Abstract

With the changing trends and approaches in education various new concepts have emerged. Of these, learner autonomy stands out as a major concept. This study examined how Turkish instructors of English conceptualize learner autonomy and what they do to promote learner autonomy in their particular teaching contexts. Additionally, the study aimed at investigating the differences in the conceptualizations of autonomy by English language instructors with respect to some variables such as the years of teaching experience, gender, the highest degree obtained, and the type of institution. A total of 109 instructors working in the Schools of Foreign Languages at four state and two private universities participated in the study. The data were collected through an adapted version of the questionnaire originally developed by Borg and Al-Busaidi (2012). Several differences were found in the participating instructors’ conceptualizations of learner autonomy with respect to gender and the type of institution. Female instructors were found to be more positive than their male counterparts about involving students in choosing their own learning materials. The study revealed that the instructors working at private universities, as compared to their colleagues working at state universities, were less in favor of involving students in the decisions about what would be learned, which learning materials would be used, and how learning would be assessed.

Key words: Autonomy, English Language teaching, conceptualizations of autonomy, practices of autonomy, Turkish instructors.