High School Students' Perceptions of Classroom Learning Environments in an EFL Context

Classroom learning environment as a research area has been of a great interest to researchers for decades. Although many studies have been carried out in the world from various aspects of the classroom learning environment, the subject of classroom learning environment is a novel research field in terms of foreign language teaching. This study examined Turkish high school students' perceptions of actual classroom learning environment in English language teaching with its focus on gender and grade differences. The study was conducted on 166 high school students from different grades. The data were gathered by conducting "What Is Happening in this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire, classroom observations and interviews, and analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results indicated that all participants had positive perceptions on their learning environment in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes. The findings also revealed that there were no differences among the grades in students' perceptions of actual learning environment on six out of the seven dimensions in WIHIC. Moreover, in general there was not statistically significant difference between genders. This research provides an in-depth understanding of the high school students' classroom learning environment. In addition, it also enables teachers, students, school authorities and researchers to see clearly what is happening in EFL classroom.