Kuma 6

The educational goal is to create autonomous individuals who are willing and able to think independently and act responsibly (p.131).
Learner autonomy has a strong connection with learner motivation.
Related terms: self-instruction, self-direction, self-access learning, and individualized instruction.

Self-instruction is difficult to come by in any classroom situation because learners don’t always know what they want or need to learn thus the teacher takes the lead. There is some self-instruction in research projects in which the student must present what he/she learns to the class but it seems rather difficult, in many classroom situations to follow a self-instruction model entirely.

Narrow view: learn to learn
    -equipping learners with tools necessary to learn on their own.
    -training them to use appropriate strategies for attaining their learning goals.
    -Processes: planning, monitoring, problem solving, and evaluating.

These methods can be effective but I feel L2 learners must have a higher proficiency in order to understand how to use these strategies because they will have to understand the vocabulary and concepts of the strategies in order to utilize them. This can pose a problem for first time learners of an L2, or early learners, who are still working on the basics of the language. This can also pose a problem for teachers who may not speak the languages of all their students in their class and thus cannot necessarily give the students these strategies in their L1. Is there a way to teach these early students these strategies without confusing them in their learning of the L2?

    -Allows learners the choice to be autonomous or not.
    -Academic autonomy.
    -Critics: can create successful language learners but not truly autonomous individuals.

Broad view: learn to liberate
    -Learning a language as a means to an end, learning to liberate.
    -Liberatory autonomy.
    -Empowers learners to become critical thinkers in order to realize their human potential (141).
    -Allowing the learner a way to connect with social, political, and cultural aspects of L2 learning and  its consequences.

Liberatory autonomy makes for an interesting idea if we do not consider the administrative policies in place in the classroom/teaching environment. Talking about and using social, political, and cultural aspects of L2 learning in the classroom can be an extreme challenge for teachers to navigate with all the red tape of what must be learned in the given amount of time and what teachers can and cannot do in their classrooms. This does not mean that we, as teachers, should give up addressing these topics and ideas but it does mean that helping students form their own liberated, autonomous identity can become an extremely difficult task which may not happen in the time allotted.

(Reflection 6.4) I see these autonomies as a continuum, not as opposites or as separate things. I believe each can be used in the classroom setting at any given time depending on the task at hand and what the teacher (or students) feel best fits the situation. I think that, even day to day, the classroom can go from academic autonomy to liberatory autonomy and anywhere in between.

Learner autonomy is double sided and must be a joint effort between teachers and students in which the teacher must decide how much they are willing to let go and how much students are willing to take hold of their learning. In many classrooms teachers may find no desire in the students to take hold of their own learning whereas in others there may be an overwhelming desire from learners to be autonomous or, at least, have a willingness to become autonomous.