The Role of Textbooks for Promoting Autonomy in English Learning

ABSTRACT

The present study investigates the role of textbooks for promoting learner autonomy in teaching English as a foreign language, drawing on the content analysis of three textbooks and interviews to six teachers who used them. The textbooks include activities that can potentially promote learner autonomy, although in a reduced number and mostly focused on processes of language learning/ use rather than on didactic processes and the learner’s self. The teachers acknowledge the importance of textbooks but also their limitations for promoting autonomy, use complementary learner-centred strategies, and point out the prevalence of teaching cultures that constrain this approach. An exploratory reflection-action framework for promoting autonomy emerges from the study as regards the textbook (assumptions and activities) and the teacher (conceptions, premises, strategies, and constraints.

KEYWORDS:
textbook; autonomy; English language teaching; public school