Learner Autonomy in EFL: Senior High School Teachers’ Perception and Practices

Sudarsono ,Lies Puji Lestari ,Slamet Setyawan

doi:10.7176/jep/12-27-04

Abstract

Topic about Learner autonomy (LA) is still interesting and trending for English Language teachers or researchers. This research aims to findhow senior high school teachers percieve the concept of LA and the extent of English teaches’ practices to promote LA. The participants were 33 private and state Senior High School English teachers who joined in Deliberation of Subject Teachers.The data, collected through questionnaire and interview, was analyzed using descriptive statistic and qualitative analysis. The findingsrevealed that majority participants (97%) agreed or strongly agreedto technical view that independent study in the library was an activity which developed learner autonomy.In terms of Teacher Role, surprisingly, majority participants (64%) disagreed or strongly disagreed to the statement that learner autonomy meant learning without a teacher.In promoting learner autonomy,100% of the teachers often or always encouraged their students to be more responsible about what they did in class. Implications of this study are for the teachers' professional development and for promoting learner autonomy at senior high school level. Keywords: English teachers, perception, practices, learner autonomy DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-27-04 Publication date: September 30 th 2021

Highlights

Since National Curriculum of K-13 was launched, there has been a principle change of teacher’s mindset in the way of teaching
3.2 Instruments 3.2.1Questionnaire This research adapted Borg and Al-Busaidi’s questionnaire (Borg and Busaidi, 2012a) to get the data about learner autonomy (LA) concepts perceived by the English Language Teachers of senior high school in Jember containing 37 items.The items of questionnires were divided into five categories/views: technical, political(item 3, 4, 7, 14, 22 and 27), psychological and social.The rest of the items were related to other factors: teacher role, ages, English proficiency, culture, learning achievement, teaching approach
Among the six viewsabove,Technical view got the most majority positive response, 96% of the participants agree or strongly agree to the statement no. 2 that independent study in the library was an activity which developed learner autonomy.It is mostly commented by the participants that one of the statements is highlighted below: “I often ask my students to go to library, especially when their teacher doesn’t come

Summary

Introduction

Since National Curriculum of K-13 was launched, there has been a principle change of teacher’s mindset in the way of teaching. The K-13 emphasizes learner-centered approach that gives students more portions of learning activities in the classroom. The teachers are encouraged to provide students wider space of activities that enables students to be more motivated, initiative, creative and independent in learning. The teacher’s role is as a learning facilitator for the students (Kemendikbud, 2014). This government policy becomes a momentum for English teachers to find some instructional approaches which meet the K-13’s principals. One of the instructional approaches recently become a trending topic is learner autonomy (LA)

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