A study focusing on the usage of reflexive diaries as an instrument to promote autonomy

• Grant number: 13/20215-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2014
• End date: December 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Applied Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Suzi Marques Spatti Cavalari
• Grantee: Renan Felipe da Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims at investigating the reflexive diary as an instrument to promote autonomy in a foreign language learning context (more precisely, English), focusing on if and how the diary can help develop autonomy. In order to achieve such objectives, a set of eight diaries will be analyzed. These diaries were written by an EFL student at UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" - participant of the project "Institutional Integrated Teletandem" which was embedded in the subject "English Language II" by the responsible professor. It is hoped that, in his diaries, the student reports, in a reflexive way, his experience across the participation in the project. That means, this participant should go beyond the descriptive scope and include in his diaries both his goals (the ones he had reached and the ones he desires to achieve), and some sort of self-assessment of his performance during the interactions. As this process of goal setting and self-assessment is part of autonomous learning, the main objective of this investigation is to examine if the student carried out such steps in his diaries, as an evidence of autonomy. Besides the analyses of the diaries, we are going to interview the professor in order to investigate in which ways she used the diaries in the project "Institutional Integrated Teletandem". Furthermore, an interview with the student who wrote the reflexive diaries will also take place with the objective to observe his perspective on the writing of these diaries. Finally, a questionnaire will be applied to the other students of this same class trying to have a broader panorama of the group's perspective.