Autonomous learning model in online English classes: The benefits and challenges

ABSTRACT

Teaching and learning in the 21st century is filled with challenges and opportunities, particularly teaching students who learn English as a foreign language. The changes of the 21 st education require EFL teachers to be more responsive. Furthermore, English teachers have significant roles in dealing with the evolution of 21 st -century learning that requires many skills to get high standard use of the English language (Suherdi, 2012). Mastering the English language has always been referred to as the four skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. However, in the 21st century, learning skills go beyond the four skills, focusing on learning and innovation skills such as critical thinking, creative thinking, communicating, and collaborating (Trilling & Fadel, 2009). Therefore, we found that it is essential to have a new concept of learning in order to accommodate global competition; the model of learning that is supposed to motivate students to take greater initiative and responsibility to direct and manage most of their own learning, and in the long run, their personal and professional development. One of the preferred learning models is Autonomous Learning.
Autonomous Learning Model (ALM) is believed to positively enhances Indonesian students' proficiency in the EFL context. The model of Autonomous Learning has challenged many researchers to research this model. An emphasis is put on the new form of learning, which enables learners to direct their learning (Fidyati, 2017). Moreover, autonomous learners are developed through learners' responsibility for their learning. This idea made autonomous learning an explicit or conscious intention which leads the students to accept responsibility for their own learning unless they have some idea of what, why, and how they try to learn (Cakici, 2015).
Corona Virus Disease 2019  pandemic started at the end of 2019. This pandemic forces schools in several countries to close and advises students to study from home. The education system was not prepared for the challenges that increased amid the COVID-19 outbreak (Kong, 2020). Additionally, Naqvi (2020) conveyed that learning is having a new paradigmatic shift from direct model education to virtual learning through online tasks, online teaching, and all activities that make learners experience a new learning model. Consequently, teachers could not teach the students and support their learning directly. The learning process is mostly accomplished online. After the pandemic, besides the offline and hybrid models, online learning is still chosen by some education providers. In this situation, ALM could be a good choice to support learning; through this learning model, students are responsible for their own learning, and teachers play roles as facilitators. The model of online learning creates a new environment of learning, particularly the learning of English, which forces teachers to teach online.
We are now reviewing the previous studies about autonomous learning. Take a study in Venezuela as an instance, where Louis (2006) conducted a study about an effort to help students be autonomous learners through technology at the University of Simón Bolívar. Louis explained that technology could deliver the pedagogical support that the students need. The research discussed autonomy, students' empowerment, and the use of learning styles and strategies in language learning and showed how these could be implemented through a classroom methodology. In addition, Fidyati (2017) revealed a study about the significance of autonomy for Indonesian EFL learners. She reported that the use of media and technology through the Personal Learning Environment (PLE), computer-based materials, portfolio, and exposure to English Language resources helped students in Indonesia as well as in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, and Taiwan, where learning autonomy in English language learning is promoted. Through her work, she highlighted that promoting learners' autonomy regarding Indonesian education practices and socio-cultural beliefs and traditions is significantly important. She believed autonomous learning is a good model for Indonesian EFL learners and should be considered a strategy to improve their English proficiency.
While other previous studies focused more on autonomous learning and the role of technology in increasing students' skills and English proficiency in EFL classrooms, our study, however, highlighted the benefits and challenges in implementing autonomous learning after the COVID-19 outbreak. The pandemic is a crisis condition that should be anticipated, especially related to educational preparation. In the future, a situation like the pandemic of COVID-19 may reoccur, so it is crucial to prepare for and after the crisis. In order to deal with the disruptions, many countries have prepared schemes and ideas related to emergencies in education issues. Take the Chinese government for instance. They changed offline teaching to 'Disrupted Classes -Undisrupted Learning.' This idea of learning pointed to providing adaptable learning options such as Self-Access Centers (SACs), Independent-Learning Centers (ILCs), and virtual resources accessed online by students from anywhere (Alghazali, 2020). The online learning model created a new environment for learning English, forcing the teacher to teach online. Therefore, this research tries to discover the challenges and benefits of autonomous learning in online learning. A successful autonomous learner tends to have challenges. Since autonomy is considered a Western idea, it is believed that it will be challenging to contextualize this model of learning in the Indonesian context. However, there have been insufficient studies investigating these challenges. Through this study, we hope that autonomous learning could be an option to support online learning and that students have a meaningful virtual learning process with autonomous learning.

