Relationships between EFL University Students' Autonomy and Their Motivation Levels

• Main Authors: Ting, Mien-Hsia, 丁綿霞
• Other Authors: Wey, Shyh-Chyi
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/04767212491533752679

碩士 === 國立雲林科技大學 === 應用外語系 === 102 === Learner autonomy has attracted world-wide attention over the past few years. Nowadays, encouraging students to become autonomous learners has been regarded as a prominent goal in the theory and practice of second or foreign language learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether university students who have majored in English over a period of time in Taiwan are able to direct their own learning process and become an autonomous learner within and beyond the classroom. In addition, the current study also explored whether students’ perceptions of their abilities to manage their own learning and the actual learning activities they engage in differ significantly according to students’ motivation levels. Participants were 332 third-year and fourth-year university students of the departments of Applied Foreign Languages of two universities of science and technology in central Taiwan. A questionnaire survey was distributed to the participants to examine students’ perceptions towards being an autonomous language learner inside and outside the classroom. The results revealed that motivation has significant effect on students’ perceptions towards autonomy. Based on the research findings, some implications were proposed to be of help to language learners, language educators, and education authorities to realize the importance of autonomous learning, and the present study might also provide some insights for future researchers to conduct further studies regarding autonomous language learning.