Learner Autonomy SIG Pre-conference Event

Monday 7th April 2008

Our pre-conference event focussed on some more of the strands and problematic areas which relate to putting autonomy into practice. After a year of investigation by many of the top experts in the field, five specialists who directed the investigations into these particular areas presented their findings to us. They suggested ways of overcoming difficulties encountered and of turning some problems around to become opportunities to be seized.  

The topics, which are those which were suggested by LASIG Members at our Open Forum in Aberdeen include Self-access, which was dealt with by Richard Pemberton; Culture, which was presented by Adrian Holliday; Classroom Research, which was handled by Lienhard Legenhausen; Teacher Education, which was covered by Leni Dam and Technology, which was undertaken by Vance Stevens.

More details about the invited speakers:

	Leni Dam (Teacher Education) Leni Dam is a pedagogical adviser and in-service teacher trainer at the Centre for Higher Education for Copenhagen and Northern Zealand, where, since 2001, she has been responsible for the Diploma in Education. Until very recently she has also been a practising secondary school teacher of English at Karlslunde School. She has published widely in the field of learner autonomy. Presentation abstract: Leni will be drawing on her own experiences and on stories generated by other contributors (Frank Lacey, Anja Burkert, June Miliander and Jose Luis Vera) in order to shed light on the area of learner autonomy in teacher education. She will talk about a teacher's experience changing his own teaching, how initial teacher education can be improved, how portfolios can be used in classes, and about a model that was developed in order for students to 'feel' learner autonomy themselves. Leni Dam ends the worm's journey by suggesting a possible model and underlying principles for INSET courses as well as other initiatives to be taken in order to support practicing teachers when it comes to introducing learner autonomy into their classes. You can read a summary of this presentation on our blog
	Vance Stevens (Technology)  Vance Stevens is a Lecturer in Computing at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi. He has been an ESL teacher since 1975, and has implemented CALL since 1979. He has conducted research, produced numerous publications and CALL software, and has served on editorial boards of a number of CALL journals. In 1996 Vance  created Webheads, an online language learning community. You can read a summary of this presentation on our blog
	Adrian Holliday (Culture)  Adrian Holliday is a Professor of Applied Linguistics at Canterbury Christ Church University in the Department of English and Language Studies where he co-ordinates doctoral research in international English language education and intercultural issues. He is also Head of the Graduate School and Research Office and directs the University research degrees programme. He has published widely in the critical sociology of TESOL, and on qualitative research methodology and intercultural communication. Presentation abstract: Adrian will begin with 'de-centred' accounts of students from a range of cultural backgrounds engaging in private language learning activities taken from various pieces of literature and research. These will be juxtaposed with intercultural events which were presented in two 'can of worms' articles. These will be used to address the question of how far the 'autonomy' issue derives from Centre-Western imaginations about other people's cultures. A possible conflict between a professionalized notion of 'autonomy' and what students will do if we allow de-centred space will be considered in the light of the basic communicative principle - communicating with what students bring to the language learning event.
	Richard Pemberton (Self-access) Richard Pemberton has been an Associate Professor in TESOL in the School of Education at the University of Nottingham, UK since January 2006. Before that, he spent nearly 15 years at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where he was responsible for setting up and coordinating the Self-Access Centre, and also helped integrate self-access language learning into the first-year course. He has published widely on self-access, advising, and supporting self-directed language learning in mainstream courses. You can read a summary of this presentation on our blog
	Lienhard Legenhausen (Classroom Research) Lienhard Legenhausen is Professor Emeritus of Language Pedagogy and Applied Linguistics at the University of Münster, Germany. His research interests include the study of learner language and of technology-enhanced language learning, as well as learner-centred approaches to classroom learning/teaching.

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