Autonomy in language learning has been a major area of interest in foreign language teaching for some 30 years. Much has been written about what is autonomy in language learning, the rationale for promoting it, and its implications for teaching and learning. The importance of autonomy has been discussed not only in the school setting, but also in other situations such as in business or in the community. Dörnyei (2001) mentioned, "Autonomy Ÿ is currently a buzzword in educational psychology  (p. 102). Benson (2001) also states, "To its advocates, autonomy is a precondition for effective learning; when learners succeed in developing autonomy, they not only become better language learners but they also develop into more responsible and critical members of the communities in which they live  (p. 1). People are required to learn from time to time by themselves in order to survive in society; for example, some people who live in a foreign country need to learn the language, or some desire to learn something that they are interested in to enjoy their life after retirement. One of the main goals for a teacher is to help learners become autonomous so they will be able to deal with learning on their own. William & Burden (1997) define an autonomous learner as one who is equipped with the appropriate skills and strategies to learn a language in a self-directed way. In language learning, autonomy has also drawn attention as learner characteristics, and individual differences are focused on. Cohen & Dörnyei (2002) claim that success in learning a foreign or second language depends on various factors, and the characteristics of the language learner are especially important. Those characteristics may vary, according to researchers; however, motivation is an invariable factor among them, and autonomy is thought to be associated with intrinsic motivation. If that is the case, the question is how or what we teachers can do to foster this. There is a variety of research and literature about autonomy; nevertheless, there still does not seem to be enough to reach a solid conclusion. Hence, this paper attempts to investigate these questions about autonomy by reviewing the literature, and discussing the effectiveness of utilizing it in the language classroom. The discussion stems from observing the connections with other learning concepts or approaches. Understanding what autonomy is, the benefits of it, the disadvantages of it, and how to implement it in a real classroom will help not only learners become better learners, but will also help teachers improve their teaching. The history of defining autonomy in learning beginning at the 1970 Ÿs, the word autonomy meaning law in Greek, and started to be used in the field of language learning. Despite the fact that autonomy has been around for only centuries in the field of education or learning, it has been long used in other fields such as Philosophy, Religion, and Medicine. According to Benson (2001), Galileo affirmed the importance of autonomy saying "You cannot teach a man anything; you can help him find it within himself . The idea of autonomy dates back to ideas of personal autonomy in contemporary western political philosophy. Then in the early 1970 Ÿs, the idea of autonomy first appeared in language learning along with the establishment of the Centre de Recherches st d ŸApplications en language (CRAPEL), which was aimed at adult education (Benson, 2001). Defining autonomy can be demanding because of its broad and abstract nature. Benson quotes Helec, who coined the term autonomy, and describes it as "the ability to take charge of one Ÿs own learning , although Helec does not relate autonomy to language learning in particular (as cited in Benson, 2001). Autonomy is for the most part regarded as the capacity to control one Ÿs own learning. Researchers and scholars, however, add their own views to this general definition, or alter it as they argue. Nunan (2000) states, "Principally, autonomous learners are able to self-determine the overall direction of their learning, become actively involved in the management of the learning process, exercise freedom of choice in relation to learning resources and activities . Benson (2001) says, "I prefer to define autonomy as the capacity to take control of one Ÿs learning, largely because the contrast of control appears to be more open to investigation than the constructs of charge or responsibility . Ur (1996) regards autonomy as one of the three stages of the process of learning a skill. She defines the process of learning a ski