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 143 proposed syllabus. For example, strategies for language learning are included, and as Oxford and Nyikos point out, "cognitive psychology shows that learning strategies help learners to assimilate new information into their own existing mental structures or schemata, thus creating increasingly rich and complex schemata" (1989: 291). According to Chamot and Rubin, strategy development is most effective, however, if teachers find out about the strategies already used by the students and discuss them; then present new strategies, naming and describing them openly; model the strategies; give reasons for using the new strategies and explain when they can be used; and then provide opportunities to extensively practise the strategies (1994: 773). They state, "the evidence describing usage and intervention in both LI contexts and L2 learning leads us to feel confident that such instruction, properly carried out, can positively assist language learners to become actively engaged in their own learning processes" (1994: 774). It is also important to emphasise that a number of variables exist, such as learner, context, task, teacher and text that affect the success of strategy instruction in helping language learning (Chamot and Rubin 1994: 774). Furthermore, Rees-Miller warns against students feeling pressured to use particular strategies chosen by the teacher and feeling stigmatised or patronised for choosing some strategies over others (1994: 779). The strategies particularly emphasised on the proposed syllabus are those directly related to college level English requirements, such as strategies for extensive reading, skimming and scanning texts, strategies for dealing with unknown vocabulary in texts, planning strategies and proof-reading strategies. The assumption here is that students' immediate needs arriving at the college are to adjust to college life and prepare for the specialist subject Enghsh-medium seminars later in the academic year. The intention is to equip students with the capacity to actively participate in their Englishmedium studies through learner development of study techniques. In addition, students' underlying capacity for study needs to be developed if study techniques are to be used effectively. Developing learners' study competence through the proposed syllabus is a principle in line with the definition of learner autonomy established here. The assumption is that the development of study competence involves the development of learners' critical thinking skills. It is the intention of the proposed syllabus that study techniques are explored through a number of engaging tasks such as those which require learners to solve problems, consider different options and ask appropriate questions. Study techniques, together with an underlying study competence, can be genuinely developed through the incorporation of project work and oral presentations on the proposed syllabus. Students are required to use a number of study techniques in an effective way to plan,