Knowledge about Language and Learner Autonomy
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KNOWLEDGE ABOUT LANGUAGE AND LEARNER AUTONOMY
INTRODUCTION
We are autonomous in relation to a particular task when we can perform it (i) independently, without assistance from others, (ii) beyond the immediate context in which we acquired the knowledge and skills on which successful task performance depends, and (iii) flexibly, taking account of new and unexpected factors. Autonomy in this behavioural sense is a criterion of success in developmental learning, including first language acquisition; it is also a goal of educational systems to the extent that they seek to equip learners with knowledge and skills they can deploy spontaneously in their life beyond the classroom. The extent to which metacognition and conscious awareness of self-management are implicated in the autonomy that is integral to developmental learning is infinitely variable, depending on the complex interaction of inherited traits with domestic, social and cultural factors. The same is true of the autonomy that is a coincidental mark of success in formal learning. However, when learner autonomy is a declared pedagogical goal, learner self-management and the learner’s reflective capacities play a central and necessarily explicit role. This chapter is concerned with knowledge about language in L2 learning contexts shaped by such a pedagogy. It focuses mainly on classroom learning, but the issues it raises are equally relevant to other contexts of formal language learning, for example, self-access, e-learning and distance learning. E A R LY D E V E L O P M E N T S
The concept of learner autonomy was first introduced into the ongoing debate about L2 learning and teaching by Henri Holec in a report published by the Council of Europe in 1979 (Holec, 1981). According to Holec autonomous learners are capable of setting their own learning objectives, defining the ‘contents and progressions’ of learning, ‘selecting methods and techniques to be used’, monitoring the learning process, and evaluating learning outcomes (1981, p. 3). The ability to take charge of one’s learning in this way is ‘not inborn but must be acquired either by “natural” means or (as most often happens) by formal learning, i.e. in a systematic, deliberate way’ (ibid.). Thus the educational J. Cenoz and N. H. Hornberger (eds), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd Edition, Volume 6: Knowledge about Language, 247–258. #2008 Springer Science+Business Media LLC.
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D AV I D L I T T L E
challenge is to introduce ‘learning systems which will allow both for the acquisition of autonomy and for self-directed learning’ (ibid., p. 8). Work on learner autonomy that has focused on the psychological processes of learning (e.g. Little, 1991) has mostly adopted a broadly constructivist perspective, drawing in particular on work in developmental psychology, notably by Piaget (1926), Vygotsky (1978, 1986) and Bruner (1983). For them autonomy is a basic human capacity and characteristic: we become autonomous because we are autonomous. At the same time, such work has emphasized both the metacogniti
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