The general trend in language education over the years has been to ascribe to language learners increasing power and responsibility for their own learning. While this is commendable, the autonomy of learners is still constrained by views of language that see learners as being mere "hosts" of another's language. Such views restrict…

This study concerns the development of autonomy in adult learners working on an online learning platform as part of a professional master's degree programme in "French as a Foreign Language". Our goal was to identify the influence of reflective and collaborative dimensions on the construction of autonomy for online learners in this programme. The…

Metacognitive knowledge--what students know about themselves, the tasks they complete and their learning strategies--is essential for successful self-directed learning. It follows that those who work in self-directed learning settings need to stimulate their students' metacognitive development. Previous research in metacognition has defined its…

Contrasting traditional with present-day views of language learners, discussion focuses on aspects of the so-called communicative revolution. The present-day view includes negotiating the materials and seeing learners as knowers, testers, communicators, and evaluators. A suggested reading activity involves comparing two slightly differing texts.…

This paper focuses on the difficulties of learners of Japanese as a second language from non-kanji backgrounds and the special difficulties they encounter in trying to learn the kanji writing system. It is asserted that most teachers of Japanese as a second language do not spend enough time on kanji teaching, with the students typically forced to…

This paper provides a window into Japanese learners' thoughts about what it is necessary for teachers and learners to do in order to foster Japanese learner autonomy--and why Japanese learners would find this so difficult to do. There are numerous student journal and interview excerpts providing interesting insight to what Japanese learners think…

Describes the use of a questionnaire on ESL (English-as-a-Second-Language) students' methods of vocabulary learning as a springboard for class discussion of helpful strategies suggested in the literature. Background for the activity is described, procedures and results are outlined, and suggestions for using a similar questionnaire in other ESL…

This volume offers a comprehensive account of autonomy in language learning and the educational practices associated with the concept. The book is divided into 18 chapters: "The History of Autonomy in Language Learning"; "Autonomy beyond the Field of Language Education"; "Defining and Describing Autonomy"; Control as a Natural Attribute of…

The chapters in this edited volume cover a wide range of topics in theory, practice, and research and may be of interest to anyone concerned with the promotion of autonomy in language learning. There are 16 chapters divided into 5 parts. Part 1, "Setting the Agenda: Theory, Practice and Research," has 3 chapters: "Why Focus on Learning Rather than…

This paper presentes a case study of an innovative class at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) in an English for Academic purposes context in which spontaneous topics raised by the learners took the place of a pre-planned syllabus. The target students were late-matriculating research students and those with particularly weak spoken English.…

The focus of this practitioner brief is: What happens when students identify the skill areas they feel need the most work and then are given class time, resources, and strategies to work in these areas? This learning strategy was tried by one teacher of adult English as a Second Language (ESL) because the students in his class were either too far…