Effects of Autonomy in an English Language Learning Class

Abstract

Autonomy in language learning in one form or another has established itself as an importantfactor in student achievement and performance. This paper examines some of the effects of variousaspects of autonomy that were implemented with 27 first-year university students attending anelective English course to encourage their educational growth and development in Englishlanguage skills. At the end of the semester, the students participated in a general survey whichrated their opinions on several aspects of the class. Parts of this survey which relate to the use ofautonomy in class will be discussed in this paper. The authors also share observations citingspecific cases where giving the students a certain amount of freedom resulted in outstandingperformance on the final project of the course, an approximate 5-minute presentation in English.Both the results of the survey and the author observations support the notion that giving studentssome amount of freedom fostered autonomy, and is beneficial in a language learning context