چکیده:
Learner autonomy (LA) has always been a controversial issue among applied linguists. Several studies have been carried out to investigate the teachers' and learners' perceptions of learner autonomy as well as the feasibility of learner autonomy. Despite the importance of learner autonomy and the existence of several related studies, the challenges in promoting LA in Iranian institutes to the researcher’s best of knowledge have not been explored appropriately, yet. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the challenges in promoting learner autonomy from Iranian EFL teachers' perspectives. To do so, a qualitative research design was used. In doing so, 23 Iranian EFL teachers employed as full time teachers in different universities in Tehran, Iran were selected through purposive sampling. The data were collected through in-depth interviews and analyzed through content analysis following Randor model. Based on the content analysis of the interviews, three different themes were extracted. The first most frequent observed theme, institution related challenges, consisted of prescribed objectives, materials, and assessment methods. The second theme, learner related challenges, consisted of seven sub-themes. However, the third extracted theme was teacher related challenges which consisted of four sub-themes. The findings can be used by teacher trainers, teachers, as well as EFL learners. It can be concluded that EFL teachers should receive training in learner autonomy through both pre-service and in-service training courses
خلاصه ماشینی:
"Phipps and Borg (2009), in their review of literature on teacher‘ beliefs both in general education and specifically in relation to language teaching, hold that teachers‘ beliefs about teaching and learning: a) may be negatively or positively influenced by teachers‘ previous experiences as learners and are well formed by the time they enter university b) are used by teachers for interpretation of new information and experience c) may be more powerful in effecting teachers‘ action in the classroom than their teacher training courses/ teacher education d) are not always reflected in teachers‘ practice e) can influence and be influenced by practices , and f) greatly influence teachers‘ pedagogical decisions.
Table 2: Learner-related challenges in promoting learner autonomy Learner related challenges N Percent Lack of motivation among learners 19 82 Learners‘ dependence on the teacher 18 78 Learners‘ limited exposure to English 17 74 Learners‘ focus on test results 16 70 Learners‘ low proficiency in English 15 65 Learners‘ lack of experience in autonomous learning 14 60 Learners‘ inability in identifying needs 13 56 About 82 percent of the participants argued that there are learner related factors that do not let them promote learner autonomy easily.
This finding is in line with a body of the related studies (to name just a few, Balçıkanlı, 2010; Benson, 2011; Borg & Al-Busaidi, 2012; Phipps & Borg, 2009) who believe that that there are some constraining factors involved in the formal learning environment that may be viewed as hindrances to the development of learner autonomy."