Insights into
the Interplay of
Learner Autonomy
and Teacher

Development
Timothy Stewart
Miyazaki Kokusai
Daigakutstewart@miyazaki-mic.ac.jp

Over thepastfew years of exploration into my own teaching practice, I have become increasingly
concerned with thedevelopment of mystudents as 'autonomous' learners. This has resulted in a pullon my attention from my development as a teacher to the learningapproaches used by my students
and back again. 1see thisas a natural pathfor reflective teaching tofollow. My chapter explores theflow of attention between teacher autonomy and learner autonomy. At the beginning of thestudy,
my knowledge of'learner autonomy' was at a position offalse understanding and has now shiftedto become one of beginning understanding. In this chapter I seek to explore the dynamicinterplayof teacher and learner autonomy. My hope is togain greater insight into how teacher and learnerautonomy are both illuminated byand limited byoneanother.
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StewartIntroduction

Through exploration into my own teaching practice, I have become increasingly concernedwith the development of my students as 'autonomous' learners. This pull on my attention
away from my own development as a teacher to the learning approaches used by my students
evolved naturally for me as I found that one feeds the other. This chapter traces development
in my knowledge of learner autonomy from a level of false understanding to one of beginningunderstanding, as I conducted a limited experiment of one week in a first-year university
English communication course. By collaborating with a colleague through Cooperative
Development (Edge, 1992, 2002), I was able to gain some insights into how teacher and learnerautonomy are both illuminated by and limited by one another. This experiment was done in a
first-year university English course that meets twice a week for 100 minutes. The central task
guiding course activity was inter-class debate.
This chapter details how my first encounters with Cooperative Development (CD)illuminated areas of my practice, and subsequently, led me into an exploration of the meaningof learner autonomy. The reflective process is central to my chapter as I try to describe thedevelopment of my thinking about possible meanings to the term autonomyin teaching andlearning. Thus, my account flows from reflection, to classroom practice and observation, andback to reflection. I begin by introducing the CD model for reflection on teaching practice.
A Cooperative Approach to Self-Development

CD helped me to select a focus for professional development activity and allowed me toinvestigate the experience in a way that was very enlightening. CD is a method for colleagues
to talk about their teaching. More than that, it aims to extend the talk of an individual so thats/he can clarify his/her ideas.This is done through a supportive colleaguewho uses prescribed
techniques to listen to and help focus the talk of a peer. Once focused, the ultimate aim of
this talk is to reveal issues deemed as salient to professional development that teachers wish
to take action on. Thus, CD is a kind of collaborative model for clarifying classroom researchor action research plans. This approach to reflective teaching aims to allow teachers "to findout more about ourselves, our teaching and the relationship between the two" (Edge, 1992, p.
1). The ultimate goal is to empower teachers through professional actions based on their own
understanding of their classroom teaching situation. The key difference in Edge's approach toreflective practice is the active use of colleagues as sounding boards who help an individual toformulate his/her ideas.

Edge (1992) reminds us that when wespeak of professional development we mean selfdevelopment, but he expands this thought with the insight that self-development "can't be donein isolation [It] needs other people: colleagues and students" (p. 3). Yet, how can we truly workwith colleagues without resorting to our near-universal tendencies to become opinionated anddefensive? We all have deeply held values, beliefs,and goals about teaching that come out of ourown individual experiences. Conversely, these personal beliefs compose the very baggage that
holds us back from seeingourselves and our situation more clearly. The response of CD to thisdilemma is to promote interaction between concerned colleagues that approaches talk aboutteaching from a new angle by training teachers to speakand listen to each other in new ways.
Finding a Professional Development Focus

I have worked with my colleague Gene on a variety of projects since 1994.We are both always
looking for something new to spark change in our practice. I suggested to Gene that we

LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y43*Insights into

work through the exercises in Edge's book as a way to refresh our professional development
collaborations. We completed the exercises in one term and in the following term we extended
our reflections. It was during this second term of experimentation with CD that I chose a focus
for action. Next, I explain the process I used to identify an issue for exploration.
The two key roles in CD are called Speaker and Understander. The Speaker talks about his/herteaching practice in order to clarify ideas related to professional development. The Understander
listens to try and understand a colleague and support the development of that colleague. The label
Understander for one of the key CD roles can be deceivingly simple for those new to the process.
In fact listening, truly listening, to what others have to say and assisting them to understand what
they mean, is a terribly difficult skillto master.As Edge (1992, p. 22) explains,"The ability that wewant to develop is the ability to make someone feel welllistened to."This sounds easy enough, but
as Gene and I found, it takes great conscious effort.