Defining Autonomous learning
Experts have different definitions of the autonomous learning model; therefore, having a single definition of this term might be difficult. As the commonly used definition, Holec (1981) defines autonomy as "the ability to take charge of one's learning" (p. 3). His definition focused on two main concepts: one is an ability, and the second is to take charge of one's own learning. According to him, the ability is a power or capacity to do something, not a type of conduct, or behavior. To take charge of one's own learning, on the other hand, is "to have, and to hold, the responsibility for all the decisions concerning all aspects of this learning" (p.3), which include setting the objectives of learning, determining the contents and progression, selecting the methods of learning, monitoring the learning progress, and evaluating the product of learning (Benson, 2006).
Autonomous learning is a new option in 21 st -century learning because the activities in this model engage learners in an authentic learning situation. It is the learners who participate in learning and studying and are responsible for their learning, and they ought to be entitled to vote on what to learn and how to learn. The learning style in autonomy classroom implies full access to content materials, setting objectives, curriculum design, and learning methodology. It involves taking charge of one's learning with all the responsibilities that come with it (Macaro, 1997). Through the process of autonomous learning, learners would face some difficulties of learning, however, the lessons create them to be learners with the ability to improve and innovate (Zhifeng, 2017).

The Advantages of Autonomous Learning
According to Little (2007), there are three significant reasons autonomy plays an important role in students' learning. The first one is that autonomy meets human needs. The first advantage of autonomous learning is that this model of learning is one of the three basics human needs (Deci, 1995). Learner autonomy solves the problem of learner motivation because an autonomous learner is intrinsically motivated to meet his/her need for learning (Little, 2007). The next reason is that autonomy creates motivated and created learners. Nowadays, one of the biggest problems in learning is students' motivation. Little (n.d.) explains that the students committing to their own learning are able to solve their motivational matters. They are able to overcome temporary motivational setbacks. Already motivated, the students in the autonomous classroom use the language effectively, enabling them to master productive and receptive skills more efficiently than the nonautonomous students in traditional, teacher-centered classroom contexts (Tamer, 2013). In order to get more benefits from ALM, reflection begins as a collaborative activity in which teachers and learners make their joint understanding of the process they are engaged in. Reflection on the learning process is an important key component of learner autonomy. By reflecting on the learning process, learners become aware of how and why they choose the methods and strategies they use in different projects, and for solving different tasks. Awareness of the learning process helps the learners become autonomous (Turloiu & Stefansdottir, 2011). In addition to the first and second reasons, the final reason would be that autonomy improves communicative competence in second/foreign language learning. It is well accepted that any EFL/ESL program intends to help learners optimally gain high communicative competence. Since effective communication depends on a complex set of procedural skills developed only through their use, it is likely that a language classroom cannot develop all the skills the students need for effective communication to the full range. Therefore, learners who enjoy a high degree of autonomy (especially social autonomy) in their learning environment would have more opportunities to develop their communicative ability as than those who do not (Scharle & Szabό, 2000).
All the advantages of learner autonomy above explain why learner autonomy is often associated with effective learning. It is also why generally believed that learners with a higher degree of autonomy are more likely to succeed in their learning, especially in learning a second/foreign language, than those who are less or not autonomous. It is to test the theoretical hypothesis that autonomy in language learning and better language learning are closely related and equivalent to each other (Benson, 2001).

