Languages curricula across the world are increasingly requiring teachers to acknowledge that all foreign language classes consist of individuals, and that all individuals bring with them their own ways of learning, their own strengths and weaknesses, their own previous experiences, and their own attitudes and expectations. In order to improve standards of language learning, the challenge for the language teacher is to manage these individual differences in the classroom, and to enable every individual to achieve his or her full potential and to succeed as a language learner. This book brings together a number of authors from Spain and the UK in order to offer support to those teachers, teacher trainers, students and advisors who are committed to ensuring that all language learners have the opportunity to learn in ways which are appropriate to them as individuals. It explores the nature of individual differences and the implications for developing language skills, and then offers ideas for managing learning in the classroom. A strong theme of the book is the need to encourage learners to take responsibility for their own learning, and to enable them to develop the skills to be able to do this effectively.

The Editors: Manuel Jiménez Raya is a tenured senior lecturer at the English Department at the University of Granada where he lectures on Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Teaching Methodology. His research interests focus on learner autonomy, learning strategies, and teacher education. He is at present editor of the series Foreign Language Teaching in Europe published by Peter Lang. Terry Lamb works at the University of Sheffield and supervises research students in the fields of learner autonomy, motivation and language policy. He is currently Past President of the Association for Language Learning and is known internationally through his work for the AILA Scientific Commission on Learner Autonomy. He is a Governor of CILT.