What is autonomy?

This is probably the single most difficult question to answer about autonomy in language learning and any answer to it is likely to be subjective.

To me autonomy is about people taking more control over their lives - individually and collectively. Autonomy in learning is about people taking more control over their learning in classrooms and outside them and autonomy in language learning about people taking more control over the purposes for which they learn languages and the ways in which they learn them.

Autonomy can also be described as a capacity to take charge of, or take responsibility for, or control over your own learning. From this point of view, autonomy involves abilities and attitudes that people possess, and can develop to various degrees. There are different points of view, though, on what these abilities and attitudes are (and even whether abilities and attitudes are the right words!). There are also different points of view on whether or not autonomy also involves a 'situational' element (i.e., the freedom to exercise control over your own learning). These differences explain why it is so difficult to explain exactly what autonomy is.

Related terms

There are a number of terms related to autonomy, that can be distinguished from it in various ways. Most people now agree that autonomy and autonomous learning are not synonyms of , 'self-instruction', 'self-access', 'self-study', 'self-education', 'out-of-class learning' or 'distance learning'. These terms basically describe various ways and degrees of learning by yourself, whereas autonomy refers to abilities and attitudes (or whatever we think the a capacity to control your own learning consists of). The point is, then, that learning by yourself is not the same thing as having the capacity to learn by yourself. Also, autonomous learners may well be better than others at learning by themselves (hence the connection), but they do not necessarily have to learn by themselves. Over the last few years, for example, more and more research is coming out on autonomy in the classroom and 'teacher autonomy'.

The terms 'independent learning' and 'self-directed learning' also refer to ways of learning by yourself. But these terms are very often used as synonyms for autonomy. When you come across any of these terms, it is a good idea to check what the writer means by them exactly!

Reading about autonomy

The links below lead to entries in the longer bibliography on this web site. I am afraid that I am not able to provide copies of any of these titles. If the title of an entry is hyper-linked, you should be able to find the full-text on the web. If the name of the publisher is hyper-linked, you should be able to find more details on how to get hold of a copy. If there is no hyperlink at all, I am afraid you are on your own!

To get started now, I would suggest you go straight to an article that Little (2002) has recently published on the web. I would then recommend Little's (1989) introduction to the theory and practice of autonomy before my own longer overview of the topic (Benson, 2001). To get an idea of the range of issues involved in autonomy, I would suggest any of several recent collections of papers:  Dickinson & Wenden (1995), Pemberton, et al (1996), Benson & Voller (1997), Cotterall & Crabbe (1999), Sinclair, et al. (2000), Benson & Toogood (2001), Dam, 2001. There is also a rich literature on autonomy in education more generally. Candy (1991) is good way into this literature.

Related areas

Autonomy is also associated with several other areas of research and practice in second language learning. Below, I have tried to emphasise work that connects these areas to the theory and practice of autonomy.

Dam (1994) is an excellent introduction to autonomy in the classroom (see also Benson, 2003). Breen & Littlejohn's (2000) collection of papers is useful starting point on negotiated learning. Voller (1997) is a good introductory paper on the role of the teacher in autonomous learning and Sinclair, et al. (2000) has several papers on teacher autonomy.

Learner training and strategy training have been described as methods of developing the skills learners need for autonomy. Wenden, 1991, Dickinson (1992) and Cohen (1998) are good general introductions to these closely related fields. More recently there has been much discussion of the role of learner beliefs in stragey use and autonomy - see papers in Wenden's (1999) collection. For a recent interesting clash of views on the idea of 'learner development', see Wenden (2002) and Palfreyman (2003).

Self-access generally involves setting up some kind of resource centre in which language learners can work freely. If you are setting up a self-access centre, Gardner & Miller (1999) is essential reading. Papers by Sheerin (1997) and Sturtridge (1997) and the collection of papers by Esch (1994) are also highly recommended. On connections between computer-assisted language learning and autonomy, see Kenning (1996) and Healy (1999).