The Challenges of Autonomous Learning
Teachers have a huge responsibility to encourage students to become autonomous learners. Autonomous learning is considered one of the great models for developing meaningful learning (Wiraningsih & Santosa, 2020). However, still, teachers are faced with challenges in promoting learner autonomy. There are three significant challenges in fostering an autonomous learning model in the EFL classroom and in the online class. Teachers' roles and teachers' beliefs are the first challenge. The teacher's role is generally seen as a crucial factor for autonomous learning. In reference to older studies, we note the evidence that teachers generally have a positive attitude to theoretical aspects of autonomous learning, such as situational classroom management and learning strategies, but utter doubts when it comes to practical realization. Every teacher has his/her unique way of interpreting the syllabus for teaching. Perhaps the first step is that the teacher should negotiate a joint interpretation of the syllabus with the students in order to develop autonomy. This will cause a thorough exploration of the goals of the syllabus, whether implied or explicit and of the ways in which the learners can make those goals their own. A process is more likely to succeed if it begins by inviting the learners to make explicit what they expect from the learning process and what they can bring to it, than if it begins with a lecture on the benefits of autonomous learning (Little, 1991).
The next challenge is the students' beliefs. One of the biggest problems of learners is related to the learners' self-concept of competence in taking control of their learning. This suggests a poor grasp of meta-cognitive skills required for autonomous learning regardless of the learners' levels of success in autonomous learning. In addition, data shows that a considerable number of learners, particularly those who were among the low achievers in English, felt distressed about managing their learning in autonomous learning. They found it difficult to identify their weaknesses and locate suitable materials and methods to overcome those limitations. The last challenge is the social perspective on social autonomy. Learning English with Autonomous model is something challenging for Indonesian language learners. This is because the chance for autonomy in Indonesian EFL students is rarely emphasized or promoted in the pedagogical process. In turn, while some teachers want to promote autonomous learning in English language classrooms, they are often constrained by education practices, including curriculum, textbooks, and socio-cultural values (Fidyati, 2017). In addition, reading and studying may play the most important part in learning English; Indonesian EFL learners are much less interested in both activities (Lamb, 2004). This result will have negative long-term implications for students' critical thinking or their ability to formulate questions, and they will be constrained in their recognition of learning autonomy. This study formulates two essential questions about the benefits of autonomous learning; Does the learning model plays a significant role in students' learning?; and What are the challenges in implementing autonomy in EFL classroom?

METHOD Research Design
This study employed a descriptive qualitative research approach to investigate the challenges and benefits of implementing the autonomous learning model. The research occured in Sukma Bangsa and Modal Bangsa high schools in Aceh province, Indonesia. Sukma Bangsa high school is a semi-boarding school that is divided into three educational levels; primary school, junior high school, and senior high school. Moreover, the other school, Modal Bangsa high school, is also a boarding school in Aceh Besar. In this research, we only focused on the first grade of senior high schools of both Sukma Bangsa and Modal Bangsa, which conducted a virtual model of learning combined with an autonomous learning model after the pandemic.

Instruments and Procedures
The subject of this research was three English teachers selected using purposive sampling. The sample is chosen because the teachers teach English in grade one of the senior high schools. One male teacher from Sukma Bangsa and two female teachers from Modal Bangsa has implemented an autonomous learning model in the teaching and learning process, especially in the virtual classroom. In selecting the participants, we used purposive sampling. In purposive sampling, the participants were chosen because of their experience or opinions on the research topic. The participants were chosen "with purpose" to enable the researcher to explore the research question or develop a theory (Bob & Ross, 2010).
The instrument used in this study was an interview guide. This study conducted a one-time interview with each teacher to collect data related to our research topic. We interviewed the three teachers, and the data from the interview were analyzed qualitatively to find out the benefits and challenges. There are six questions about the benefits of autonomous learning and eleven interview questions related to the challenges of autonomy in learning. The interview guide was adapted from Tamer's (2013) dissertation on students' readiness for autonomous learning of English as a foreign language.
The theory of the benefits was based on Little's concept of Language Learner Autonomy. The benefits only focus on three points: autonomy meets the human's needs, autonomy creates motivated and reflected learners, and autonomy increases communicative competence in second/foreign language learning. Also, this study's challenges discussed teachers' roles, students' beliefs, and social perspectives on autonomy.

Data Analysis Procedures
The data from the interview were transcribed into a written form and analyzed qualitatively to find out the benefits and challenges. In addition, the interview data were presented in thematic analysis using the Coding system, and then they were associated with the relevant theories.

FINDINGS The Benefits of Autonomous Learning
In this study, the benefits of autonomous learning are divided into three categories based on Little's (2007) theory: meet human needs, create motivated and reflected learners, and increase communicative competence in second/foreign language learning. We present the benefits based on these three categories.

