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

Promoting a Particular View of Learner Autonomy 137 content specifications that learner autonomy, as it is viewed here, will be promoted. 3.2 The Proposed Syllabus for Language Practice Units 1 to 4 3.2.1 The Aims of the Proposed Syllabus The Language Practice (LP) semester 'blocks' have aims and content specific to each semester and for the purposes of this paper, the aims and content specifications are for LP units 1 to 4 only. The specific aims for LP units 1 to 4 are concerned with meeting the needs of new students and their progress in the first semester of the first year at the college. These aims are as follows: • to help learners prepare for their English medium studies at the college and adjust to college life; • to raise learners' awareness of pedagogical goals, the content of materials being learned, preferred learning styles and strategies; • to involve learners actively in the learning process by providing opportunities to make choices regarding activities in and out of class; • to give learners opportunities to work collaboratively and individually, and be supported in their differing roles; • to explore language at the level of discourse to gain greater insight into different text types, media and the role of context in language use. 3.2.2 Specifications of the Proposed Syllabus The syllabus covers a 13 week period (weeks shown in figure 1, column 1). Topics serve to contextualise skill-based and communicative activities and the themes change every two weeks across the units (shown in figure 1, column 2). The level of student active participation and level of involvement in decision-making is increased as the units progress. For example: whole class negotiation occurs in LP unit 3 regarding task choice from week 8 (figure 1, column 5); small groups of students collaborate to choose a specific focus for project work in LP unit 2 from week 10 (figure 1, column 4); and students choose and prepare on an individual basis for the focus of oral presentations in LP unit 4 (figure 1, column 6). However, despite the increase in student active participation on LP units 1 to 4, student choice of tasks and topics is still relatively restricted. This is in line with the belief that learner autonomy needs to be built up gradually and students need to be supported in becoming increasingly autonomous. Therefore, as LP units 1 to 4 address the needs of first year students in their first semester, only a small range of tasks are offered as choices on LP unit 3, and project work and oral presentations are limited to the themes featured in the last four weeks of the syllabus.