The Impact of Teachers' Autonomy-supportive Teaching on ESP Learners’ Speaking Ability (The Case of Biology Students in Farhangiyan University)

This study investigated the effect of teachers’ autonomy-supportive teaching style on learners’ speaking skill. Through KET test, 140 intermediate ESP learners (70 females and 70 males) studying biology were selected. Then, the researchers used Learning Climate Questionnaire (LCQ) to measure students' attitude toward their teachers’ autonomy supportiveness and the students believing that their teacher had a low level of autonomy support were selected (25 participants in each class). Then, the researchers administered IELTS speaking test and 20 homogeneous participants in each class were selected and assigned to experimental and control groups. In the experimental group, students summarized the passages and the other students listened and wrote down their feedback which was given to the speaker to move toward independence. However, in the control group, the researchers corrected the students’ errors. Based on the results of the study, the speaking ability of the learners in the experimental group enhanced more than the ones in the control group. The implications are discussed in terms of the effectiveness of teachers' autonomy supportive teaching style in EFL contexts.

Keywords:

Learners' autonomy , Autonomy-supportive teaching style , Self-determination theory , Speaking ability , ESP learners