Students` Autonomy Is a Challenge for Teachers

Khamova Svetlana N.

Challenges for English language teachers in developing students` autonomy are covered in the article. Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in the study. The findings indicate that teachers at D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia have to cope with four challenges: teachers are supervisors, they dominate in all aspects of students` learning; students are consumers of education services and passive participants in the educational process; self-study is not actively incorporated in learners` language acquisition, so personal learning platforms are not built and new technologies in language teaching are not applied on a large scale. Some steps to promote learner’s autonomy aimed at improving their performance are offered in the article.

Keywords:higher education, English language, students` autonomy, survey, challengers