Learner autonomy in the UAE context : an investigation of students’ beliefs and conceptions of autonomy in learning English language

This study investigates the beliefs of United Arab Emirates (UAE) secondary schoolstudents about autonomy in learning English. Given the extreme language diversity in theUAE, it is imperative that Emirati citizens excel in English due to its position as the linguafranca of the business and social segments. In second language learning, autonomy ispresented as a promising learning construct associated with effective learning (Little,1999). It is also seen as a multi-faceted theme with psychological and philosophicalramifications, which does not exist in one form or degree (Benson and Lor, 1999). Thisvariation makes it impossible to have one version of autonomy that can be applicable in allcontexts. It is accordingly necessary to investigate students' beliefs about autonomy intheir context to understand how they interpret it, the factors that influence practising it, andthe possibilities of promoting it from the standpoint of students themselves.Two instruments were used in this study. Focus Group Interviews (FGIs) provided aresearch instrument to identify students' representations of autonomy and these were usedto devise questionnaire items for subsequent wider use. A Likert-type questionnaire wasthen applied to investigate the attitudes of a large sample of respondents (523 students)regarding the ideas originating from participants' contributions in the FGIs. Based on thethematic analysis of data in the FGIs and factor and descriptive analyses of students'responses to the questionnaire items, it was found that the sociocultural context, economicfeatures, and curricular system all have great impact on students' understanding ofautonomy in their context. The analysis also showed that the form of autonomy exhibitedby students is influenced by their linguistic needs and learning agenda.Course-oriented autonomy and proficiency-related autonomy are two forms studentspractise simultaneously in pursuit of learning objectives. The data also showed that theUAE students did not interpret autonomy as synonymous with total detachment or solitude;they believe teachers have facilitating roles in enhancing their autonomy. The discussion ofresults showed how the concepts of particularity, practicality, and possibility(Kumaravadivelu, 2001) are represented in the UAE setting. The thesis argues thatenhancing autonomy requires improving the learning context to allow more opportunitiesfor students to express the autonomy they already have