Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2004. Vol. 4. Eger Journal of English Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 30)

KARIN MACDONALD Promoting a Particular View of Learner Autonomy Through an English Language Syllabus

142 Karin Macdonald level students, Hungarian university courses for English have a very similar structure in terms of options and type of work to the college of higher education in question and the research also confirms my own observations of student language needs at the college. In order for (study) skills to be effectively taken up and adapted by the learners, Waters and Waters (1992) argue, however, that there is a need to develop an underlying study competence. According to Waters and Waters, teaching study skills techniques without addressing an underlying capacity for study does not necessarily result in the successful use of techniques. They argue that it is necessary to address deeper levels of processing which involve the development of students' logical thinking, critical questioning, self-awareness etc. (1992). They state, for example, that teaching a student the technique of note-taking is not enough as he/she will not be able to take effective notes unless the task is approached at a deeper level as well (1992: 267). In addition, developing study competence is a possible way to access the private domain of a student. Crabbe (1993) distinguishes between the public domain of shared activities in the classroom, and the private domain of learning, the place where a learner's personal learning occurs. He argues that it is necessary for the public domain task to have relevance to the private domain as "learners need to perceive the elements of the task that are conducive to their learning and to perceive how they might manage the task or a similar task for themselves, possibly by themselves" (1993: 445). The tasks he suggests involve classroom negotiation on such aspects as the aims of tasks, the difficulties in completing tasks and how tasks might effectively be tackled (1993 : 450). Waters and Waters (1995) suggest tasks to develop study competence which have a similar interactional element to Crabbe's examples and include awareness-building tasks, problem-solving tasks and tasks involving critical analysis. 4 Evaluation of the Proposed Syllabus with Regards to Whether it Promotes the View of Learner Autonomy Presented for the Context in Question According to the type of autonomy to be promoted, the syllabus framework must provide opportunities for students to develop their decision-making and thinking skills, cooperate with each other and their teachers, and work effectively on their own, in support of college language learning requirements in order to fulfill its role in promoting the particular view of learner autonomy presented here. The learner as an 'active participant' in the language learning process is supported by incorporating elements of learner development into the