Mezirow, 1997). In the adult SFL learning context, TL can occur when interaction with a new language and culture offers a different way of describing, conceptualizing, and experiencing the world (Guiora, 1983). The objectives of this presentation are twofold: (i) to examine how student-led lessons as an instructional task to promote learner autonomy in an adult Korean language class can lead the students to improve their Korean language proficiency; (ii) how this approach influenced the students’ perspectives on learning Korean language, learning about Korean culture, developing intercultural awareness, and gaining in self-esteem and self-confidence.

The subjects of the students are 20 military linguists taking Advanced Korean courses. Student-led lessons are facilitated and guided by instructors in the following steps: (i) research on daily topic to probe and promote background knowledge; (ii) pre-study on the selected authentic materials to teach; (iii) teach the lesson and lead in-class discussion on the lesson they’ve taught; (iv) write reflective journal on the lesson and topic they led and taught. The aimed learning outcome of the student-led lessons is not merely to foster leaner autonomy, but to deepen their leaning by involving the learners in critical reflection on their learning, aware and examine their operating assumptions, and possibly negotiate the shift of perspective. As Brookfield (2000) points out, TL takes place when the process involves a critical reflection, a recognition and analysis of taken-for-granted assumptions.

Effectiveness of the student-led lessons is analyzed in forms of oral interview, journal writing, reflective questionnaire. After the student-led lessons, the instructors interchange feedbacks and comments with each student individually, attempting to identify lesson-related difficulties such as genre of materials, level of content, intensity of context, richness of contextual/socio-cultural references and inferences, etc. Then they reflect what they initially assumed and comprehended on the lesson, and how their assumptions are either confirmed, confronted, disputed, and shared during the process of lesson and discussion they led. Finally, a questionnaire is administered at the end of the course on how the lesson task affect their perspective on the target language and culture, and about their self as well. Findings indicate that the student-led lessons facilitate TL: students experience significant gains in their Korean language proficiency, increased self-confidence, and perspective shifts regarding the language learning process, other cultures, and a number of social issues.

Benson, P. (2006). Autonomy in language teaching and learning. Language Teaching, 40(1), 21-40.

Boyd, R. D., and Myers, J. G. (1998). Transformative Education. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 7(4), 261–284.

Brookfield, S.D. (2000). Transformative learning as ideology critique. In J. Mezirow & Associates (Eds.), Learning as transformation. Critical perspectives on a theory in progress (pp. 125–150). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Cranton, P. (2006) Understanding and promoting transformative learning: A Guide for educators of adults (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Dam, L. & L. Legenhausen. (1996). The acquisition of vocabulary in an autonomous learning environment - the first months of beginning English. In R. Pemberton et al. (Eds.), Taking Control: Autonomy in Language Learning (pp. 265-80). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Dafei, D. (2007). An exploration of the relationship between learner autonomy and English proficiency. In P. Robertson, P. & R. Nunn (Eds.), Asian EFL Journal: Teaching Articles 2007 (pp. 1-23). Busan: Asian EFL Journal Press. Retrived from http://www.asian-efl-journal.com.

Goulah, J. (2006). Transformative second and forieng language learning for the 21^st century. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies: An International Journal, 3(4), 201-221.

Guiora, A. Z. (1983). The dialectic of language acquisition. Language Learning, 22(5), 3-12.

Lowe, C. (2009) A correlational study of the relationship between learner autonomy and academic performance (MA dissertation). Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/openview/b2d12fc06cecfa34455f4427e6980b48/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Mezirow, J. (1997). Transformative learning: Theory to practice. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 74, 5-12.

Taylor, Edward W. The Theory and Practice of Transformative Learning: A Critical Review. Information Series no. 374. Columbus: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education, Center on Education and Training for Employment, College of Education, the Ohio State University, 1998.

30-Minute Research Session

Launching Transformative Learning