Teacher autonomy in second language education

With the rise of learner autonomy as an important goal in second/foreign language education, the idea of teacher autonomy has recently come to the fore. In this paper, I first review the literature to explore various definitions and meanings of teacher autonomy. I then present an overview of current perspectives on the relationship between teacher autonomy and learner autonomy. This is illustrated through a discussion of the literature about teachers’ responsibility and capacity to support learner autonomy. Finally, I examine how action research, reflective practice, and exploratory practice are argued and demonstrated in the literature as major processes of teacher (autonomy) development in second language education.
在二語（外語）教育領域，隨著學習者自主性研究的不斷深入，教師自主性在過去的十年也逐漸成為研究的一個焦點。通過全面、深入研讀有關文獻，本文首先探討教師自主性的涵義，接著分析教師自主性和學習者自主性之間的關係。對兩者關係的討論主要圍繞教師在發展學習者自主性過程中的責任、態度和能力進行。文章最後審視促進教師自主性發展和教師發展的三種主要途徑，即人們較為熟悉的行動研究、反思性教學以及近年來才興起的探索型實踐（exploratory practice）。Copyright © 2007 北京外國語大學.