Training teachers to use the European Language Portfolio Project C6 of the ecml 2nd medium-term programme (elp tt)

Training teachers to use the European Language Portfolio

Project C6 of the ECML 2nd medium-term programme (ELP_TT)

Learner autonomy: drawing together the threads of self-assessment, goal-setting and reflection

David Little

Overview

• Learner autonomy: a working definition and its implications
• Learner autonomy, the ELP and the CEF
• Why is learner autonomy important?
• What must the teacher do? Three pedagogical principles and their operationalization
• Some questions for discussion

Learner autonomy: a working definition

• The “ability to take charge of one’s own learning”
• “This ability 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”
• “To take charge of one’s learning is to have … the responsibility for all the decisions concerning all aspects of this learning …” (Holec 1981, p.3)