Role Of Autonomy In Language Learning

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2.2. The role of the teacher in fostering learner autonomy Marguerite A. Fitch put it at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association in New Orleans in April 1994, the teacher’s role changes “from the ‘Sage on the Stage’ to the ‘Guide on the Side’.” (Tella, 1996, p.6) The role of the teacher is central to the development of learner autonomy (Hurd 1998; Benson 2008). Introducing autonomy in language learning requires changes in the roles of both teachers and learners (Gardner and Miller, 1999). The promotion of autonomy depends to a great extent on the teacher’s redefinition of his or her own role because the idea to incorporate autonomy in language learning typically comes from the teacher(Hill, 1994). Crabbe (1999)…show more content…
He suggests that the roles for interpretation teaching include helper (Tough, 1971), facilitator (Knowles, 1975), knower (Curran,1976), resource (Breen & Candlin, 1980), consultant (Gremmo & Abe, 1985), counselor (Knowles, 1986), coordinator (Hammond & Collins, 1991), and adviser (Sturtridge,1992). He classifies the teacher roles above into three categories: teacher as facilitator, teacher as counselor and teacher as resource. According to Voller (1997), teacher as facilitator is a commonly used term in the literature on communicative language learning, self-instruction language learning, self-access language learning, and autonomous language learning. A facilitator of learning is someone who makes it easier for learning to occur. In his attempt to characterize the role of a facilitator, Voller uses Holec’s (1985) two complementary roles, a provider of technical support and a provider of psycho-social support. The technical support provided by a facilitator includes: - helping learners to plan and carry out their independent language learning by means of needs analysis, objective setting, work planning, selecting materials, and organizing…show more content…
Although “little research has been done to determine exactly how counselors counsel” (Voller, 1997, p. 104). A counselor is one who provides advice to those who need it. Teachers as counselors often work in more individualized learning contexts such as the staff in self-access language learning centers. Voller (1997) argues that counseling implies a one-to-one interaction, and that makes the role of a counselor become more supervisory as learners are more self-directed. However, the term counselor has also been used in communicative language learning (Richards and Rodgers, 1986) and community language learning (Curran, 1976) (cited in Voller,

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