October 20

Chapter 6: Promoting Learner Autonomy was really interesting for me because I actually related it to my Material Evaluation. The textbook I evaluated, Inside, by National Geographic was an excellent resource to help teachers promote learner autonomy. Kuma says that, "The narrow view of learner autonomy involves, simply, enabling learners to learn how to learn" (133). To me, this really encompasses the underlying message of post-method pedagogy which encourages teachers to form their own teaching methods based on experience in the classroom. If the teacher knows how to promote learner autonomy, he/she will be able to, in a sense, "train" students to use their own personal library of learning strategies which will lead to success and motivation for the student. It is difficult to stay motivated when you are confused all of the time and you are constantly recieving failing grades. Teaching students learning and reading strategies is something that can help them find a starting point and improve their language skills from there. Inside did a wonderful job of explicitly explaining learning and reading strategies, and the district where I am doing my clinical observations has done a great job of building reading strategies into the curriculum which goes along with their textbook choice.