As we began doing the exercises in the book, we were self-consciousness but soon developed
feelings of frustration. This was due to the novelty for us of the Understander role. We
discussed our sense of frustration, and I noted that I felt strained in the Understander role by
my urge "to comment and ask questions and redirect the discussion to take into account myviews" (Log, 4/27/01). As we later discovered, knowing more about the characteristics of a good
listener means that one is also more aware of the traits of the poor listener. How then should
we react to the constant buzz of opinion: with anger, disgust or sympathy; with attempts toteach others how to become better listeners? We remain unsure.

The technique of focusing helped me appreciate the purpose of CD as the movement toward
action. We began to see that the supportive role of the Understander provides a strong drive for
the Speaker to continue to talk and explore his/her thoughts. The first time I used the focusing
circle technique, I had some trouble coming up with many points to make about an issue, butmore ideas came to mind as I spoke. Gene and I continued to ponder the unnaturalness of theUnderstander role."This care and concern for the views of others rather than getting our own
point across has to be learnt as it is certainly not the way our Anglo-American culture usuallytreats exchanges" (Log, 5/18/01). This is hard work.
Discovery really is the purpose of CD because without discovering a focus, action cannot
begin, and change will not result.Action is developed in CD through the use of goal-setting
and trialling exercises. That is, developing a plan and talking through exactly how it might be
implemented. Rather than going through the steps of goal-setting and trialling on separate
occasions, we thought it would be more natural to combine them. This did not work asplanned, though, since my own first go at goal-setting was something of a bust. Broad andvague targets were mentioned, but no actual goal was set. I felt that I needed a way to focus
better, and so later, in the fall term, I used the focusing circles technique once again to organize
my thoughts.

My focusing circle reflection was specifically about the first-year course that Gene and I werecollaboratingon in the fall, English 2.You can see in the reproductions appended (Appendix
A, at the end of this chapter) how I moved in this particular CD session from talking
generallyabout a very good group of English 2 students to considering some of the benefitsof lessteacher control. I noticed that I had highlighted the idea of control in the classroom
environment. As I thought more carefully, I realized that I had been concerned with issues ofpower and control in my teaching for some time. Bythe end of this CD session, I had decided
to make a conscious attempt to create opportunities for my English 2 learners to exercise
more autonomy over their learning. As you will see, the result of this exploration led me into a
deeper reflection on my practice than I had anticipated.

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StewartPreconceptions and Realisations

I took what couldbe seenas an unprofessional first plunge into myinvestigation of learnerautonomy
I really did not do anybackground reading or planning. Once I had decidedon this focus for
professional development, I wasanxiousto getstarted so I simplywent ahead more or less intuitively.
With hindsight, I can see why I approached my exploration of autonomy in this way.
I believe, given the pressures of daily teaching, this represents a common picture of thepractitioner. Moreover, it seems to me that labels such as learner autonomy and self-directed
learning have a sex appeal that makes them appear deceptively simple. Fanning the flamesof acceptance is the fact that the concept of autonomy in language teaching has become"mainstreamed" (Esch, 1997; Pennycook, 1997).
I began my experiment with learner autonomy at my universitywith a group of 12 first-year
students in the fall/winter semester. I selected this course because it is the one that I focused onin my CD dialogue with Gene. In addition, it is the course that I feel most comfortable teaching
since I have taught it more than any other course. Typically in this course students engage in two
inter-class debates on the same issue where they switch positions from negative to affirmative
or vice versa for each contest. Two teams debated one resolution, and two other teams debated adifferent resolution. In this communication course we use debate as the principal task because it ishighly flexible and allowsinstructors to integrate their instruction of listening, speaking, reading,writing, and study skills.This exploration of my teaching practice took place in the final weekof preparation for the second round of debates. In the lesson preceding this week of practice, I
informed my students that the following week would be theirs to use for the preparation for the
final debates. I then distributed a simple planning guide. I instructed teams debating the same
resolution to sit together and make a plan for the next week of classes. I had already led themthrough a series of progressiveactivitiesfor debate preparation (Stewart, 2003; Stewart & Pleisch,
1998),so they were familiar with the type of skill-areapractice they could do to prepare.
And so I began. I was stepping into unknown territory. The sensation was like letting go of
the steering wheel while speeding along the road. There was a direction, but I was not sure where
I was heading. "When a teacher initially expects and encourages autonomous learning, a phaseof relative anarchy typified by uncertainty of purposes and responsibilities is very likelyto arise"(Breen & Mann, 1997,p. 143). I felt a sense of internal chaos, but observations resulting from myinvestigation do not support this inner feeling that outer anarchy resulted. As I reflect back, there
was no chaos. I had set the structure earlier in the course. This was the second time through forthese learners to prepare for a debate. They were familiar with the requirements of this display
task. Furthermore, they had negotiated their own schedule of activities for the week. Yet, since I
had not read in the area of autonomy and had littie theoretical basis for my shift in pedagogy, myattitude was to treat the development of learner autonomy as just another technique fished fromthe "pool of common instructional behaviours" (Richards, 1990, p. 119). That is, I was operating
at the surface or observable level of classroom experience.

