HOW DO TEACHERS AND STUDENTS PERCEIVE LEARNERS’ AUTONOMY IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM?

Haron Bouras

Dr., Souk-Ahras University, ALGERIA, haron.bouras@univ-soukahras.dz

 

Abstract

The present qualitative study aims to probe teachers’ and students’ perceptions of learner autonomy in the Foreign Language (FL) classroom as an element of maintaining and protecting motivation. The research involved individual in-depth semi-structured interviews with six English Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and six students to further explore key issues from their viewpoints. The main findings uncover that both teachers and students underline the importance of learner autonomy, however, they approached it differently. As for teachers, it goes without saying that autonomy is crucial and allows students to practice what they have already learnt even in real life situation but autonomy as well necessitates certain degree of responsibility and self-study on the part of the student. Teachers indicated that students’ over reliance on the teacher or teacher-led learning prevent them from being independent in their learning. In students’ perceptions, it is the teacher’s job to make them autonomous but they did not include any details on how this should be done except for requesting certain freedom in their learning.   

Keywords: EFL teachers, students, perceptions, autonomy, motivation, responsibility, over-reliance