The topic of the thesis is the development of autonomy in ELT. In the theoretical part, firstly, the concept of autonomy is presented as well as the aims stated in the Framework Education Programme for Basic Education. The thesis then deals with basic aspects of autonomy that are motivation, self-assessment and roles of participants in teaching-learning processes. The theoretical part is concluded by the description of various means of learner training, i.e. the ways that are believed to facilitate the development of autonomy.
The theoretical bases are afterwards used in the practical part. Its primary aim is to develop autonomy of learners in a particular classroom by means of an action research. In the final part of the action research, the efficiency of strategies adopted in order to make the learners more autonomous is evaluated.