A Study of Iranian EFL Undergraduate Learners’ Autonomy Level: The Role of Learners’ Gender

Learner autonomy is considered to be a vital issue during the last decades, and there has been a controversy about the concept of self-directed learning. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between undergraduate learners’ autonomy level and their gender. A Likert-type autonomy questionnaire, adopted from Varol and Yilmaz (۲۰۱۰), consisting of twenty-one items was run among ۱۰۰ third-year students of English language teaching. The final achievement grades of the female and male learners were also analyzed to enrich the questionnaire results. Furthermore, English teachers of the learners were interviewed in order to gain insights regarding the learners’ autonomous behaviors. The findings revealed some similarities and differences between male and female learners in terms of autonomous activities; however, female learners were found to outperform males in using specific autonomous activities. The findings of this study provide pedagogical implications for language teachers and teacher educators.

کلیدواژه ها:

Autonomous activities ، EFL learners’ gender ، Iranian EFL learners ، Learner autonomy ، Self-regulated learning.