Learner's Autonomy in Teaching/Learning French as a Second Foreign Language

Creative Commons License

Ozcelik N.

HACETTEPE UNIVERSITESI EGITIM FAKULTESI DERGISI-HACETTEPE UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, cilt.30, sa.3, ss.102-115, 2015 (SSCI) identifier identifier

Özet

This research was conducted with the students (n=202) learning French as the second foreign language and attending the French Language Teaching branch of the Foreign Languages Department of Gazi Faculty of Education of Gazi University by using the survey model with the aim of determining foreign language learning prospective teachers' views of learners' autonomy in language learning, and to exhibit the correlations between the views according to such variables as gender and grade level. Learner Autonomy Scale (LAS) developed by Egel (2003) and adapted into French by the researcher was utilised as the tool of data collection. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient was calculated as .81 for the scale. According to the findings obtained in the research, the students feel "independent" in preparation for self-management, independent study in language learning, the teacher's role: instruction/supervision, and other cultures whereas they feel "neutral" in terms of the importance of the class/teacher, choice of content, and evaluation/motivation. According to the results for the t test, statistically significant differences in favour of female students were found between male and female students' views only on the sub-dimensions of the importance of the class/teacher, and the teacher's role: instruction/supervision; and thus it was concluded that female participants were more "independent" than the male ones on these two sub-dimensions of the scale. According to grade levels, prospective teachers' learning autonomy scores were found to differ significantly on the sub-dimensions of independent study, the teacher's role: instruction/supervision, and choice of content. ANOVA results for the LAS scores received by the prospective teachers according to the grade level exhibit that statistically significant differences hold largely between preparatory class students and the 4th year students.