The Effect of Iranian EFL Learners’ Attitude towards English Language Learning on Their Autonomy
Subject Areas : Journal of Studies in Learning and Teaching English
Nasser
Rashidi
1
(Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran)
Hasti
Nazemi
2
(Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran)
Keywords: Iranian EFL learners, learners’ attitude, level of autonomy,
Abstract :
In the process of English learning, each learner has his/her own attitude towards learning. In this path, s/he should feel free to be responsible for what s/he wants and seeks to learn which shows how autonomous the learner is. This study is based on the hypotheses that there is a relationship between what the learner feels towards English language learning and his/her level of autonomy. For this aim, forty Iranian EFL learners were involved in this study. They were all females and studied English as their foreign language at Iran Language Institute. Twenty of them were put into an experimental group and received a treatment. The treatment was used to improve their positive attitudes towards learning English. The second group, known as a control group also consisted of twenty learners but no treatment was applied to this group. Before the study has begun, the two groups received two sets of questionnaires on autonomy and attitude as a pretest to measure their attitude towards learning English. The posttest which was the same questionnaire was given to the experimental group after the application of the treatment, and to the control group which received no treatment. In order to see if there is a relationship between the learners’ attitude and their level of autonomy or not, Pearson correlation coefficient was used to investigate the significance of the relationship. T-tests were conducted between and within the groups. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between the learners’ attitude and their level of autonomy and the significance of this relationship was also clarified