The idea of the autonomous individual was associated with liberal political traditions over two hundred years ago (Raya, 2017:15). Since then it has been linked to self- access learning, learner training, learner- centeredness, self- management and self-assessment. The course of its evolution has now brought learner autonomy into the ‘mainstream of research and practice within the field of language education’ (Benson, 2011). Although autonomous learning sits within the twenty first century skills set, it is unknown as to the reasons behind its growing prominence. Raya (2017:17) suggests this may be due to the capacity for ‘self- rule and self- government’ and is considered a “trait of persons”. It has a psychological characteristic and considers agents to have a greater capacity for critical reflection. Hence, learner autonomy is gaining increasing pertinence in the choices of approaches and methods within language teaching. With the twenty first century well underway it is certainly becoming one of ELT’s ‘more prominent themes’ and is considered a “precondition for effective learning” (Benson, 2011). However, the concept of learner autonomy doesn’t come without its misconceptions: often regarded as learning in isolation, either via online applications or through language course books. These misconceptions often come from the lack of connectedness with language teaching processes and methods.