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Date Posted: 07:19:19 10/18/05 Tue
Author: Eduardo Miguel
Subject: Final Paper for evaluation - Autonomy in Second Language Acquisition

Autonomy is an important factor that influences Second Language Acquisition. In general it can be described as a deliberate capacity which people have to take more control over their own lives. In Second Language Acquisition it is the conscious learners´ control over the process, their intention for which they learn a second language and what they do to acquire it better.
Autonomy can also be described as a faculty to take more responsibility for our own learning process. From this point of view, autonomy involves abilities, attitudes and motivation that people must have, or can develop according to their needs.
There are different points of view about autonomy in Second Language Acquistion. These differences explain why it is so hard to state the exact meaning of autonomy in this process. The most common prospect in the literature is one from Holec (1981, apud Maláter, 2002) who defines autonomy as “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning”. According to Dickinson (1994, p. 4), “autonomy in language learning is essentially a matter of attitude to learning”.
Autonomy has become an important concept since the appearance of the communicative approach, which advocates more responsibility for the learner as well as changes in teachers’ role (Larsen-Freeman, 1986 apud) . The communicative approach gives less emphasis on teaching and more emphasis on providing the student with opportunities to recognize what makes sense to his/her life, reality and future (Almeida Filho, 1993, p. 42).
Students come from different backgrounds and have different needs and goals. With second language learners, factors such as motivation, attitude, and the level of teacher support can strongly affect the desire and ability to learn a second language.
According to Deci and Ryan (1985), intrinsic motivation is related to basic human needs for competence and autonomy.
Autonomy is also related to individuality and independence. However, the autonomous process does not mean learner isolation or no role for the teacher. Much to the contrary, because we are social beings and language is social, the classroom has an important role in the autonomous process. It is the place where the teacher and the students share their knowledge. It is important to mention that the teacher has an essential role in the autonomous language learning, because he/she is responsible for teaching the learners how to be autonomous, how to find their own way for learning a foreign language. The teacher must give opportunities for his/her students to learn on their own, once the teacher is not the center of the language learning process. However, sometimes when dealing with students’ autonomy, teachers tend to hold the belief that their “power” is threatened. This is not true, since their “power” is an illusion. I think , the learning of a foreign language lies mainly in the students' hands. Thus, the teacher cannot be the center, once he/she does not have the “power” to teach a foreign language. However, it is important to keep in mind that the teacher has an essential role in the language learning process, once students’ autonomy means effective learning with the teacher’s assistance.
When the teacher gives the opportunity for his/her students to become autonomous he/she is giving them the opportunity to make their own choices. Each student must have attitude to find out what is his/her best way of learning, what are the best learning strategies that he/she should use and how much effort he/she should employ in order to learn the target language. The student will become autonomous when he/she feels responsible for his/her own learning.
In conclusion, it is important to point out that the autonomy has a tremendous impact on second language learning. The development of autonomy in the language learning process is a value aim that teachers and students must share. The learners must be aware that they are responsible for their own learning and the teachers have to try to help the learners to develop their autonomy. But even if learner autonomy is amenable to educational interventions, it should be recognised that it 'takes a long time to develop, and simply removing the barriers to a person's ability to think and behave in certain ways may not allow him or her to break away from old habits or old ways of thinking' (Candy, 1991: 124).

REFERENCE LIST

ALMEIDA FILHO, J. C. P. (1993) Dimensões comunicativas no ensino de línguas. Campinas: Pontes.

BENSON, P. & VOLLER, P. (1997) Introduction: autonomy and independence in language learning. In: BENSON, P. & VOLLER, P. (eds.). In: Autonomy and independence in language learning. (pp. 1-12) London: Longman.

DICKINSON, L. (1994) Learner autonomy: what, why and how? In: LEFFA, V. J. (ed.) Autonomy in Language Learning. (pp. 2-12) Porto Alegre: Editora da Universidade / UFRGS.

LITTLE, D. (1995) Learning as dialogue: the dependence of learner autonomy on teacher autonomy. In: System, vol. 23, n. 2. pp. 175-181. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

MALÁTER, L. S. de O. (2002) (em preparação) Questões de autonomia na formação de professores de língua estrangeira: afinal, quem somos? Submetido para publicação referente ao FILE II. Pelotas: UCPel.

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