Autonomy, Agency and Identity in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching

by Jing Huang, Maurizio Gotti (Editor)

Overview

This book offers readers a basic grounding in autonomy and related concepts of agency and identity in foreign language education. The ethnographic study explores how autonomy develops within the long-term process of EFL and TEFL learning in a Chinese social and institutional context. Through examining the general characteristics and patterns within the long-term development of autonomy among the students, the enquiry puts under close scrutiny a number of fundamental issues in autonomy research and practice, such as reactive autonomy in relation to proactive autonomy, personal autonomy in relation to learner autonomy, other-control in relation to self-control in the «multi-control model» of autonomy, and also issues of autonomy in the transition from foreign language learning to foreign language teaching. The study presents the more «describable» concepts of identity and agency to investigate the development of autonomy in foreign language learning and teaching and explores their complex interrelationships. The book finally highlights major contributions and limitations of the investigation, and provides implications and suggestions for theory, pedagogy and research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783034303705
Publisher:	Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Publication date:	12/03/2013
Series:	Linguistic Insights: Studies in Language and Communication , #112
Pages:	414
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jing Huang received his PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Hong Kong. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Education Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. His research is in learner and teacher autonomy, TESOL teacher education, language learning autobiographies, and identity in foreign language learning.

Table of Contents

Contents: Autonomy in second/foreign language education – The role of identity and agency in the long-term development of autonomy – Learner, teacher and institutional agendas (discourses) – Interpretative qualitative research – Documenting students’ pathways towards autonomy across four academic years in a BA TEFL programme – Learner perspectives on teacher-student role relationships – Learner perspectives on the university learning environment – TEFL learning: stories of student teachers’ autonomous development.