Am I an Autonomous Language Learner? Self-Perceived Autonomy in Trinidad and Tobago: Sociocultural Perspectives

This book explores sociocultural elements and conditions that enable individuals to see themselves as autonomous learners in formal educational settings. It is set in a university context in Trinidad and Tobago. Using an in-depth Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the author brings to life the stories of students majoring in Spanish at university. More

This book explores sociocultural elements and conditions that enable individuals to see themselves as autonomous learners in formal educational settings. This engaging and original book is set at a university context in Trinidad and Tobago. Using an in-depth Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the author brings to life the stories of students majoring in Spanish at university. In order to understand the learners’ autonomy and agency, the author focuses on social dimensions of language learner autonomy. The book aims to understand the contextual and sociocultural teaching and learning practices which are conducive to students constructing the identity of autonomous language learners.

The exploration of autonomy in Trinidad and Tobago took place at a university with thirty Spanish majors. The author answers the following questions in the book:

How do students describe their approaches to studying Spanish in a specialist university degree programme? And what do those approaches suggest about their autonomy?

What can students’ previous lived experiences tell us about their sociocultural context for L2 learning and the development and exercise of autonomy?

This book is highly recommended for language educators and students of applied linguistics who want to understand learner autonomy and agency from a sociocultural perspective.

This book will be particularly useful to language educators interested in voices and perspectives that come from a developing region that has been underrepresented in the literature. In addition, the book might also be useful for teachers and researchers interested in Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, a relatively new qualitative methodology in the study of autonomy in language learning. The book provides tools and ideas for investigating students’ past school experiences that could explain their agency, identity and readiness for autonomy.