Learner Autonomy in the English Classroom

English language teachers at the University of Bielefeld in Germany share the results of their classroom research in learner autonomy, an approach in which students direct their own learning with help from teachers and fellow students. Beginning with primary school and progressing to university, they consider such topics as some possibilities for implementing and increasing leaner autonomy in the English lesson, suggestions for the effective use of reading logs in the ninth grade, an autonomous learning concept to improve oral proficiency in the English-as-a-foreign-language classroom, promoting learner autonomy by training students to generate their own reading comprehension questions, and strategic support in bilingual history classes at different age and proficiency levels. There is no index. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Paul Lennon is Professor of English Didactics (TEFL) at Bielefeld University. He studied at the Universities of Oxford, Manchester, Leeds and Reading and has taught English in Britain, Germany and Bulgaria. He was a lecturer in Applied English Linguistics at Birmingham University in England and worked in teacher training at Giesen University.