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

144 Karin Macdonald structure and complete such work and have to use critical thinking skills and decision-making skills to do so. Furthermore, the work incorporates and develops other general language learning strategies involving the listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, as well as affective and strategic strategies during oral presentations, for example. The proposed syllabus also provides students with the opportunity to interact through negotiation and collaboration. For example, students need to make collective decisions regarding communicative task choice in LP unit 3 (figure 1, column 5); student collaboration and student/teacher collaboration is necessary for group project work; and students work individually on oral presentations, but nevertheless need to collaborate with their teachers on the focus of the presentation, material collection etc. Opportunities for collaboration and working individually are therefore provided on the syllabus, in line with the view of learner autonomy to be promoted here. In addition, the implication of a communicative approach to language teaching and learning is that language can be described at a discourse level (McDonough and Shaw 1993: 33) and the added dimension of a "top-down" approach (Cook 1989: 79) to language learning further equips learners with the ability to analyse and understand language and thus increases the learner's chance to play an active role in the whole process. Opportunities for just such an approach have been provided on the proposed syllabus in the incorporation of discourse topics such as the analysis of text genre, appropriacy and register, and contrastive rhetoric (figure 1). Evaluation of the proposed syllabus so far would thus suggest that the framework presented does in fact support the view of learner autonomy established here. The proposed syllabus has the potential to develop students' decision-making and thinking skills through activities that demand collaboration as well as individual effort and the type of skills and strategies included on the syllabus are intended to help students in the college language learning environment. 5 Conclusion The aim of this paper was to present and examine a particular view of learner autonomy and a syllabus that supports that view as developed through an in-depth analysis of an existing English language syllabus at a specific college of higher education in Hungary. The challenge to be met was the creation of a viable version of learner autonomy for the setting in question and then to construct a realisable syllabus for its promotion. Discussion has shown that the type of learner autonomy to be promoted and the syllabus created to incorporate that view of autonomy are justifiable as contextually