Becoming Autonomous Learners through Self-regulated Learning

Abstract

The present study aimed to explore the instructional efficacy of self-regulated learning strategies on Iranian EFL learners’ autonomy. The participants in this study were 40 Iranian intermediate EFL learners, aged 18-20, attending speaking courses in four English language institutes in Shiraz, Iran. At the beginning of the study, the participants were randomly divided into two groups: the control group with 20 learners (10 males and 10 females) and the experimental group including 20 learners (10 males and 10 females). The learners in the experimental group were subjected to the self-regulated learning intervention to get to know and use self-regulated learning strategies. In contrast, the control group students were taught the course using traditional approaches to speaking English with no use of self-regulated learning strategies. The instruments used in this study were the Self-regulation Regulation Learning Questionnaire (Brown, Miller & Lawendowski, 1999) and Learner Autonomy Questionnaire (Zhang & Li, 2004) Results suggested that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the participants in the control group and in the experimental group concerning their level of learning autonomy. However, no significant relationship was found between the participants' use of self-regulated learning strategies and their learning autonomy. It was also noted that there was no significant relationship between the participants' use of self-regulated learning strategies and learning autonomy in the control and experimental groups.