Autonomy Meets the Human Needs
Based on the interview, two of the three teachers agree that autonomous learning encourages learners' desire to study as their human needs. Teacher A (TA) stated: "Every student is different in their learning capacity. In autonomy, students have to be ready to study and have the option to choose their learning preferences. As the proverb says that we cannot judge all animals by climbing, when students are happy to study, they feel comfortable, and the learning will be more effective. They will be more enthusiastic about studying when they know the study's goal." Teacher C (TC) added that the learning process mostly depends on the students by saying, "Teacher and school have a huge impact on improving students' knowledge." She continued that even though the students have good teachers and good facilities at the school, the students should be eager to study and be responsible for their learning to ensure that the learning process is effective. Teacher B (TB) explained about autonomous learning model as the best option to study, as she said below: "This is one of the best choices in learning. It is worse if we do nothing and teach only via WhatsApp, but compared to face-toface learning, I prefer to face my students directly."

Autonomy Creates motivated and reflective learners
According to TC, "Students' motivation in learning is related to their willingness to learn. If the students strongly desire to learn, they will be motivated and reflected as autonomous learners." TC truly supports autonomous learning because autonomous learners have a strong willingness to study. The teacher is happy that the students are motivated to pursue their dreams. TB has the same idea as TC. She said that if the learning is more colorful, the study will be more active, and the students will be automatically motivated. On the other hand, TA explained more about the role of their friends in motivating students. Most students, especially those who usually get the lowest score, are motivated by the higher score students.

Autonomy improves communicative competence to second/foreign language learning
The result of the interview confirmed that TA and TC believed that communicative competence in learning English depends on the students themselves, as TA described: "Some students who love English used to watch anime and English movies. These activities increase the students' speaking skills. In school, the students and teachers are also obligated to speak English every Monday, Wednesday, and Tuesday." TA also gave options for the tasks of the subjects for several skills. So, the students are sometimes able to finish the assignment in the form of writing or speaking. Along with TA, TC also believes that communicative competence depends on the students' willingness because not all students like the English subject. TC also added: "For the students who are keen on English, the model of autonomous learning strongly affects them and makes their communicative competence better. In a debate class, the students who really love English can speak English fluently." Different to other teachers, TB explained that students become more communicative because they have to share with their friends during the learning process.

The Challenges of Autonomous Learning Model
Virtual learning made the term autonomy an important role in dealing with the transformation of learning. There are various challenges in implementing the autonomous learning model, but for our study, we only focused on three significant factors influencing the implementation of this model of learning; teachers' role, students' beliefs, and intercultural perspective on autonomy.

Teachers' Role
As the crucial factor in promoting autonomy, all the teachers agree to give the opportunity to the students to develop their autonomy in learning. TA assumed that the students had different knowledge and ability to understand what the teacher taught them. TA even gave three options for students to fulfill their assignments. He said that: "The first option, the students who like to create a video, they watch a video and learn how to make a video, they can finish the task with the video they made about the subject. Then, the students who are shy to speak in the video, they can finish the task with written expression. They can write like three paragraphs about what the teacher asked them. And the last one, the students can do assignment by answering the teacher's question directly. I try to facilitate them as a teacher." Furthermore, TB also allowed students to build their autonomy. However, in the process, the teacher has another problem with the limited time during virtual learning. The teacher also tried to do collaborative learning, where she divided them into several groups, and they shared. The limited time made the teacher only do the group learning once. TB stated: "I also used flipped classroom, but it is hard to have flipped classroom in the online learning. At the end, I just adjust the autonomy in learning with the support of Microsoft team application." TC also has a similar answer related to her role to develop autonomy for the students. Generally, TC answered: "I totally supported the students as autonomous learners and they are responsible to their own learning. However, in the early phase of learning from home in Aceh, the students feel confused about the learning process. The unfamiliarity of online learning made the virtual classroom well." Thus, TC has the initiative to deal with a commitment to the students to be responsible for their learning. The students not only turn on the laptop but also focus to the learning activities. TC, though, tried to understand students' life situations. She does not force them to be independent in learning. Autonomous learning is a process that students need time for especially in virtual learning.

