Over the past four decades, learner autonomy in language learning has been quietly moving across what might be viewed as three paradigms in applied linguistics. When learner autonomy was introduced in the late 1970s, language classrooms were largely teacher-dominated. At that time, learner autonomy offered a much-needed focus on learners as individuals capable of accepting responsibility for all aspects of their learning. Later, as Vygotsky’s (1978, 1986) neo-constructivist theories became known, learning came to be seen as being socially mediated; and the field of applied linguistics experienced ‘a social turn’. Now it is widely recognized that learner autonomy develops more through interdependence rather than independence. Currently in the field of applied linguistics, ecology and complexity thinking are becoming more widespread. This article explores the impact that this theoretical shift might have on the work being carried out in social learning spaces. By drawing on themes arising from an ethnography, a multiple case study, and a narrative inquiry investigating a social learning space, this article looks at how managers might facilitate the emergence of affordances for learning by fostering conditions for complex emergence. It begins by situating the research within the literature, and providing an overview of pertinent aspects of theories of complex dynamic systems and space and place. Then, illustrating the points with themes and anecdotes from the three studies, suggestions are made as to how learning space managers might support the emergence of affordances for learning through attention to distributed control, neighbour interactions, reciprocity, randomness, and physical design features of the learning space.

中文翻译：

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社会学习空间管理中的自主性和复杂性

在过去的四十年中，语言学习中的学习者自主权一直悄悄地转移到应用语言学的三个范式中。1970年代末期引入学习者自主权时，语言教室主要由教师主导。当时，学习者自主性非常需要关注学习者，因为他们能够承担学习的所有方面的责任。后来，随着维果斯基（1978，1986）的新建构主义理论广为人知，学习被视为是社会媒介。应用语言学领域经历了“社会转折”。现在，人们普遍认识到，学习者自主性是通过相互依赖而不是独立性发展的。当前在应用语言学领域，生态学和复杂性思维正变得越来越普遍。本文探讨了这种理论上的转变可能会对社交学习空间中正在开展的工作产生的影响。通过利用人种学，多个案例研究和叙述性探究所产生的主题来调查社会学习空间，本文探讨了管理者如何通过为复杂的出现条件创造条件来促进学习能力的出现。首先，将研究置于文献中，并概述复杂动力系统和空间与空间理论的相关方面。然后，通过说明这三项研究的主题和轶事来说明要点，并提出一些建议，关于学习空间管理者如何通过关注分布式控制，邻居互动，互惠，随机性来支持学习能力的出现。