From Awareness to Action: Guiding Learners on the Journey to Autonomy and Agency

For years, I have started teacher training sessions asking teachers this question: what do you want your legacy to be for your students? I let them think for a little bit and then I pitch my idea to them, let me do that for you now.

Being remembered as the teacher who explained the Present Perfect clearly could be something nice to aim for. But … wouldn’t it be better to be remembered as teachers who helped their students develop learner autonomy? Learner autonomy that allows them to know themselves better, to assume responsibility for their own actions, to make better-informed decisions, and to fully use their agency to reach for their goals.

I don’t know you, but to me, that sounds like a legacy worth building. Knowing the Present Perfect well will only get you so far, being a self-aware autonomous learner will open doors everywhere you go your whole life.

Someone who knows how to learn, who has learned to discern to make decisions, and who practices personal accountability, makes for the kind of citizen of the world that all of us as educators, would feel proud to have participated in shaping. That is what learner autonomy can do for your students. Interested? Keep reading/listening.

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I believe that the process of learning a second or foreign language is an ideal scenario to develop and support learner autonomy. The process of learning a new language, as part of the school curriculum, as a personal choice or even as something you have to do, will provide opportunities to develop self-awareness. This is the starting point in developing learner autonomy, and it will undoubtedly lead to personal growth. Which is what we want to accomplish in the end as educators.

Before we go any further, we need to define what we mean by autonomy. I personally like this definition by Professor David Little (1991, p. 4):
 

“Essentially, autonomy is a CAPACITY – for detachment, critical reflection, decision-making, and independent action.”

The reason why I like it is because it describes autonomy as a capacity, and to me this is a very optimistic point of view. It means that this is something we all have the potential to develop. Adding to this definition, Leni Dam (1995, p,2) describes learner autonomy as “a readiness to take charge of one’s own learning [which in turn] entails a capacity and willingness to act independently and in cooperation with others, as a social, responsible person.”

This perspective is what gives learner autonomy value in a learner’s journey. It is the evolution from autonomy, the potential capacity for self-direction, into agency, the power to act intentionally. Students who develop learner autonomy become increasingly more self-aware. They are, through their own agency, active participants driving their own process in any learning environment. Nothing supports life-long learning as much as learner autonomy. As Leni (ibid) puts it:
 

“An autonomous learner knows how to learn and can use this knowledge in any learning situation s/he may encounter at any stage in her/his life.

If there is one clarity I have gained after almost twenty years of working on learner autonomy, is that autonomy is built upon collaboratively as a community:
 

“La autonomía se construye en comunidad.”

Just like a parent should want their child to become self-sufficient and independent, supporting students in developing learner autonomy should be a concern and a part of the teacher’s job (Dickinson 1992, p. 2). Still, autonomy is not something teachers can do to or for their students. Autonomy is an achievement of both the teacher and the learners. La Ganza (2008) explains that the successful development of learner autonomy depends on the delicate balance between “the teacher holding back from influencing the learner, and the learner holding back from seeking the teacher’s influence.”

So, basically, teachers cannot make their students autonomous learners, but without the teacher’s active encouragement and use of the type of teaching that supports autonomy, the learners most likely will not become autonomous (Little 1991, Reeve & Cheon 2021). The main step then, in any work done towards supporting autonomy, is getting the teachers to evaluate their own attitudes about learner autonomy. This is crucial, because teachers often tend to be the first ones to doubt the learners’ capacity for it (Benson, 2006). Where do you and your school stand on this?

Consider this, according to McGrath (2000: 102) one of the attributes of those teachers who really seek to promote autonomy in their learners is that they believe and trust in their learners’ capacity to act autonomously. These teachers also have a “genuine desire to foster autonomous development” in their students; and they start by, first of all, being self-aware of themselves as learners. As teachers, we need to explore our own relationship to autonomy if we are to successfully work on it and encourage it in our learners.

For those teachers ready to create an autonomy supportive environment for their students, there are certain behaviors that Reeve and colleagues suggest they keep an eye on. These behaviors are:

(Adapted from Reeve, J., & Cheon, S. H., 2021; Reeve et al., 2022)

Together with these autonomy supportive behaviors, I would also like to recommend that you and your school consider the broader and more overarching ways of acting to promote autonomy suggested by McGrath. These principles have guided the work we have done in my university for years now in preparing teachers to accompany their students in developing learner autonomy: teachers should see themselves as a resource, they should be prepared to share decisions whenever possible with learners. They should promote and facilitate collaborative evaluations. Teachers need to be able to manage and cope with any possible uncertainty and disorientation the learners might feel when being introduced to a more proactive autonomy-oriented environment. This requires the teacher to exercise patience, and at the same time it is vital that she is supported by colleagues, coordinators and the school at large (McGrath, 2000).