CD Dialogue Extract 1: Pre-experiment
Understander:

Speaker:... maybe again defining what autonomy is might help a bit.
I guess it's the ability to work on your own effectively. All learners havesome kind of idea of what they need to be able to do so being able to dothat... well? ... I don't know if it has to be well or at least to your own
satisfaction. To somebody's satisfaction. If it's autonomous, it probably
should be to your own I suppose.

— LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y —45*Insights into

This exchange is from a CD session done just prior to my classroom experiment. My
colleague had listened carefully to what I was saying and, at this juncture in the dialogue, choseto direct my talk so that I might investigate my own understanding of autonomy more deeply.
This is the essence of CD, trying to understand the thoughts of a colleague, or your own ideas,
with as little interference from opinionated commentary as possible. My emotional response
to finding a more learner-centred approach at this stage was really just to hand over control tostudents and allow them to work freely in the classroom (Holliday, 1994, p. 176). My classroom
observation notes taken during these lessons show I had feared a threat to my teacher role.
The Classroom Experience

The CD sessions with my colleague eventually led me to decide to turn over one week of myEnglish communication course (two periods) to explore what it might mean to give over more
control of lessons to my learners. My idea was to allow the students to plan what they needed to
do individually and in groups as preparation for their final inter-class debate events.
I took notes sporadically as the classes progressed and also videotaped the classes. My
observation notes from the first of the two classesinvestigated indicate that I was hoping forlearners to use the time "well," use me "effectively," and ask me for "guidance." I was determinedat the start to take as hands-off an approach as possible. In the back of my mind, however, wasa worry that students would be confused or just not do any work. But I soon realized that I
was still in control as they did ask me for assistance. Despite my fears of the class disintegrating
into a huge waste of valuable time, I noted: "They are all working, thinking about the debate
preparation tasks. Some more actively than others, but all appear focused" (observation notes).
I am not certain where my fear of losing control derived, but it could have been related to mynaive understanding of autonomy. In truth, I was always in control.
The fact is that even with "the increase in learner-centred activity and collaborative workin the classroom ... [the teacher] still has to contrive the required enabling conditions forlearning, still has to maintain and guide progress" (Widdowson, 1990, p. 189). So learning isalways guided or directed with the kind of direction being crucial. In the CD session between
the two lessons, I struggled with this realization.

CD Dialogue Extract 2: Mid-experiment
Understander:

Speaker:

Understander:

Speaker:

Do you want to talk more about what you mean by autonomous
learning?
Sure. What does it mean, autonomous learning? Because when I firststarted thinking about it, I thought, well that means I'm not gonna domuch. But I see it differently now.
What I hear you saying is your perception of autonomy has shifted.
Yes it has. It's a lot more complex than I thought. I still don't have ahandle on it.... I wonder what my role should be.

