My reflection on "Learner autonomy:drawing together the threads of self-assessment, goal-setting and reflection" by David Little.Holec began by defining learner autonomy as the “ability to take charge of one’s own learning”, noting that this ability “is not inborn but must be acquired either by ‘natural’ means or (as most often happens) by formal learning."The development of autonomy in language learning is governed by three basic pedagogicalprinciples:• learner involvement – engaging learners to share responsibility for the learning process(the affective and the metacognitive dimensions);• learner reflection – helping learners to think critically when they plan, monitor andevaluate their learning (the metacognitive dimensions);• appropriate target language use – using the target language as the principal medium oflanguage learning (the communicative and the metacognitive dimensions).So the teacher should:• use the target language as the preferred medium of classroom communication and requirethe same of her learners;• involve her learners in a non-stop quest for good learning activities, which are shared,discussed, analysed and evaluated with the whole class – in the target language, to beginwith in very simple terms;• help her learners to set their own learning targets and choose their own learning activities,subjecting them to discussion, analysis and evaluation – again, in the target language;• require her learners to identify individual goals but pursue them through collaborativework in small groups;• require her learners to keep a written record of their learning – plans of lessons andprojects, lists of useful vocabulary, whatever texts they themselves produce;• engage her learners in regular evaluation of their progress as individual learners and as a class – in the target languageComponents of learner-centred classrooms:o Learners take responsibility of their own learning, drawing upon previously learned skills in order to learn new material.o Teacher uses context that interests the learners and explores topics that relate to learners’ needs.o Learners avoid depending on the teacher as the sole source of input.o Learners conduct peer feedback and take on more responsibility for self-evaluation.o Teacher teaches the learners, not the curriculum/coursebook.o Learners gather new information through exploration and tasks.o Teachers do less telling; learners do more discovering.o Learners become more aware of their own learning styles and strategieso Intrinsic motivation to learn.o Teacher provides choices for learners.o Lesson is starting from the learners, not from the coursebook, building on what learners already know, etc.My strengths1. Teacher provides choices for learners: I guess it was my first step in making my classes more learners’ centred when I started my job experience. I practice it regularly in different ways – by asking students to choose what or what way we will do next (and even by voting!); by providing the choice what to do for home work, etc. Students really appreciate the very fact that they have a choice which they lack of at the other classes at school in Russia. Here are some examples:Ss choose how to work – alone or in pairs – and what to produce: a story or a conversation on the issue;Doing a personalization task (Dream house, etc.) they decide either it will be a collage, a PowerPoint Presentation or a painting;Doing grammar exercises in Language Powerbook students don’t have to do all of them in the module but can choose 5 out of 8 which are of different level (from one star to three stars difficulty); New Opportunities Elementary LP pages 8-9 on Present Simple Tense, for example.2. Learners conduct peer feedback and take on more responsibility for self-evaluation.I try to give such an opportunity at every lesson in oder to make my students more independent.Firstly, my students always have time to check their written or oral home work in small groups at every lesson. Secondly, while listening to the presentation of any talks “the audience” has to fill in tables I have prepared for them. I do this in order to make the students listen to the others attentively and give the feedback. One more thing is a regular short word dictations which are checked by peers just after they are finished. Students know that they have one more chance to repeat the key word while checking . They write their names on the papers checked and I take a couple of works to prevent cheating.. Besides, the textbook (New Opportunities Russian Edition) provides some more opportunities for self-assessment. There is a Learning-to-Learn section at the begging of every level book that helps to find out the students’ learning styles and establish goals for the new academic year. The key words lists in LB let students monitor their vocabulary acquisition and encourage them to use dictionaries. Learning Diary is filled in at the end of every module of the text book. Students reflect on their learning as they progress through the course. After each test I ask students to record their results in the form of a diagram at the last page of their test copy books which helps them to see their progress from unit to unit on skills, vocabulary and grammar. Areas to work on:1.Lesson is starting from the learners, not from the coursebook, building on what learners already know, etc. I spotted the idea in open-class of my American colleagues in Iowa PCM school where I worked. It was a common rule at any lesson there. Maybe I have been less motiveted but I can’t say the same about my lessons. I do a kind of warming up though, sometimes it is planned – to make connection between the thing the students know and the material in question, sometimes it is an improvisation on some reason – the weather, a school event, news, etc. with the same purpose. But I am not always happy about the way I do it. I mean that I manage to create a positive atmosphere at the lesson but I am afraid I don’t take more of it and maybe spend lots of time teaching things my students already know or skip something they really need. It happens because of only 3 hours a week and the material for 5 hours study to cover; the fact that I have new student every year to teach as our principal likes to change groups of students and teachers matching. I know it sounds like a silly excuse so I want to make some positive changes next year, so I am going to get more from CIS I am taking now.http://www.britishcouncil.ru/teach-english/teacher-training/ciselt2. Teachers do less telling; learners do more discovering.I know it is my weak point: I speak too much. And though I do it in English I am going to limit it reasonably. I won’t steal my students speaking time providing more small group work and less front class speaking. I am going to plan more thinking activities and make changes in the way the teachers’ book authors see the class. I will do it my way. I do know my students better.For both things I need to plan my classes better and be always flexible to achieve better results.