This paper aims at revisiting the concept of autonomy in the context of lan guage teaching and learning, and discussing, in the light of complexity theory, the notion of autonomy as a complex adaptive system. To contextualize the proposed dis cussions, this article begins with an overall description of the scenario of research on autonomy in the language teaching and learning in Brazil, and thus discusses the notion of autonomy underlying four major theories of second language acquisition. Then, different definitions for the term autonomy are presented and, based on the the oretical framework for complexity theory, the focus is shifted to the concept of auton omy as a complex adaptive system. Finally, some important considerations are raised to rethink the issue of autonomy in the scope of language teaching and learning.
Autonomy; Language Teaching and Learning; Complexity