Affect And The Role Of Teachers In The Development Of Learner Autonomy

The gist of learner autonomy is that a learner develops'the ability to take charge of his or her own learning'(Holec 1981: 3). The concept of autonomy is not new in the field of education. But it does not mean we understand it entirely or we have developed it perfectly. We are still exploring the proper ways to develop learner autonomy. But some of us ignore the roles of affect might play in the development, only regard autonomy as some learning skills or some learning situation. Focusing on the roles of affect in the development of autonomy, the paper claims that teacher is the most important supporting social relations. Without detailing each teaching steps in the development of learner autonomy, the paper just emphasizes some aspects which are often neglected and of great importance in the development of autonomy. Also, the paper mentions a rather new but vital concept—teacher autonomy, which greatly influences learner autonomy. By way of interviews, the author got the feedback of students, which bore out the importance of affect and the teacher's role in the development of autonomy. At last, the paper offers a detailed method—self-assessment, which not only takes affect in concern, but also helps learners become the"whole-person". The paper also has to claim that affective is inescapably political because the psychological argument challenges traditional educational structures and power relationships. Furthermore, we teachers and the educators should go further to cultivate students into whole-persons with great autonomy.