How to foster learner’s autonomy
1. What is learner’s autonomy?
In language learning related papers, conferences, journals, etc, learner’s autonomy has
gained increasing acceptance as a way of teaching a language and many teachers are
trying to introduce it in their classrooms. This is happening because there have been
some changes in the curriculum towards a learner-centred type of learning.
Learner’s autonomy, as you may know, is the belief that explains that students
should take control in the language learning process by learning on their own and
successfully acquire the language. But in order to do so, they have to take responsibility
for their own learning, which means that they should be involved in making decisions.
Sometimes those decisions might be mistaken because they don’t have the full
capacity to learn on their own, and that is when teachers should act as guides in this
process and help them acquire that autonomy. At first, teachers should be involved in
the whole process by providing students with the necessary tools to learn on their own,
supervise the learning process, which means that teachers and students must work
together towards autonomy by creating a friendly atmosphere where students can lower
the affective filter. Step by step, students will become more involved with the help of
their teachers and they will progressively be in control of their learning process.
In order to achieve this goal teachers should have the necessary knowledge, the
right tools and the ability to implement them in class to foster learner’s autonomy; while
students, who do not usually have the ability to learn autonomously, have to be trained
to achieve that goal, however, independent and active students are more likely to
become autonomous.
2. Characteristics of autonomous learners
In an educational context, there are several characteristics that autonomous learners
usually have, according to Omaggio (1978) As we can see, the concept of learner’s
autonomy is not exactly new.
Autonomous learners:
- Are aware of their learning styles and the strategies to address
