If learner autonomy is an essential concept for TESOL or FL educators, is it also important for English as an Additional Language or Dialect teaching? Can we find ‘learner autonomy’ in the Australian Curriculum? If yes, where? Findings from a curriculum and education policy review project will be discussed.
Learner autonomy thrives in contexts in which the learners are learning and using a target language, and frequently in higher education institutions. However, even in supportive higher education institutions, learner autonomy is frequently confined to courses and spaces for multicultural and multilingual students, aka, international and migrant students. We have fewer discussions of learner autonomy among younger students learning the target language in the school contexts. And many of the young students are likely to be found in school learning alongside speakers of the target language. This is an emerging issue for educational contexts with rapidly increasing cultural and linguistic diversity, for instance, in Germany, Italy, Australia and New Zealand with migrant and refugee children who are entering mainstream education. Australia is one such example. A typical Sydney government school classroom is one with 54.5% of students coming from a language background other than English. Not all of them are learning English as an additional language or dialect (EALD), but a high proportion of primary students are EALD students. If learner autonomy is an essential concept for TESOL or foreign language educators, is it also important for EALD teaching and learning? Can we find ‘learner autonomy’ in the Australian Curriculum? If yes, where? I will discuss findings from a curriculum and education policy review project. Unsurprisingly, learner autonomy is mentioned in language curricula other than English (e.g. Arabic, Italian and Japanese). But, learner autonomy is missing from the English curriculum and English is the only language requirement in the Australian education system. What is the message then? What are the implications for teacher and language teacher education in multicultural and multilingual contexts?