I watched the video and noted my movements and actions during the two lessons. My
video recording of the first lesson that week shows that at the start I was actively initiatinginteractions and controlling interactions with the students. By the end of this lesson, I notedthat "I was holding back at times when students went off on different paths but realize theirfocus is as legitimate as mine" (observation notes). The same video tape showed that as theclass progressed I listened in more and waited for students to initiate interactions. At times I—

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Stewartdid remind students who appeared inactive of possible things they could be doing. Throughthis experience, I discovered that my role as teacher was not marginalized by giving students
more control. In fact, it may have been boosted. Again, my notes indicate that I was answering
student requests and providing individuals with assistance. I was also spending "more timethan usual being an observer," which allowed me to see better "what they might need" andengage in "timely interventions" (observation notes). This was an unexpected development forme. I was still at centre stage but in a less dominant way. I was strengthened and reinvigorated
in my role. My notes for the second class session indicate that I felt more secure in thisredefined role because I did not write anything to reveal a feeling of my role being diminished.
During the second lesson, I noted that my feelings shifted from "wishing they'd get on withit, to seeing lots of useful activity" (observation notes). The video tape of this lesson reveals that
I was much more patient and readily settled into a pattern of observing and intervening when
asked or when I felt it was needed. I found that this intervention "often generated more talk in
English and seemed to help students get over some obstacles" (observation notes). I also notedthat my intervention was needed and useful. For example, in mock debate practice, some groups
failed to ask follow-up questions to probe an issue deeper. I also observed on the tape that I
helped students with word intonation when I heard that this was causing message breakdowns
amongst group members. Just after the second lesson,I reflectedwith my colleague.

CD Dialogue Extract 3: Immediate Post-experiment
Speaker:

After I taught that first class,I caught some glimpses of what autonomy
could be.

Understander:

Speaker:

Understander:

Speaker:

Would you like to explore this thought more?
Umm ... well, by the end of the first class and especially the second day,I think um I saw it differently because there's a role for the teacher I
think in structuring things. So it's not like you go in and the students dowhatever they want. I still don't see my role yet clearly, though.
So you see a role for the teacher in the autonomous classroom but you
can't yet define it?
Yes and I think maybe because ... I don't have the background. I mean I
haven't done the reading and maybe that's where I should go next.

Reflecting on what I had learnt from the two classes, I began to see that the teacher's roleis not diminished when fostering learner autonomy is a goal. Quite the opposite, it seems
to increase teacher responsibility, while less teacher talk gives students more time on task
and increased talk time for themselves. Again, I found that this kind of lesson arrangement
could help me to "observe areas that need attention for a greater number of class members"(observation notes). After the second lesson, I left the classroom with a strong sense of
empowerment because I found that, while a pre-imposed structure did limit or constrain
activity, it also provided guidance to students which opened opportunities for classroom
activity to proceed. My feeling was that the learners had a clear idea of what they were
supposed to do and why, and this helped them to go forward at their own pace.
Learners' Reactions

This is how I felt, but what about the learners? In order to investigate this, we had a debriefing
session one week after the interclass debates. I distributed a list of five questions, and we talked— LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y —47*Insights into .

for nearly 30 minutes in class about how they felt these two debate preparation lessons went.
Perhaps a look at their written responses to the question How do youfeel whenyou aregiven
freedom to choose activities by teachers?, along with some of their comments from the debriefing
session, will illuminate the attitudes of these learners towards learner autonomy.

With one exception, all 12 learners in the class answered positively to being given freedom
to choose class activities. But a number of them qualified their answers. Two students wrote"sometimes." For example: "Sometimes it is good. However, sometimes it is needed to be given
study by teachers because they are smarter than us." Another was even more specific saying:"I think it's good but not always. For me, half and half (I mean choose some activities and be
given activities by teachers) is better." This sentiment was echoed in learner comments in thedebriefing discussion where as a group they indicated that lessons at the university were notoverly teacher-centred. The consensus was that teacher control was necessary, but that teachers
need to hear and respond to the opinions of their students.
Another student felt that having more freedom to choose would be "very useful for next
year."This point came up again and again during the debriefing discussion. When asked ifthey wanted more chances to choose what they do in classes, they were clear that this would be
more appropriate in their second, third, and fourth years of study Asked if teachers have toomuch control of classes, they answered that first-year students need more help from teachers.
While they felt that they were capable of doing self-study, at least one student commented
that it is difficult for students in the first year of our programme to choose study tasks forthemselves. I asked them specificallyabout how they felt during the two classes described inthis chapter. They agreed that it was good to have the freedom to decide. Some commented
that it was useful because they could learn on their own, as well as from group members and attheir own pace. One student answered that learners need some kind of basic activity guide as a"framework" to make autonomous learning work. Rather than working individually, a coupleof students stressed that they preferred to work more as a whole class or in groups. In short,they saw a need for teachers to be in control, but also wanted their views taken into account,along with the support of peers.
Movement toward Understanding

