The Attitude of EFL Students’ and Teachers’ toward the Role of Self-esteem in Raising Students’ Autonomy:

Abstract

The present study purports itself to investigate teachers and learners’ attitudes towards the role of self-esteem in raising learner’s autonomy. The hypothesis of this research is that if learner has a high self-esteem, then their autonomy would increase. Moreover, it seeks to find out third year students’ level of self-esteem and how it affects their autonomy. To reach this objective, we reviewed relevant literature in order to gather information about the two key concepts of our study. A questionnaire was addressed to 100 third year students and structured interview was held with their teachers from the English Department of Guelma University to gauge their awareness about enhancing learner autonomy. The findings of the investigation revealed that both teachers and students considered autonomous learning as a basic tenet of a successful learner who can manage his/her learning. In addition, the results show that there is a positive relationship between learners’ self-esteem and their autonomy.