Learner Autonomy

I personally really liked chapter 6 which was about promoting learner autonomy.  In my curriculum and instruction classes I have learned a decent amount about learner autonomy and how promoting it is essential.  I felt this chapter really just emphasized the importance of learner autonomy and how it is not just on the student.  Teachers are also responsible for a learner's autonomy, which is not what most people think.  They assume it usually is just on the learner, but the teacher does play a role in it.  I feel that is something that needs to be noted because it obviously influences the success of learner autonomy.  I also liked how this chapter gave a break down between a narrow view and broad view of learner autonomy.  What I got from that was just that a narrow view focuses on how one learns and the broad view focuses on how one can take their learning to another level.  Obviously both of these views are important to keep in mind when dealing with learner autonomy because they both come into play.  I think one of the most important thinks to remember about learner autonomy is that it is up to the student mainly along with the help of the teacher.  A teacher can only help so much with learner autonomy, but a student needs to want to be autonomous.

Curriculum Design and Materials Development

What I personally liked and got out of this article was the overall explanation of curriculum.  I felt like it really defined curriculum and the different kinds there are.  I was able to understand the differences between content based curriculum, process based curriculum, and product based curriculum.  All three of these curriculums seemed to have their own pros and cons, however the one I liked the best was the process based curriculum.  I liked this curriculum the best because it seemed to cater to the needs of the learner the most.  It was not as concerned with meeting expectations set out by other outside people.  Process based curriculum focused on the learner's needs and what they needed to get out of the curriculum.  It not only applied classroom content, but what was taught also applied to the real world.  It seemed like this curriculum would be more practical for a second language learner.

To me it seems that process based curriculum would work more with a person who is trying to learn English as a second language because it gives practical applications of the language.  They are not only learning content information, but what they are learning can be applied out in the real world.  I feel that product based curriculum might be better for someone who is learning English as a foreign language.  This reminds me more of when I learned Spanish is school and it seems to be taught more so that you are expected to learn a certain amount by the end of each class year.  This focuses more on learning the material and structure of the language as opposed to skills one could use out in their daily world.  Those just are the distinguishes I see between the two curriculums and who they would suit best.

When working with ESL students, I most likely would want to implement the process based curriculum. I feel it is important to cater more to the students needs than to focus real hard on making sure they meet some standard set out by others.  This curriculum probably though will be the hardest to implement because one has to make sure they know their students and know their students needs.  Although this curriculum may be more difficult to implement and may take more time to, I feel that it will be the most practical for ESL students.