The research discusses the development of students autonomy in the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) in Russia in vocationally-oriented language learning (VOLL). The authors analyze the works of Russian and western scientists in this field, reveal similarities and differences in their views, and provide their definition of learner autonomy. Based on the ways to develop learner autonomy, the authors distinguish motivational, personal, and competence-based components in the structure of students autonomy. To develop the autonomous skills of would-be interpreters of vocationally-oriented texts, the authors propose to use Moodle e-learning platform and specify the educational environment of its effective application to achieve the objective. The authors conducted a series of experiments that proved the efficiency of the methods suggested.