The effects of autonomy-supportive climates on EFL learners' engagement, achievement and competence in English speaking classrooms

Self-determination theory (SDT), one of motivation theories, divides learning contexts into two groups as autonomy-supportive and controlled climated according to teachers' behaviours. Autonomy-supportive climates are associated with teacher behaviours which facilitate students' learning, and mostly related to intrinsic motivation, higher perceived competence, higher academic achievement and classroom engagement. Unlike autonomy-supportive ones, controlled climates are connected with teacher behaviours which have detrimental effects on students' learning, and related to amotivation, extrinsic motivation, negative emotions towards learning, less academic achievement, dropping out of school. Considering these facts, this study hypothesized that learning climates' being perceived as autonomy supportive or controlled would be closely associated with students' perception about their English speaking competence, achievement in English speaking and classroom engagement. To test the hypothesis, 55 Turkish EFL preparatory-first graders chosen according to convenience sampling completed a four-section form including a learning climate questionnaire, a perceived competence scale, an engagement question and demographic questions including gender, age group, last examination score. Descriptive and correlation analyses of the data supported the hypothesis. Findings showed that speaking course teachers created an autonomous environment and their students had high levels of perceived competence in speaking. In addition, autonomy-supportive teacher behaviours were positively correlated with perceived competence (p<.05). Furthermore, these behaviours were siginificantly and positively correlated with students' engagement in English speaking lessons and achievements (p<.01). (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu