REVIEW

Autonomy and Independence in Language Learning

In editing the volume, Phil Benson and Peter Voller have adeptly pulled together the diverse perspectives of a number of scholars active in the field and have raised issues important to all of us concerned with progressive change and innovation in language education. In the Introduction, the editors identify several key issues in the current debate on autonomy, elaborating a conceptual framework through which we might approach the rest of the book. These issues, posed here as questions, include: a) What is the theoretical basis for prevailing concepts of autonomy and independence? b) Is autonomy a culturally-specific, Western concept? c) What is the role of self-access and self-instruction in promoting autonomy? d) What is the role of the teacher in autonomous language learning? and e) What is the potential of new technology in relation to autonomous language learning?

In addressing these questions, Benson and Voller have elected to divide the book into three parts, roughly following the order of the issues as listed above. Part One is entitled Philosophy and Practice, and includes articles on the historical, cultural, and political dimensions of the concept of autonomy, as well as a discussion of self-access centers as a means of implementing autonomy in language learning. Part Two, Roles and Relationships, attempts to characterize, on the one hand, what an autonomous teacher is and how he or she can be prepared for this role, and on the other, what an autonomous learner is and how he or she (in an unfortunate, yet pervasive choice of words) can be "trained" for autonomous learning, and finally what the relationship is between the two. Finally, Part Three, Methods and Materials, looks at how both traditional self-access materials and textbooks and new technologies such as the internet and computer-aided instruction can be adapted to promote autonomy in language learning.

Having formulated and edited this collection of articles, did Benson and Voller ask the right questions and provide sufficient answers to them from among the contributions they solicited? After reading the book, are we significantly more or less confused about the issue of autonomy, independence and language learning? Having traveled alongside the likes of Philip Riley, Alastair Pennycook, William Littlewood, David Little, and others as they have led us from one salient point to the next, lurching slightly from chapter to chapter (as is the norm with this type of collection), is this diverse tapestry of thought and observations woven together into some sort of satisfying conceptual whole? To Benson and Voller's credit, they have succeeded, if not in asking and answering all the right questions (for this is really not the point after all), but in elaborating and clarifying the terms of debate, and, perhaps more important, in provoking further debate. Particularly noteworthy in this regard are the two editors' own contributions to the volume.

Benson, in the first article of Part One, "The Philosophy and Politics of Learner Autonomy," situates different versions of autonomy (technical, psychological, and political) within contrasting traditions of positivism, constructivism, and critical theory, and argues for "an explicitly political version of autonomy supported by critical theories of knowledge and learning" (p. 31). He then lists "areas of activities" through which this latter type of autonomy can be promoted. These include authentic interactions in the target language, collaborative group work, participation in open-ended tasks, exploration of social and personal learning goals, self-production of tasks and materials, and other activities encouraging greater learner control over the educational process. In his article, Benson gives us not only a useful conceptual framework for understanding the origins and epistemological roots of the autonomy debate, but also offers us a list of very practical components for an innovative language education program.

Unfortunately, for those of us hoping for further insights on how to put this radical pedagogy of autonomous language learning into practice, Benson takes this brilliant beginnings of a discussion of pedagogical possibilities no further (leaving, it must be said, the responsibility on the rest of us to carry on with the discussion). Moreover, although other authors in the volume reinforce this theme later on (in, for example, a piece by Alastair Pennycook on autonomy as the struggle for cultural alternatives, and a selection by Andrew Littlejohn proposing alternatives to traditional self-access curricula), we are in the end left without a holistic sense of what sort of innovative and autonomy-promoting pedagogy is practically possible in language education (and it is possible; see, for example, Kenny's, 1993 description of such a program). In fact, many of the selections in the volume (over half) offer practical suggestions for promoting learner autonomy only through fairly conventional forms of self-access, reflecting the prevailing weight of this orientation to autonomy in the field, yet giving us less insight than we would like into alternatives.

Like Benson's contribution in Part One, Voller's article, leading off Part Two, provides a clear guide to thinking about another aspect of autonomy in language learning -- namely, the role of teachers -- and at the same time raises important questions for further inquiry. In this selection, Voller discusses different roles for teachers in encouraging autonomy (as facilitators, counselors, and resources), again with reference to power and control in the classroom. He then proposes that autonomy is predicated on three basic assumptions: a) that language is an interpretive process and autonomy requires a transfer of control to learners, b) that teaching practices are based on negotiation with learners, and c) that teachers are active and reflective observers of their own strategies and interactions. Again, the question arises: Practically speaking, what does a language education course or program look like when we a) transfer control to learners, b) negotiate curricula, and c) incorporate our own self-monitoring and reflection into the process? What models do we have to follow here?

It would be a mistake to characterize Voller's assumptions, and indeed the other teaching and learning strategies and assumptions discussed in the book, as stand-alone conceptual pillars, dissectable and dissected from educational practice and from the context of language learners' experience, knowledge and life circumstances, somehow unencumbered by the "political." As Paulo Freire (1970) so eloquently argued in his work on adult literacy over two decades ago (and we can rightly call this language education), all education is political: it either reinforces the status quo and existing relations of power or it serves to promote change. The question, as applied linguistics moves further afield into the realm of education, is whether and how we make the political dimensions of language education explicit, and how we incorporate these into our own thinking and practice in the field. In this regard, Autonomy and Independence in Language Learning is a good beginning, informing us as it does of the key issues of the debate.

Kenny, B. (1993). For more autonomy. System 21(4), 431-442.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder.

Pierre Walter received his Ph.D. in adult literacy and international development in 1995, worked at the Cheng Du University of Science and Technology in the People's Republic of China in the late 1980s, and is currently an assistant professor at the Center for Language and Educational Technology of the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand.