ESL Teachers' knowledge on learner autonomy

This chapter presents the findings of a study replicated from Borg's (2012) to find out how autonomy in learning is conceptualized, perceived and practised by the Malaysian ESL secondary school teachers. Data for the study were collected through a survey where a questionnaire from Borg and Al-Busaidi (2012) was adopted. Interviews with the ESL secondary school teachers from the district of Selangor, Malaysia were also conducted. The results of the study are somewhat similar to the Borg and Al-Busaidi's (2012) where the findings revealed that the ESL teachers were aware of the learner autonomy concepts, although quite a number was not sure of certain attributes of autonomy among Malaysian ESL learners. The majority of the ESL teachers displayed their awareness of learner autonomy concept. Also, positive responses were gathered from the Malaysian ESL teachers in relation to the desirability over the feasibility of promoting and developing learners' abilities for learner autonomy. The results of this study give some insights on how ESL teachers' beliefs about their learners in relation to the ability and development of learner autonomy in learning English as a second language.