After jumping into this experiment, the time had come to reflect more deeply on it. This phasein my reflection naturally took me back to my initial question about the meaning of learnerautonomy. So,with the classroom experiencebehind me and my data in hand, I began reading
the literature on autonomy in teaching in a search for expert views that might shed light on myown limited experience. Many researchersbelieve that autonomy is a set of study skills to belearnt (e.g., Ellis& Sinclair, 1989; Ravindran, 2000). Others, such as Breen and Mann (1997, p.
134), see autonomy as "a way of being in the world." This view of autonomy imagines learners
engaging with their social environment at different levels of autonomy depending upon how
they define the situation. Esch (1997) believes that "there are not autonomous language learn
ing skills to be trained" (p. 165). She goes on to say that it is crucial for learners and teachers to
become more aware of language and language learning. For Sheerin (1997, p. 59), learner inde
pendence is not absolute but is "a complex cluster of attributes." More important, I believe, areher ideas that learners be made aware that they have choices in their learning, and that teachers
help them to become more active and to exercise their choices. My learners had concerns about
empowering students with greater choice. One student felt that not all learners would be able
to take full advantage of a more autonomous learning environment: "It is not so good because
when we have freedom all students will not study." But over half of the learners in the class spe-—

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Stewartcifically wrote that having more freedom to make choices for their own learning would makelearning more enjoyable for them.
Benson and Voller (1997b) state that the terms autonomy and independence in language
learning are used in many different senses, sometimes as synonyms and other times not. They
argue that it is a task of the teacher to work out how these might correspond to his/her cir
cumstance. So "autonomous learning is not an absolute standard to be met, but a goal to be
pursued; what is important is the direction—towards student responsibility for learning—not
the magnitude of the change in any given direction" (Boud, 1981, p. 23). Reading these varieddefinitions, my own monolithic view cracked. I began to see that there are degrees of autono
my, and the main goal maybe is to move students forward to take a bit more responsibility thanthey had previously. One of my students articulated the potential relationship between having
the ability to exercise choices with a sense of responsibility for one's own learning and accom
plishment: "I feel it is good thing because if we choose some activities as we want, we have toaccomplish those things. We should have responsibility" Being aware that any "notion of au
tonomy will be very different in different educational contexts" (Pennycook, 1997, p. 44), theteacher must, in my view,work out the meaning of autonomy for a particular group of learners
at a particular time. For me, thinking about this issue led to deeper questions about my teaching practice—specifically, how I needed to enhance my own professional development in orderto address learner autonomy in my courses.
Different cultures can place different emphases on autonomy (Sinclair, 2000). To Nunan(1988), autonomy is about striking a balance between the social/cultural context, thepersonality of learners, their goals in language study, and institutional philosophy. But theteacher is an integral part of this picture. In fact, learner autonomy and teacher autonomy are
two sides of the same development coin, as Benson (2000) points out:
Learner autonomy develops within the space that the teacher is able to open up for itin their interpretation of the broader constraints on the learners' freedom of actionin learning. Teacher autonomy is thus concerned with the teacher's own ability andopportunity to explore and expand the boundaries of this space, (p. 116)
If we conceive of teacher autonomy as "control over one's own professional development"(McGrath, 2000, p. 100),then to open the necessaryspace for learners to exercisetheirautonomy, the teacher needs to recognize and assert his/her own autonomy (Breen & Mann,
1997). The idea of taking control of learning and becoming more aware of teaching practiceis summed up in Smith's (2000) concept of "teacher-learner autonomy" This notion of a
symbiotic relationship between teacher and learner development was an invaluable insight that
I gained from doing this research project. As I continue to struggle with my own professional
development, this insight in particular points the wayforward for me.
Conclusion

When I began this investigation, I truly had a false understanding about learner autonomy
as a simplistic and universal concept. Extensive reflection has helped to clarify my thinking.
This reflection was assisted by reading relevant literature in the field and by talking throughthoughts with a colleagueusing CD techniques. The most compelling point this research
has revealed is my own need for developing teacher autonomy. I can see now that I must
empower myself professionally as a means to clear obstaclesthat impede my movement toward
encouraging greater learner autonomy.

— LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y —49*

Insights i n t o

As a result, this investigation into learner autonomy has opened my eyesto inter-related
concerns. Through my exploration of autonomy, I have come to see that it is not just autonomy
that I need to investigate, but also my fundamental views on teaching these learners in thissituation and learning about how I can do that best. I have had my eyes opened to the needfor a course to learn the culture of the students, but see myself in Holliday's (1994) statementthat teachers will often defend entrenched teaching methods as a way to procrastinate fromthe hard work of learning the student culture. As I reflect on my own practice, it seems tome that a certain preoccupation with techniques and methods may at times have led me into
interactions with students that have been pre-scripted in a sense. How much of what we will
say in classrooms has been somehow rehearsed beforehand? That is, with our minds fixated
on a lesson plan sequence, how much space do we leave to notice? In my own exploration forincreasing learner autonomy, I see that where I am heading is a search for an "appropriate
methodology" (Holliday, 1994) or a development of my own theory of practice. I have thus
found that the focus on learner autonomy has become a driving force for my development
toward a more reflective practice. In my final CD session with Gene, I made a start on working
through some of these ideas.
CD Dialogue Extract 4: Post-course Reflection

Speaker:

I was just reading Pennycook, who cautions against imposing an
ethnocentric western view of education in our attempt to cultivate
autonomy.

Understander:

Speaker:

Understander:

Speaker:

Do you feel that is what you are doing?
I'm not sure. My guess is Japanese students prefer the teacher-fronted
lesson.... They want you to come in prepared and teach a class.... I think
you can still have a more autonomous approach, but it takes a lot moreplanning or a different kind of planning.
What you seem to be saying is that when you become aware of learnerautonomy, you need to structure your teaching differently.
Yeah. It's tricky because my learners have said that they want theiropinions heard by teachers and expect that they should exercise morechoice, but really only after completing their first year of studies.

Finally, let me turn to how the CD approach to self-development might assist me in moving
forward. It occurs to me that a 'built-in' motor for teachers to learn about their classrooms canbe created, at least partially, through the active use of CD. Noticing is the first step to learning,
and talking about teaching through CD helps one notice. In every session with my colleague,
some point that I had not consciously noticed before was brought to my attention. In CD, theUnderstander tries to assist the Speaker's process of development as a teacher in his/her own
terms, so ideas are constantly evolving (Edge, 2002). What I discovered was that by opening
up space for learners to control their actions in lessons, I also gave myself space to observemore. So, paradoxically, it is as if I ended up with greater control of the learning environment.
Perhaps I need to learn when and how 'to let go' and support my students as they gain
autonomy—and learn how 'to take hold' and be aware of how and why they learn (Page, 1992).
Teacher development is about challenging the relevance of our beliefs in a continuous searchfor deepening insights. The key thing that CD has taught me is the importance of trying toAutonomy You

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Stewartlisten to others without prejudging them or filtering their ideas with my own. I have yet tomaster this, but I believethis vital skill of listening can be applied, in a different way of course,
to our interactions with students. That is,some of the rewards integral to the CD process mightalso result if we can learn to interact with students and observe classroom activityhonestly,with acceptance, respect, and empathy. Beinga reflective teacher means enhancing our own
autonomy as learners too.

Breen and Mann (1997) believe the realisation of a pedagogy for autonomy is a nearly
impossible challenge, yet argue that, just by attempting the exploration, new possibilities inlanguage pedagogy will be revealed. Simply put, teacher learning involves asking questions andcontinuously discovering imperfect solutions. To develop a more reflective practice, teachers
need to become good observers and interpret classroom interaction in meaningful ways. Before
action can occur, pedagogical issues must first be noticed. Only then can new possibilities forteaching and learning be imagined.
Appendix A: Focusing Circles

circle Q-— LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y —5i•

Insights into

Critical Reader Response i

Miyuki Usuki

From my Teaching Experience

Tim's chapter reminds me about setting Project Work for my EFL class in 2000. Beforesetting
up the projects, I was afraid of failing to manage my classroom teaching. After starting the
projects off, I had more chances to have personal contact with individual students than before,
and the class atmosphere gradually became more active.
Tim mentions in his chapter the importance of the interplay between learner autonomy
and teacher development. My attempt to initiate learner development also resulted in my own
development as a teacher. The more I was involved in the development of learner autonomy,
the more I became reflective about my own teaching and relationship with my students.
Tim also notes the teacher's need for his/her own autonomy. In my opinion, individual
teachers may have their own way of developing learner autonomy. For sure, there might not
be one particular 'best' way of developing autonomy. So, above all, teachers need to foster theirown sense of autonomy.
From my Learning Experience

