Autonomous learning, simply stated, is when the student has both "the willingness and capacity to control or oversee his own learning (Thanasoulas, 2005)." A learner is autonomous when his is independently able to choose his own purposes for learning and to set the goals as well as select and organize the materials and the learning methods.
Thanasoulas organizes key learning strategies for the autonomous language learner; cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies.
The cognitive strategies include:
- repetition of other's speech
- resourcing
- translation
- note-taking
- inferencing
- questioning for clarification
Metacognitive strategies are crucial to the autonomous learner. These strategies are "skills for planning, monitoring, and evaluating the learning activity." These include:
- focusing directed attention
- self-monitoring
- self-evaluation
- self-reinforcement
Healey discusses that a problem frequently mentioned for autonomous learners is that they can become discouraged because they cannot see the progress made and find the amount of learning still needed to be daunting. Learners who possess, or are taught, these strategies will be equipped to see the progress.
Healey lists some important characteristics of the autonomous learner. The first is self-motivation. She points out that for learners to become autonomous they have "to want greater responsibility for their own learning. " Thanasoulas quotes Taron and Yule who include the role of self-esteem in the level of the learners' motivation. They say that"self-esteem and desire to learn are deemed to be the most crucial factors in the learner's ability to overcome occasional setbacks. . . in the process of learning a second language." Secondly, she lists independent style. These are people who are independently capable of organizing their own learning, but also know when to ask for help.
