ABSTRACT
This chapter takes a close look at the issue of quality in strategizing about language learning and at the various options for autonomous learning. The chapter problematizes the labels used to refer to strategies, as well as the categorization of strategies and the way that they are referred to in the instructional literature. The argument is made that often the categorizations and strategy labels refer to vague notions that are perhaps better seen as skills rather than strategies (e.g., “I use a dictionary”). In addition, recent research has demonstrated that strategy functions (i.e., metacognitive, cognitive, social, and affective) can fluctuate from moment to moment in the use of the very same strategy (e.g., “using context to arrive at word meaning”) and across strategies when strategies are used in pairs, sequences, or clusters. The chapter approaches the issue of quality in autonomous learning by distinguishing fully autonomous learning from that which is controlled to a greater or lesser extent by a teacher, textbook, online course, or some other source.
