Does our Education System Allow Students to Be Autonomous?

Year 2014, Volume: 4 Issue: 2, 215 - 226, 30.12.2014

Fatma Özlem Saka

Abstract

Learner autonomy is one of the most important concepts supported by the Constructivist Approach and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Learner autonomy means that a learner plans, monitors his/her learning, recognizes his/her weak points, takes measures to overcome them and evaluates his/her improvement. To be able to do this, learners should be supported by the educational system, teachers and parents. When our educational system is examined, it can be seen it is based upon exams. Students can get the chance of good education upon the condition that they obtain high grades, both in the school exams and in the national exams given at two different levels. School principals, teachers and parents all expect students to be successful in these exams. Can students be autonomous in these circumstances? Does the system in Turkey support learner autonomy? To answer these questions, 8th grade students from 4 different schools in Antalya were given a questionnaire and their ideas on this subject were collected. The results were analysed with SPSS and suggestions are made to remove the identified obstacles to enable students to be autonomous.

Keywords

Learner Autonomy, Exams in English Language Teaching, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages

References

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