II. Autonomous Learning

2.1 The Concept of Autonomous Learning

Autonomous learning is also called self-managed learning, independent learning, learners control the instruction, self-directed learning, self-assess learning and so on. Autonomous learning originates from the reform of European Adult Education at the end of 1960s. It has been a heated topic in the western countries. Holec first formally proposed the concept of autonomous learning in his famous book Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning in 1981. Dickinson accepts the definition of autonomous as “a situation in which the learners is totally responsible for all of the decisions concerned with his or her learning and the implementation of those decisions.”(11) According to him, autonomous learners are ready to take charge of their own learning. Both of them emphasize the importance of independence in learning.