Is Technology Paving the Way for Autonomous Learning?

Abstract

The shift towards communicative, learner-centered approaches to teaching has resulted in attention being drawn to promoting autonomy as a capacity for independent learning. Taking responsibility for their own learning enables students to break down barriers to learning that appear in teacher-directed environments. With independence and interdependence as its two interrelated aspects, autonomy has its roots in interaction with others in social contexts, and it is now looked upon as being certain abilities that facilitate the navigation of learning through higher degrees of motivation, creative thinking, and conceptual learning. Thanks to technology, language learners easily access authentic materials for out-of-class learning. However, this paper aims to argue that where promoting autonomous learning is concerned, it cannot be enough per se; proper guidance is crucial, and the interrelation between pedagogy and technology has to be explored so that enough attention is paid to the affordances of certain technological tools to enable language learners to become more autonomous.