A Review of the Research on Language Teacher Autonomy

Teacher autonomy is one of the most significant and problematic concepts to have emerged from the field of teacher education in recent years. It has generally been referred to as teachers’ control over their own teaching. Teachers’ autonomous learning is also one of the most effective ways to support teachers in their classroom practice, as well as to improve and expand their professional preparation and practices. Research on teacher autonomy in the field of second language education has had a short history and many terms related to language teacher autonomy are still under discussion. The paper mainly discusses the rationale of teacher autonomy and its related topics in the literature in recent years, and then presents the authors’ own views about the research on teacher autonomy of university English teachers in China.