Through complexity theory, this study aims to understand students’ autonomy in learning ESL in a context where mainstream schooling and private tutoring coexist. It challenges the view that teacher-dependence and learner autonomy are mutually exclusive and proposes that private tutoring can be a platform for students to learn English autonomously.
Private tutoring is a prevalent out-of-school language learning activity worldwide, particularly in ESL/EFL contexts where students learn English mainly to pass high-stakes examinations and move academically upward. Literally, students have their autonomy to subscribe to English private tutoring to supplement their learning in mainstream schooling. However, provided that the majority are doing so, the rest may hardly choose not to. Under an education system where learning English is highly instrumentally valued, it is questionable whether learners have full autonomy to choose what and how they should learn in the language classroom and beyond. This situation may be fuelled by private tutoring which has been criticised as encouraging teacher-dependence and undermining learner autonomy. Through the lens of complexity theory, this study aims to understand the degree of autonomy students have in learning ESL in a complex education context where mainstream schooling and private tutoring coexist. An online survey was administered to 479 Secondary Six students enrolled in English tutorial classes in a cram school in Hong Kong. The participants were asked whether they considered private tutoring could increase their self-learning ability. Focus group interviews were then conducted with 64 of the questionnaire respondents to explain their responses and elicit their views on learner autonomy in tutoring. The data reveal learners’ paradoxical attitudes towards the development of learner autonomy in private tutoring within the complex education system and the wider sociocultural context. While some participants lamented all the materials were provided in tutoring, thus limiting their choice of learning content; others exercised their agency to choose what instruction they wanted to follow and select resources that suited their own needs. The study challenges the view that teacher-dependence and learner autonomy are mutually exclusive and proposes that private tutoring can be a platform for students to learn English autonomously within a “non-autonomous” system.
