The rituals of language: teacher's talk in the language classroom

In the context of language education, autonomy and independence are qualities normally expected of learners rather than teachers. But autonomous modes of learning imply a re-evaluation of the roles of both learner and teacher, the relationships between them, and the relationships of both to institutions of learning. These roles and relationships can be complex and are not reducible to simple expectations of behaviour or distributions of power. It is not uncommon for autonomous learning projects to run into problems because of mismatched expectations in the area of learner – teacher roles. Clearly, both learners and teachers need to know who they are, what they can expect from each other and what their respective attitudes are towards the institutional and social context of learning if autonomous learning is to work.