Page 155 - Beyond Methods

Promoting learner autonomy 143
• enabling them to think critically and develop interpretive capabil- ities needed to contest the regulated representations of language and culture normally found in prescribed textbooks; and
• providing opportunities for them to explore the unfolding fron- tiers in cyberspace and the unlimited possibilities offered by on- line services on the World Wide Web, and bringing back to the class their own topics for discussion and their own perspectives on those topics.
The suggestions sketched above can easily be modified and made more relevant to suit the instructional aims and activities, and in- stitutional constraints and resources of various learning and teach- ing contexts. They may be treated as foundations for promoting a full range of academic and liberatory autonomy for the benefit of the learner. Taken together, these aspects of autonomy promise the development of an overall academic ability, intellectual com- petence, social consciousness, and mental attitude necessary for learners to avail opportunities and overcome challenges both in and outside the classroom.
Reflective task 6.4
How do you see the relationship between academic and liberatory auton- omy—as opposite concepts of autonomy or as two points on a continuum of autonomy? One way of addressing this question is to think about where they differ—in their objectives? In their methods? In their emphasis?
Degrees of Autonomy
An important challenge facing both teachers and learners is to de- termine the degree of autonomy that would be appropriate for their specific learning and teaching context. As partners in the pursuit of academic as well as liberatory autonomy, teachers and learners can negotiate a comfortable degree of autonomy. Several researchers, including Vee Harris (1996, p. 260), David Nunan (1997, p. 195), and Scharle and Szabo (2000, p. 9), have considered the issue of the degree of autonomy accorded to the learner. Generally, they all ad- vocate a gradual and guided introduction of autonomy over peda-