EFL teachers' perceptions of learner autonomy and the use of teaching strategies to promote learner autonomy at senior high school in Ba Ria Vung Tau province: Master of TESOL

Abstract

This study aimed to explore EFL teachers’ perceptions of learner autonomy and the use of teaching strategies to promote learner autonomy at high schools in Ba Ria Vung Tau Province. The mixed-methods approach was employed in this study, i.e., both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. There were 106 high school teachers of English from 14 high schools in Ba Ria Vung Tau Province who participated in the survey, and 20 of them were selected purposively for the individual interviews. As for data analysis, descriptive statistics (e.g., mean, standard deviation, and frequencies/ percentages) were used to analyse quantitative data, whereas qualitative data were analysed through content analysis. Based on the results obtained from the data analysis, there were two findings which were explored in this study. First, the collected data showed that high school teachers had good understanding of learner autonomy in four aspects, including decision-making ability, learner independence, psychology of learning and levels of learner autonomy. Second, high school teachers applied some teaching strategies for the promotion of learner autonomy among their students relating to three sub variables from decision-making ability, learner independence to psychology of learning. These included giving students rights to make their own decisions about learning styles, learning materials and activities under the basis of teacher-learner agreement negotiations; encouraging students to develop learning strategies, study plans to achieve their own goals, identify their own needs as well as discover the language concepts by themselves and letting students to evaluate, reflect and monitor their leaning process as well. Finally, high school teachers found it challenging to create teaching strategies in relation to learner autonomy because of time limit as well as scarceness of detailed criteria based on different activities for students’ assessment. Notwithstanding that, teachers still tried their best to develop students’ autonomous learning ability in language learning