Saudi EFL learners self perceptions and readiness for learner autonomy

Abstract EN

Learner’s readiness for independent learning plays an important role in establishing learner autonomy as a successful mode of learning in formal education.

This is an important issue in the contexts of university level education in Saudi Arabia which is currently witnessing a shift from traditional classroom education to more learner centered approaches prevailing worldwide.

This study explored students’ opinions about their own abilities to act autonomously.

Also, the learners’ perceptions of teacher and learner responsibilities will be identified.

The autonomous language learning activities employed by the language learners outside classrooms will be investigated.

The respondents were 260 Third and Fourth year Saudi female ESL learners of Faculty of Arts, age ranging from 19-22 years.

The learner’s questionnaire measuring the roles of learners and teachers in language learning process was used.

Results indicated that Saudi female learners were ready to take more responsibility in the learning process in language classroom.

It was observed that for some items, students shared the responsibility with the teachers and scores of some items showed individual responsibility of teacher and learner.

The results were statistically significant