Local Conference, Brno

The teacher’s role in development of learner autonomy

 21-22 September, 2018

Masaryk University Language Centre

This IATEFL / LASIG conference explored the specific and ever-changing role that the language teacher plays within the context of autonomous learning. The main themes included Personalized Learning, Counselling and Empowering Students as redefining the teacher’s role is necessarily interlinked with an emphasis on students’ needs. We brought together teachers and teacher trainers at primary, secondary as well as tertiary levels to uncover a variety of approaches to the development of learner autonomy. We believe that support and encouragement of autonomous learning is a crucial task for teachers nowadays and that this focus can serve as an umbrella term for a number of related methods and pedagogical trends that are still quite new in the educational context of Central and Eastern Europe.

The conference featured presentations and workshops on various aspects of learner autonomy. In addition, a session for individual sharing and networking gave everyone a chance to participate informally.