In ELT, we have known for years that autonomy is not to be confused with separateness, being or doing alone, without help (Benson, 2011). As we already discussed, autonomy is something we build together, teachers and learners. Autonomy is knowing yourself well enough to be able to decide how and what you need to work, when to work on your own and when to work
with others. Autonomy is also accepting when you need help, where to find it or who to ask for it.

An autonomous learner knows herself well enough to be able to set challenging goals for herself, as well as decide what she needs to do to reach them, because she understands what her personal resources are. An autonomous learner has the skills and strategies to face and learn from both success and failure (Ruiz, 2025).

Developing autonomy is part of maturing into a healthy functioning adult, and it is a motivational state as well. Autonomy is that potential energy for action. If autonomy is well supported, it gives the learner the drive and the direction to feed that intrinsic motivation that helps explore and reach for impactful goals (Reeve et al., 2022).

Reeve (2022, p. 33) explains how the research into autonomy as a motivational state has shown that its development can produce an increase in “engagement, agency, learning, skill development, positive self-concept, achievement, prosocial behavior and well-being” and a decrease in “disengagement, amotivation, passivity, negative feelings, cheating, problematic relationships, antisocial behavior and bullying”.

I don’t know you, but these are the learners I want to help shape, socially responsible mature adults who proactively contribute to the communities and the world they help build.

Our world would certainly benefit from having people who can communicate well, there is a need for teachers who can explain the Present Perfect. We want our students to be able to learn and communicate well in the language we are teaching them, that is an important and worthwhile mission for us language teachers. A student in our department’s language programme expressed this in the most beautiful way:

“Learning another language is an act of peace.”

As language teachers, we are part of building understanding between people and cultures. However, I believe that we owe it to our students to go beyond that. We are more than language teachers, we are educators, part of that village that it takes to raise a child. Whether we teach young or older learners, we can choose to accompany them in developing autonomy by modelling empathy, fostering self-awareness, and promoting collaboration.

Our legacy would be seen in learners who know themselves well, who are better able to make informed decisions, who understand the responsibility behind their choices and actions. Our students would be better able to contribute to making the world of tomorrow a place worth inhabiting. And it all starts with teachers who build trust with their students and provide the support they need to confidently develop autonomy.

Adelina Ruiz-Guerrero, PhD is an English teacher and academic coordinator with over thirty years of experience in education. Originally trained as a social psychologist, she holds an MA in English Language Teaching and a PhD in Education from the University of Nottingham, UK. Her primary area of expertise is learner and teacher autonomy. She has taught at the elementary, secondary, and higher education levels and has participated in teacher training programs for the British Council in Mexico. She currently serves as an Academic Coordinator for the Certified English Programme and is Head of the Language Hub — the self-access center within the Language Department at ITESO, the Jesuit University of Guadalajara. She is also the main tutor for the Diploma Course in Advising for Autonomous Learning.

References:

Benson, P. (2006) Autonomy in language teaching and learning. Language Teaching 40, 21-40.

Benson, P. (2011) Teaching and Researching Autonomy. UK, Pearson

Dam, L. (1995). Learner Autonomy: from theory to classroom practice. Dublin: Authentik

Dickinson, L. (1992) Learner Autonomy: Learner Training for language learning. Dublin, Authentik

La Ganza, W. (2008). Learner Autonomy - teacher autonomy, interrelating and the will to empower. In T. Lamb, & H. Reinders (Eds.), Learner and Teacher Autonomy (pp. 63 - 79). Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing.
Little, D. (1991) Learner Autonomy: Definitions, Issues and Problems. Dublin, Authentik

McGrath, I. (2000) Teacher Autonomy. In Sinclair, B., McGrath, I., and Lamb, T. (Eds.) Learner Autonomy, Teacher Autonomy: Future Directions. Harlow, Longman.

Reeve, J., & Cheon, S. H. (2021). Autonomy-supportive teaching: Its malleability, benefits, and potential to improve educational practice. Educational Psychologist, 56(1), 54–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2020.1862657

Reeve, J., Ryan, R. M., Cheon, S. H., Matos, L., & Kaplan, H. (2022). Supporting students' motivation: Strategies for success. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003
Reeve, J. (2022) What It Means to ‘Take Ownership over One’s Own Learning’ in a Self-Determination Theory Analysis". Autonomy Support Beyond the Language Learning Classroom: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective, edited by Jo Mynard and Scott J. Shelton-Strong, Bristol, Blue Ridge Summit: Multilingual Matters, pp. 31-44. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781788929059-005

Ruiz-Guerrero, A. (2025). Autonomía con propósito: decisiones para vivir mejor la universidad. Lectio Brevis, lección inaugural del periodo académico 2025-2026, Tlaquepaque, Jalisco: ITESO. https://hdl.handle.net/11117/11754

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