I had a chance to attend a community English class in Australia in 2002. Being in the positionof a learner allowed me to understand learner autonomy in new ways.
Tim describes learner autonomy as "the ability to work on your own effectively." I cansay that learner autonomy involves the learners' awareness to motivate themselves to learn
effectively, instead of just following what teachers say. However, learner autonomy does notmean that the learners decide and manage all the process of learning by themselves. The point
is what and how learners are aware of to do with their own learning.
From my own ESL learning experience, I could notice that classroom learning enhanceslearners' own learning. Learners can confirm their understanding and expand their own
learning through interacting with others. Self-directed learning itself is not enough for thelearners to develop their language skills;they must also have opportunities for interaction withothers. Both learners and teachers need to be aware that classroom learning is a part of thewhole process of language learning.

In the process of language learning, the teacher's role is important as well. Tim indicates that
his interventions were needed and generally useful. I had the same experience as a classroom
learner where the teacher's feedback on my work and her positive expectations towards me
were very important factors. In my opinion, the framework should be set by the teacher, andthis must be considered in relation to language acquisition.
Quite often, it seems to be the case that interactive classroom learning is considered as away to avoid teacher-centredness. Because the teacher wishes to break the silence and expects
positive reactions from his or her learners, learner-centred activities become the overriding
focus. However, as Tim suggests, in order to develop effective classroom learning, we have toconsider our students' own needs and expectations for their language skill improvement.

Autonomy You

Aski

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StewartCritical Reader Response 2

Julian Edge
Tim,

This is how your chapter resonated with me.
As you point out, autonomyis a chameleon concept. I go along with those people who find it
useful to distinguish between autonomy and independence. My own version of that distinction
is to equate autonomy with freedom of choice, and independence with standing alone. If I want
to do something independently, I want to do it by myself. When I am acting autonomously,
I may decide to do something by myself,or to seek advice, or to ask for explicit instructions,or to cooperate with other people. To help my students become autonomous is to help themtake on that responsibility of aware choice, in the knowledge that they (like their teacher) are(socially and culturally situated) individuals and groupings with their own strengths and needs.
All this, of course, is based on the premise that autonomy, as defined above, is a Good Thing.
I hold this to be the case, and plead lack of space to argue the fundamentals of it here and now.
One has to recognise that we are talking about fundamentals, however: The parallels between
learners and teachers run so deep exactly because we aretalking about differing realisationsof the same profound values, not necessarily specific to any one culture, but not necessarily
shared, either.

This approach to learning, teaching, and living values a desire to inform ourselves about
what is happening, to involve ourselves in conscious decision-making, and to take responsibil
ity for our actions and their outcomes. These values themselves are, of course, also open todispute, which is not to say that they are not passionately held and will not be defended.
I think we agree about the parallels between what we could just as well call learnerdevelopment and teacher development: Both need to be self-energised, both can be supported
and facilitated by others, both belong to a certain style of world-view with regard both to what'works' and what is worthwhile.

To end on a slightly dissonant note, there is one socially-rooted distinction between the twothat is problematical, and which I think we are a long way from resolving. Everyone expects
students to come to know more, to become able to do more, and to get better at what they do.
But how many people feel that way about teachers? To feel that way about teachers is to affirm
that it is appropriate that there are things that they don't know and can't do as well as theymight. It is to affirm that a classroom is an appropriate arena for the teacher to be learning.
How many people are ready for that, and ready to support the process?
We need, as a profession, to learn to communicate better to those outside education in order
to win more support for the autonomy and development that we hold to be important. I thinkthat work such as yours, filled with intelligence and passion and humility, is an important
contribution to this need. Thank you.

— LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y —