Annotated Bibliography on EFL Teacher’s Beliefs and Practices in Implementing Learner

Autonomy

The importance of developing learner autonomy becomes an important consideration in

teaching and learning. It relies on students centered method where the students are involved in
decision making process. Helping English language learners to be autonomous is one of the
fundamental duties of foreign language educators. It is largely the teachers’ responsibility to
develop learner autonomy in guiding the students to be involved in planning, monitoring,
developing and evaluating their learning. The degree of learner autonomy in language learning is
determined by teacher’s beliefs about the concept of learner autonomy. Therefore, teachers’
commitment and beliefs are essential in the aspect they will create classroom environment as
well as activities outside the classroom to foster learner autonomy.

Alhaysony, M. (2016). An investigation of EFL teachers’ beliefs and practices of learner

autonomy. International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature, 4
(12), 45-49. http://dx.doi.org/10.20431/2347-3134.0412009

Alhaysony focused on the definitions of learner autonomy to 77 EFL teachers and the
desirability and feasibility that teachers feel to promote learner autonomy.

The majority of the teachers stated that learning how to learn is a key to developing
learner autonomy. They also believed that confident and motivated language learners can
develop autonomy more easily than learners who are not confident enough and less motivated.
Teachers expressed their assignment that learner autonomy can be promoted through regular
opportunities for learners to complete tasks alone and activities which give learners opportunities
to learn from each other. Independent study in the library, learning outside the classroom and
independent work in a self-access centre are activities that teachers do to foster learner
autonomy.

This study gives a strong understanding not only towards the technical, psychological,
social and political perspectives, but also towards the role of the teacher in promoting autonomy
and the cultural universality of learner autonomy. I might use this research as one of my
frameworks since it gives me some basic foundations to find the gap for my further research
which deals with the role of teachers in learner autonomy.
Borg, S. & Al-Busaidi, S. (2012). Learner autonomy: English language teachers’ beliefs and
practices. ELT Research Paper, 12–07. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccr065

The focuses of this study are the teachers’ perceptions of teachers toward the term learner
autonomy, the extent that teachers feel their learners are autonomous and the challenges they
face in helping the learners to be autonomous.
The findings revealed that the teachers held a range of beliefs toward the definition of
learner autonomy, but one recurrent concept is that it involved learners in having the freedom of
the ability to make choices. Regarding the feasibility and desirability, students’ involvement in
decision making was seen to be most feasible in relation to materials, topics and activities. While
the relation to materials, topics and activities are the least feasible in students’ involvement. The
activities that teachers do to foster learner autonomy are suggest the students to visit the library,
doing moodle assignments, cooperative and peer learning, using worksheets and encourage
students to find out certain topics.
This study gives strong basis of understanding related to teachers’ perceptions since they
used large samples as the respondents in this study. Since the data collection in this study is used
as the main guidance for other studies in the same field, I might use the instruments in this study
by adapting it based on my research objectives.

Chan, V. (2003). Autonomous language learning: The teacher’s perspective. Teaching in

Higher Education, 8(1), 34-50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1356251032000052311

Chan explored the teacher’s perspectives toward learner autonomy as well as the strategies
that teachers do in fostering learner autonomy in Hongkong..

She used questionnaire survey which involved 41 English teachers from the English
Department. Regarding teachers’ perceptions of their own responsibilities, the findings suggested
that majority of teachers felt that they were mainly responsible for all the processes with the
exception of: make sure students make progress outside class and decide what students learn
outside class. However, there were three outside class activities that students were judged to be
most able in: evaluate the course, choose learning materials outside class and identify their
weaknesses in English.
 In this study, there is a clear description of how the teachers regard themselves and the
students to get involved in learner autonomy. Since this study did not include the desirability and
feasibility, further research might include the feasibility and desirability to each item in the
questionnaire. Therefore, I might use this study as one of my guidelines in conducting my future
research with enrichment in the aspect of feasibility and desirability.

Duong, T.M. & Seepho, S. (2014). Promoting learner autonomy: A qualitative study on
EFL teachers’ perceptions and their teaching practices. Proceedings of the 2 nd
Conference of the Independent Learning Association (pp. 129-137). Bangkok,
Thailand.

The objectives of this study are to explore teachers’ perceptions towards learner
autonomy, their perceptions of their roles in promoting learner autonomy and their attitudes
toward the promotion of learner autonomy in their classes.

An interesting fact that can be found in this study is that the majority of respondents
thought that learner autonomy was associated with learner independence but not entirely
independent of the teacher. The respondents stated the teachers should take a role as a facilitator
in helping students to become autonomous learners. Teachers attempted to give students
opportunities to work on their own because most of them believed that learner autonomy can
lead to life-long learning. The specific activities that they do in the classroom are asking students
to access different sources by themselves, encourage them to go self access centre and provide
them with freedom to make decisions about the topic, materials and learning strategies.

The findings in this study are well-described because it includes teachers’ responses from
open-ended questionnaire. However, since this study only discussed the teachers’ roles and
attitudes toward learner autonomy, the next research should include other aspects such as
technical, social, psychological and political areas as well the desirability and feasibility. For my
research, I might add an open-ended questionnaire by looking the pattern in this study and make
some arrangements to the questions.
Harati, M. (2017). Teachers’ perception on learner autonomy in the EFL educational
context in Iran. Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods, 7(8), 200-207.
https://doi.org/10.26655/suffix

She focused on the teachers’ perspectives on learner autonomy, the areas of learner
autonomy that teachers consider as important and the constraints they view as obstacles for the
development of learner autonomy.

Having six teachers as the subjects of this study, the results showed that teachers seen
learner autonomy is something like being able to work independently and being aware of
students’ own strengths and weaknesses. They considered learner autonomy as necessary
because it encourages the students to study more than they generally do. They also think that the
spoon-feeding technique is not the effective way to teach a foreign language. Based on the
interview, they stated that portfolio assessment to keep track on students’ performance and
outside classroom tasks as the strategies to promote learner autonomy.

The major finding of this study gives the broad view of teachers’ perceptions toward
learner autonomy and the engagement of learners in learning process. However, the findings on
this research are only derived from interview data. There is no further explanation or the author’s
comments regarding the interpretation to the findings. Therefore, I may conduct the research
with the same topic but employ different methods to collect the data by adding questionnaires
and classroom observation to my future research.