Academic Scientific JournalsAutonomous approach to English language learning and teaching in senior classes of secondary school
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26881/prog.2021.10.06Keywords:
autonomy, autonomous learner, language acquisition, language learning, language teachingAbstract
The concept of autonomy in foreign language teaching is one of the most intriguing issues in the methodology of teaching and certainly one of the most difficult challenges for Polish education. Specialists agree that autonomy should be perceived in a complex, multidimensional way, taking into account its individual components such as motivation, self-esteem or independence, as well as a number of associations with various forms of practicing autonomy, including individual and team learning, the use of authentic materials, language guidance, and a negotiated syllabus. The main objective of this article is to broaden the understanding of the autonomous process of foreign language acquisition, with a particular emphasis on the approach to both learning and teaching English in senior-year classes of secondary school. This paper mainly aims to establish whether Polish high school graduates show the characteristics of autonomous learners, and further to shed light on to what extent classes are conducted following the promoted principle of student autonomy, and finally, it determines whether both students and teachers use the potential of independent learning and teaching, or whether their priority is exclusively to prepare for the upcoming exam. The findings indicate that although the greater number of graduating class students possess the characteristics of an autonomous learner, i.e., they have developed metacognitive and cognitive strategies along with an awareness of their strengths and weaknesses, in most cases the development of autonomy encounters many obstacles due to the reluctance or lack of awareness of teachers themselves and institutional constraints such as curricula and examination requirements.
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