The Relationship between EFL Learners’ Autonomy, Anxiety, and Their Motivated Strategies for Learning

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between EFL learners' autonomy, anxiety and their motivated strategies for learning. To this end, 158 undergraduate students, within the age range of 21 to 30 (M_age = 25), majoring in English Translation and English Literature at Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran, South Tehran, and North Tehran were selected based on convenience sampling strategy. They were asked to fill in three questionnaires, namely the English versions of the Zhang and Li's Learner Autonomy Questionnaire (2004), Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope, 1986), and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, and McKeachie, 1991). Since the assumptions of normality of distribution were violated for the scores of anxiety and motivated strategies for learning, in order to find out the relationships among the variables the non-parametric test, Spearman Rank Order Coefficient of Correlation was conducted. The results revealed that there was a significant and positive correlation between autonomy and motivated strategies, a significant and negative correlation between anxiety and autonomy, a significant and negative correlation between anxiety and motivated strategies. Furthermore, a regression analysis revealed that motivated strategies make the strongest significant unique contribution to suppressing anxiety.