This questionnaire study examined the beliefs, practices and constraints related to learner autonomy reported by 359 teachers (mainly expatriate) working on an English Preparatory Year Programme (PYP) at a university in Saudi Arabia. The teachers associated learner autonomy primarily with notions of independence and control and saw it as the ability and motivation to complete tasks, individually and/or collaboratively, in and/or outside the classroom, and with no/ little teacher involvement. They believed that promoting learner autonomy was a desirable goal and described how they tried to achieve this goal in their teaching. Most were, however, less positive about the feasibility of promoting learner autonomy and explained this in relation to curricular, societal and, above all, learner factors (such as lack of motivation and independence and low proficiency in English). In discussing these findings, several avenues for further research are identified and through which teachers' conceptualizations of learner autonomy can be understood using mixed methods research and with reference to a range of socio-cultural, intercultural, professional, occupational and institutional forces.

<p>The aim of this study was to apply the flipped classroom strategy in teaching English grammar to examine its impact on secondary school students’ performances, perceptions, and attitudes toward learning English independently. The researcher implemented the flipped classroom strategy by selecting videos based on the students’ textbook and uploading those videos on the Edmodo site before each lesson to provide opportunities for active learning interactions. The students of the experimental group (n = 20) were required to watch the videos to learn by themselves and to come to class prepared to ask for clarification, if needed. They also practiced what they had learned under the teacher’s supervision by completing collaborative and competitive tasks in groups or pairs. Meanwhile, the control group students (n = 23) received in-class only traditional teaching. They learned the grammatical lessons without the help of any videos. The statistical analysis of the post-test results showed that adopting the flipped classroom strategy appeared to play a role in enhancing the students’ grammar performances, as the mean score of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group, but this difference was not statistically significant. The students’ responses to a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews indicated that their attitudes’ towards using the flipped classroom strategy in the EFL class were positive.</p>

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Reporting on data collected from a survey of Secondary EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia, this study is an analysis of the perceptions and attitudes held in regard to the use of computer assisted language learning (CALL) in English classrooms. Background data as well as attitudes were collected from 183 male and female respondents from a pool of 250 randomly selected secondary level teachers in Riyadh. The results, determined after descriptive as well as statistical analysis, indicated a positive correlation between a teacher's attendance during training, both for computer as well as CALL, and a positive attitude toward the use of IT approaches to learning in the Saudi classroom. Recommended actions include specialized training for EFL teachers who are required to integrate CALL into regular classroom instruction. Training programs should additionally be cognizant of other needs that may emerge through applied staff feedback exercises.