Promoting Learner Autonomy Through Cooperative Learning Techniques in the L2 Classroom

Cooperative Learning, the pedagogic use of structured group work in educational settings (from kindergarten to university) highlights the learning/teaching process as a social endeavour. Autonomy, on the other hand, is the ability to control one's own learning and is perceived, therefore, as an individual process. This article aims at corroborating the links between Cooperative Learning techniques and autonomy, since the former can help develop the latter thanks to the conditions included in its implementation and analysed throughout the article: anxiety reduction, increase of motivation and the explicit attention to learning styles.