The relation between Turkish university EFL students' educational and social background and their attitude toward self-directed learning and their attendance at self-access centers

Abstract

In the last decade the focus of EFL/ESL has been on the learner and the learning experience of the learner. Teaching learners how to learn and how to direct their learning has been the focus of attention. In other words, teaching them how to learn vocabulary rather than teaching lists of vocabulary words is more beneficial for the students. It not only gives one the responsibility .of one’s learning, but helps one be aware of one's learning experiences. In this framework, the aim of this study was to see how Turkish university students felt about self-directed learning and whether they used self-access centers. The study compared the attitudes and the attendance rates of two different groups of students regarding the high school they graduated from - private/Anatolian vs. state high schools. The study also focused on social background factors, such as department, proficiency level, length of time they have been at the prep school, being scholarship or not, parents' level of education, and sex. The starting hypothesis was that there was a relation between all these educational and social background factors, and attitude and attendance of subjects.