A Survey on learner autonomy and motivation in ESP in a Turkish context

Abstract

This study is conducted to investigate the attitudes of students on motivation and their control on their foreign language learning activities. The data is gathered from 80 subjects of the Vocational school at Uludağ University, all of whom elected the ESP course at beginning of the first term and who were given a placement test to enter the course. Questionnaire, interview and observation are the data collection instruments which are used in this study. According to the data analysis, the students seem to be unaware of their needs in the foreign language classes; therefore they do not know how to benefit from these classes. The students appeared to be conscious about the necessity of learning a foreign language, but they do not know the ways to be more motivated. This study also reveals that although the students want to have a control over their foreign language learning activities, their background knowledge and their strategy awareness is inadequate for the ESP course