Students' belief
Successful learning autonomy creates a good collaboration between the students and teachers. In the last part, it is explained that the teachers already offered an opportunity for students to be autonomous learners. However, immense challenges also came from the students. In both schools, all teachers found several problems from students in implementing autonomous learning. One of the biggest problems stated by the teachers is the readiness of the students to be autonomous in online learning. Most students are still passive in the virtual teaching-learning process. All teachers also agree that this problem happened because they are at the first grade of senior high school. Thus, the students are in the process of adapting their learning to the new environment. Additionally, online learning has separated the students, their teachers and friends, making it harder to adjust the learning process and learning activities in the virtual form.
According to the teachers, the problem stated in theory by Alghazali (2020) truly happened to their students. The teachers' statements about the challenges are categorized in Table 1 below.  Table 1 shows that time management is the challenge experienced by most students in both schools. The lack of time management made the students late to submit the assignments. They used to submit the assignment over the deadline. TC stated that all the challenges listed in Table 1 happened in her class. The teacher said that: "Even though this school is Modal Bangsa boarding school, which is one of the best schools in Aceh, not all of the students are autonomous. I also had some ignorant students. I used to call their names in the online class. I cooperated with their homeroom teacher to resolve the problem". TC also dealt with the students' moods, which changed very fast. Sometimes they do not focus on online learning. On the other day, they will have a personal problem like being tired and having stomach ache. She concluded that laziness and motivation were the challenges as well. Regarding technical issues and digital ability, the teacher only faced this in the beginning months of online learning. After several months, they solved the challenges related to that problem. In addition, TB did not discuss students' digital ability as the problem in her class. Still, the teacher highlighted that the students spent much time and did not finish the task. TB added "The students are so passive. The teacher has to feed them in learning because they totally depend on the teacher, especially for the first grade." On the other hand, the students of TA mostly complain about mobile data and internet access. TA explained, "They feel difficult to finish the task related to digital use, such as creating and editing videos as part of their digital literacy." This problem happened because Sukma Bangsa is located in more suburban areas than Modal Bangsa. This difficulty also caused the students to finish their tasks very late and could not submit the task on time. In this part, TA did not have a problem with the students' self-motivation because he said that the students were happy with the options of the assignments.

Social Perspectives on Autonomous learning
In developing autonomous learning, the students need support from the environment, parents, school, and culture that have huge interactions with the learners.

Parents factor
In Sukma Bangsa, TA explained: "The parents of students already understand the regulation of Sukma Bangsa. Therefore, everything given by teachers will be supported by the parents. Take theile data as an instance, the parents greatly provide them enough mobile data for their children to learn online." Additionally, TA continued that the teachers need to communicate with the parents. Studying online made the students spend time in front of their mobile phones or computers so that the parents are able to supervise them and collaborate with the teachers to support the virtual learning process.
In this school, some parents also asked the teacher to send them the material given to the students. So the parents can track the progress of their studies. In line with this, TB also said that the parents are happy to see the students' autonomy, "The parents support students to be autonomous not only in learning but also in their life." TC also agrees that most parents support their children to be autonomous learners.
"Only one or two parents are not enthusiastic about supporting students' autonomous learning. One of the problems is that the students have to help their parents during the online class, this condition affects the teaching and learning process. Still, because this problem only happened once, I think that this is not a big problem at all." Overall, the parents are pleased with the autonomy. For instance, there is a condition where TC has to contact one student's father because his son made trouble, but the feedback is very positive. The father said that if his son has a problem, the teacher can communicate with him as soon as possible. So, the parents are ready to give their best time to their child. In addition, like TA, the parents in Modal Bangsa also support the students by providing Wi-Fi or mobile data for online learning.

School and Environment
In general, both schools support the implementation of autonomous learning. In Sukma Bangsa, for instance, TA explained: "The school provided counselors to facilitate students' diversity. Counselors are responsible to divide the students based on their styles of learning such as auditory, visual, kinesthetic and other styles as needed. However, the teachers in this school also generate challenges that they face in developing autonomy for the students." For online learning, TA remained that the school also bought more internet capacity and purchased premium accounts of supporting applications like Zoom, Ruangguru, and others. There are no specific challenges from the school based on TA's explanation.
On the other hand, the other two teachers from Modal Bangsa said about the challenge they face because of the number of students in the virtual class. Teacher B stated, "It was a huge challenge for teaching about one hour and thirty minutes for 203 students. Sometimes, it takes much time only to check the attendance list." Teacher C also mentioned the same challenge, especially in the beginning months of online learning. Besides, to solve this problem, the school provides a Microsoft team application for learning. The use of Microsoft team helped the teacher to divide students into several groups and ease the teacher to track the students based on their groups.

