Attempts to theorise the process of 'autonomisation' have been strongly influenced by neo-Vygotskian psychology, which sees learning as a matter of supported performance and emphasises the interdependence of the cognitive and social-interactive dimensions of the learning process. According to this model, the teacher's role is to create and maintain a learning environment in which learners can be autonomous in order to become more autonomous. The development of their learning skills is never entirely separable from the content of their learning, since learning how to learn a second or foreign language is in some important respects different from learning how to learn maths or history or biology.
Dam's account of the gradual 'autonomisation' of teenage learners of English in a Danish middle school provides a classic illustration. Her key techniques are: use of the target language as the preferred medium of teaching and learning from the very beginning; the gradual development by the learners of a repertoire of useful learning activities; and ongoing evaluation of the learning process, achieved by a combination of teacher, peer and self-assessment. Posters and learner logbooks play a central role in three ways: they help learners to capture much of the content of learning, support the development of speaking, and provide a focus for assessment.
How to support the development of learner autonomy is also a key issue for self-access language learning schemes. Where self-access learning is not embedded in a taught course, it is usually necessary to provide learners with some kind of advisory service: learner counselling is central to the self-access literature. The most successful self-access projects tend to be those that find effective and flexible ways of supporting learners; particularly worthy of note is the approach developed at the University of Helsinki.
2015年