Theme: learner-centred approaches to teaching and learner autonomy contents: introduction

Language advising or language counselling	A type of language support whereby a teacher and a learner meet to discuss the learner’s needs and progress, and where the adviser offers feedback, recommends materials, and helps the learner to plan their learning.
Mozzon-McPherson & Vismans, 2001
Specific tools	Many institutions have developed or link to (on-line or print) tools for the management of the language learning process that often aim explicitly to foster learner autonomy. Examples include (electronic) portfolios, such as those developed by the European Union, tandem learning programs and personal learning environments that aim to facilitate and create links between formal and informal learning. Some have developed on-line learning environments that offer materials for self-study, tips for independent learning, and opportunities for staff and student communication.	Portfolios: Ekbatani & Pierson, 2000 Online learning environments: White, 2003 Tandem learning: Schwienhorst 2007

Figure 1: Specialist approaches to fostering autonomy
General approaches
This paper is concerned mainly with the practical operationalisation of learner autonomy and its implementation in the language classroom. For that reason the discussion below is restricted to general language teaching situations and looks at ways in which teachers can encourage autonomy in the classroom. One obvious way to do this is to make links with specialist appraoches that may have been taken inside the school. For example, where a self-access centre is available, teachers can take students to the centre at certain times to encourage (guided) self-study. However, here the specialist approaches are left aside (the above references will given practical guidance), and the focus is instead on the pedagogical aspects of autonomy that teachers can implement as part of their teaching.
It is important to point out here that the more political and philosophical aspects of autonomy are not actively considered in this framework (apart from the recurrent focus on reflection - see below), not because they are not considered important (they are crucial), but because a climate of relative freedom for both teachers and learners is assumed for the framework below to be implemented. This is, of course, not the case in all classrooms and institutions, but a discussion of this aspect of implementing autonomy takes us too far from the main aims of this paper. For this, the reader is referred to Benson (2000).
As discussed above, it is difficult to operationalise learner autonomy. However, as I have argued elsewhere (Reinders, 2000), it is not as difficult to operationalise autonomous learning; it is not impossible, for example, to recognise learning that is learner initiated, or to identify when a learner self-monitors.
For this reason, the framework below starts from the learner and his or her actions. These actions can be encouraged, modelled and monitored by the teacher. They are an adaptation and extension of Malcolm Knowles’s extensive and influential work on selfdirected learning, carried out in the 1970s (Knowles, 1975). Although Knowles wrote about general education rather than language learning, many of the principles he identified apply equally to language education and form the basis of the framework below. A similar approach was taken by Winne & Hadwin (1998), who identified four key phases in academic learning situations. Academic study generally requires a relatively extensive amount of independent learning and learner self-management, and is therefore a reasonable starting point for a discussion on skills for developing learner autonomy. Winne & Hadwin’s four phases include (1), defining tasks; (2) setting goals and planning; (3), enacting study tactics and strategies; and (4), metacogntively adapting studying.
Figure 2 draws on these phases and expands on them. The stages are shown in summary form. The middle column shows how, in general, each stage is covered in a completely teacher-directed environment (such as some classrooms) and the right-hand column in a completely learner-directed situation. Many teaching and learning situations would probably fall somewhere between these two extremes.