Introduction

As I complete this chapter and return to where I began, a kaleidoscopic image whirls to mind of Joseph Campbell's (1972) 'hero with a thousand faces', the mythic, journeying hero with different faces, male and female, in all cultures, times and places. As the kaleidoscope turns, I see the faces of busy, independent second or foreign language (L2) learners of many colours and ages in different sociocultural settings around the world. On their own or with help from a distance, they heroically crack the code of their new language or push themselves to greater fluency and accuracy. I see laughing faces in a study group at a café. I see a woman's intent face as she consults a tutor by telephone. I glimpse a teenage boy, emailing his tandem-learning partner three countries away. I see individual college students, retirees and refugees, dispersed, in unconventional spaces and moments, reading and studying alone or with peers.

These independent L2 learners are developing learner autonomy (taking responsibility for their learning), which involves, at least in part, deciding upon and using learning strategies and tactics that are relevant to their tasks and goals. L2 learning strategies are the goal-oriented actions or steps (e.g. plan, evaluate, analyse) that learners take, with some degree of consciousness, to enhance their L2 learning. Tactics are the highly specific versions of those actions applied to particular L2 tasks, problems, or situations (e.g. analysing a section of the newspaper Izvestia, to practise distinguishing between facts and opinions while reading Russian).

The people described above are embedded in their varied cultural and social settings and are influenced – though not necessarily bound – by the attitudes, values and beliefs prevalent in those settings. They are creating unique tales of linguistic-cultural being and becoming part of the massive, globally scattered, independent L2 learning enterprise.