Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games

Learner Autonomy has become one of the main aims of foreign language learning since Henri Holec’s highly influential publication Autonomy and foreign language learning (1981) in which he highlighted the fact that learners take over responsibility for all aspects of their own learning. Since the internet has become a more interactive and collaborative medium (Web 2.0) which, in contrast to its 1.0 predecessor, allows users to generate their own content or mash-up information, the importance of the so-called participatory web (see e.g. Lee et al., 2008: 501-521) for developing learner autonomy has been emphasised. However, many teachers and learners feel overwhelmed by the sheer endless number of education technology tools available, the opportunities they offer as well as the diversity in technology and autonomy research. This paper aims at discussing the role of technology in the context of learner autonomy by investigating the use of different technologies in literature projects. Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, the first part of The Hunger Game’s trilogy, set in the fictional dystopian world of Panem, will be taken as an example of how successfully to employ technology in language learning to support learner autonomy.