Understanding students’ learner autonomy in the department of English in two Algerian universities

Chetouane, Abdelkader (2023) Understanding students’ learner autonomy in the department of English in two Algerian universities. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

The last five years have witnessed a growing interest in learner autonomy research in Algeria, especially in the department of English at the tertiary level. In this context, students are described as lacking autonomy, often for not meeting the narrative about this concept as prescribed in the literature. In that regard, the current research challenges those claims and favours the idea that learner autonomy "is an essential characteristic of all successful learners and can be found everywhere if we know how to look" (Smith et al., 2018, p. 18). Therefore, different existing varieties of learner autonomy manifest in different degrees and in different ways that reflect the contexts in which the concept is employed. Following that line of thought, this study responds to calls for contextual investigations of learner autonomy that incite to take into account the specific educational and overall socio-cultural contexts where the concept is enacted (Little, 1999a; O'Leary, 2014; Wang, 2016). To achieve this, a mixed-methods research design was employed. This involved administering questionnaires and conducting interviews with both students and teachers in the department of English at two Algerian universities. The findings from this research showed that students and teachers initially demonstrated broad understandings of learner autonomy. Students framed learner autonomy as "the ability to learn by oneself", while their teachers explained it as the students’ "ability to learn in detachment from teachers". Although these two understandings were expressed differently, they were based on two core values, namely "independence and responsibility in learning", which both students and teachers referred to when describing what learner autonomy meant to them. The findings from this research also showed that teachers’ previous educational experiences shaped their current understandings of learner autonomy. As for students, their understandings of the concerned concept were influenced by a list of factors that were categorised as individual, socio-cultural, and socio-educational. The participants in this research presented a multitude of contextual interpretations of the investigated concept. In that regard, students’ responses resulted in a complex and detailed description of learner autonomy as a notion associated with learning situations in their personal lives, in English language learning, in learning academic subjects outside the classroom, and in classroom academic content learning. As for teachers, their interpretations of learner autonomy were mainly relevant to the performance of students in their respective academic subjects. The finding also showed that the diverse contextual interpretations of learner autonomy that students and teachers gave were subject to the learning contexts, the learning/teaching roles that the participants assumed, and the learning objectives that they aimed to achieve. Moreover, the extent to which students exerted learner autonomy depended on a list of factors that were categorised as personal, academic, and external. In the end, the research presents in-depth understandings and detailed contextual interpretations of learner autonomy that correspond to the context/s of Algerian students in the department of English. Such results echo the students’ and teachers’ voices about the concept of learner autonomy, which should help in understanding manifestations of this concept in similar settings and enriching the literature around this subject.