ALEX: PROGRAM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AUTONOMY IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING

Magda Rodríguez

Publicado en Capital Letter No. 2

Octubre de 2002

Developing autonomy in foreign language learning

 Before beginning, why don't you reflect upon the following statements. Decide if you agree or disagree according to the scale given in the table. After you have read the article, go back to the 'test' to see if you have changed your mind.

Statements1	Completely agree	Agree	Disagree	Completely disagree
The teacher has all the information.
It is the job of the teacher to transmit knowledge to students.
The teacher is responsible for students' learning.
It is the teacher's role to make sure students work.
As an adult and professional, the teacher has the expertise to make the right judgments and decisions about students' learning.
It is the teacher's responsibility to choose the learning material.
The teacher must decide on the appropriate procedure for learning.
It is the teacher's duty to evaluate and give feedback on student performance.
The rules of behavior in class must be stated by the teacher.

If you generally agreed with the statements above, maybe you are not well aware of the role students play in their own learning. "Teachers try to help students learn by exposing them to English [or any foreign language] and providing opportunities for them to practice the new language in class as well as revise and learn at home, but they cannot learn for their students. "l As we all know, the language classroom provides for just a low percentage of the exposure and practice the student needs in order to learn the foreign language. It is necessary for students to learn outside the classroom and to learn without the continuous supervision of the teacher. Since teachers will not be accompanying students for ever, they have to become guides and assistants in the students' learning process. "Of course, we [teachers] will be there to help them [students] during a limited period, but the greatest help we can give them is to teach them how to help themselves. The ability to gain knowledge is far better than" knowledge itself.

What is the implication of this? Students are responsible for their own learning; they need to learn to be self-directed. "Learning to be self-directed involves taking responsibility for the objectives of learning, self-monitoring, self-assessing, and taking an active role in learning. What the student is learning is to become autonomous. However, being autonomous, being self-directed, implies a process, sometimes a slow one, where the teacher develops a sense of responsibility in the learners through the change in their attitudes towards teaching and learning, as well.

This is what ALEX has been set for. The question is, ARE YOU WILLING TO ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE? Why don't you w go back to the 'test' at the beginning and see if this article has had an effect on your initial ideas.

1 Adapted from, Scharle Et Szabo (2000) Learner Autonomy: a guide to developing learner responsibility, Cambridge: CUP. 2 Lowes ft Target (1998) Helping students to learn, London: Richmond Publishing, p. 5 3 Ibid. p. 6 4 Lee, I. (1998) Supporting greater autonomy in language learning, in: ELT Journal, Vol. 54, Oct., Oxford: OUP. p. 1