DISCUSSION
In this research, there are two research questions to be answered. The first investigates the benefits of implementing autonomous learning, while the second explores the challenges of autonomy in learning amid the virtual classroom model. The result shows that autonomous learning has positive benefits amid virtual learning. It is marked based on the teachers' answers in the interview sessions. Furthermore, learning autonomy also presents challenges related to teachers' roles, students' beliefs, and social perceptions of autonomous learning.
The benefits of autonomous learning are identified based on the theory of Little (2007). The first benefit is autonomy as a human need. The data showed that the autonomous learning model benefited learners as their human needs. In addition, the previous pandemic has initiated a situation where the students do not meet their teachers face-to-face. The students' strong desire helps them study outside the classroom. This research also showed that the autonomous learning model created motivated and reflected learners as the second benefit. Masgoret and Garder (2003) stated that motivated learners have a strong effort, are persistent and attentive to the task at hand, have goals, desires, and aspirations, enjoy the activity, make attributions concerning success and failure, are aroused, and make use of strategies to aid in achieving goals.
Thus, the autonomous learning model that asks students to learn together with friends will create motivation and make them reflect on their friends' achievements. Spratt, Humphreys, and Chan (2002) also reported the link between autonomy and motivation, where motivated language learners have a good engagement to practice autonomous learning outside the class.
The third benefit is communicative competence in second/foreign language learning. The interview data proved that learners' competence depends on their willingness to learn English. The teachers believe that the autonomous learning model strongly affected the learners to improve their communicative competence. According to Scharl and Szabό (2000), learners who enjoy a high degree of autonomy (especially social autonomy) in their learning environment would have more opportunities to develop their communicative ability than those who do not.
Besides several benefits of learning, autonomous learning also has some challenges especially in learning from home. Fostering autonomous learning in the Indonesian EFL context deals with challenges since the capacity of autonomy is infrequently emphasized in the pedagogical learning process (Fidyati, 2007). The first challenge of autonomy is supposed to be the teacher. However, based on the answer, there is no problem for teachers to develop autonomy for students. The teachers truly support the students to be more autonomous by giving options as a part of learning autonomy. The teachers have a significant role in supporting the students' involvement in the teaching-learning process. This learning process makes the students more disciplined, and most importantly, the learning process should make the students autonomous (Benson, 2001). Kemala (2016) stated that to develop students' autonomy in learning, teachers must ensure that both students and teachers hear the same thing. Teachers must offer them various learning strategies, such as using cards for memorizing words, reading strategies, and giving the students awards for their achievements. In addition, in supporting the implementation of ALM, the teachers use some preferred applications such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams.
The second challenge of autonomous learning usually comes from students. There are four significant challenges in fostering autonomous learning in students. First, the challenge related to the technical concern. In some places, the problem of computers, mobile phones, and internet access are not well available. Second, the students have problems with computers and digital literacy. Most of them lack the ability to use self-access resources. In addition, the third challenge is the students' time management. The last is the students' self-motivation to deal with virtual learning (Alghazali, 2020).
The third challenge of ALM is Social Perspectives on Autonomous learning. As a result, parents, schools, and the environment support the development of autonomy in students' learning. These factors truly affected the success of the implementation of autonomous learning. The characteristic of autonomous learners is interdependence, and they need interaction in learning (Little, 1991). Aoki (1999) added that learners interact with social support that can care for and motivate them. Parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, friends, and teachers are examples of social aspects which truly influence autonomous learners. According to Vygotsky's approach, the learning process emphasized social interaction and collaboration as significant factors involving extensive use of learning environments. It facilitated students' collaboration and interaction with pairs or larger groups, which have not been shaped by teacher-centered classrooms (Kemala, 2016).

CONCLUSION
The results of the research showed that all teachers already fostered ALM in their virtual classroom with the different steps of autonomous learning. Autonomous learning benefits in online learning to create motivated and reflected learners and develop communicative competence in second/foreign language learning. Furthermore, the challenges of autonomous learning are teachers' roles, students' beliefs, and social perspectives on autonomous learning. Although there are some challenges in implementing autonomous learning, ALM could be a choice for learning models.
This study has limited the investigation of the benefits and challenges of autonomous learning from the teachers' perspective. Therefore, we recommend that future studies also involve students' perspectives on using autonomous learning. We also hope that the benefits and challenges of this study should be valuable input for teachers and stakeholders in education to consider ALM as a learning model for learning in the 21 st century. Iskandar is an avid reader and writer. He has attended and presented papers at national and international conferences and written books on teaching English for novice students.