Teachers’ roles in promoting out-of-classroom autonomous language learning with technology: perceptions of students and teachers in a Saudi university

Technology has recently become a helpful tool for students to utilize for foreign language learning outside the classroom. Helping students learn a foreign language autonomously outside the classroom is important for effective language learning. Moreover, teachers have a big role to play in facilitating this type of language learning for their students in contexts with limited exposure to English beyond the classroom. Using interviews to qualitatively collect the data, the purpose of the study will be to explore the perceptions of English language teachers and students in a Saudi university about teachers’ roles in supporting their learners’ autonomous learning of English with technology outside the classroom. These perceptions will be examined and contrasted to gain an in-depth understanding of the roles teachers are expected to play regarding their students’ English language learning with technology outside the classroom The findings of the study will provide more understanding of the English language teachers’ roles in the Saudi context.

 

Jamaan Alkorbi is doing his Master of Applied Linguistics (Advanced) at the University of Queensland, Australia. He gained his undergraduate degree in English Language for Arts and Sciences at Najran University - Saudi Arabia. He has taught only for one semester as a teaching assistant at Najran University.