The Applied Linguistic Individual - Sociocultural Approaches to Identity, Agency and Autonomy - Phil Benson
6 Drifting in and out of view: autonomy and the social individual
The Applied Linguistic Individual - Sociocultural Approaches to Identity, Agency and Autonomy - Phil Benson
Phil Benson [+]
Hong Kong Institute of Education
Phil Benson is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. He has published widely on the topic of autonomy in language teaching and learning and is currently especially interested in informal language learning and the development of second language identity and the use of narrative research methods in Applied Linguistics.
Description
The first part of the book examines theoretical tensions between the social and the individual in their approaches. The argument of this chapter is that autonomy, and Applied Linguistics more generally, is legitimately concerned with the development of individuals, but this concern needs to be underpinned by a well-grounded view of the autonomous individual as a social being.