Autonomy in and out of class

Although a great deal of research has been done on classroom language learning, relatively little research has been done on language learning outside the classroom. The aim of this presentation, therefore, is both to reassert the fundamental relevance of the world of learning beyond the classroom to the idea of autonomy and to address certain problems that arise in the conceptualisation of this world. The presentation will address three central questions: How can we conceptualize learning beyond the classroom in its own terms (without, for example, using the term classroom)? How can we conceptualize learning beyond the classroom independently of particular settings and modes of practice? How can we best describe the relationship between the classroom and the world beyond the classroom? I will argue that, in the 21st century, second language learning increasingly tends to straddle the divide between institutionalised education and daily life, such that the development of autonomy is best understood as an outcome of relationships between learning in and out of the classroom, rather than engagement in one or the other.