Developing Learner Autonomy in the 21st Century Foreign Language Classrooms

Abstract

In the rapidly evolving landscape of the 21st century, the concept of learner autonomy has emerged as a critical component of education. Autonomy and technology have become increasingly connected, changing the face of education and giving students more authority than ever. The current research aims at assessing students’ sense of autonomy and identifying the ways of promoting autonomous learning. It also explores EFL teachers and students’ attitudes and perceptions towards the impact of technology on fostering learners’ autonomy. To this end, a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods was used to collect data from the respondents by means of questionnaire and interview to prove or disconfirm the research hypothesis. A questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 40 master two students at the English department from different specialties. The interview was conducted with 8 teachers at the University of Abdelhamid Ibn Badis from the English department. Accordingly, the findings of the research revealed that the majority of students are autonomous learners. They also highlighted the pivotal role of the teacher’s encouragements on fostering independent learning. Moreover, the interconnection between technology and learner autonomy has been proved in this research. To summarize, we attempt to address how autonomy is sustained among students and technology as a significant tool to enhance this latter.