Exploring the Relationship between Teaching Styles and Teacher Autonomy among Some Iranian EFL Instructors

The objectives of this study were (a) to identify the relationship between teaching styles and teacher autonomy among some Iranian EFL instructors and (b) to explore the extent to which teachers’ teaching styles contribute to the prediction of their autonomy. The participants of the study were 120 EFL instructors who had MA in TEFL. Teaching Styles Inventory (Grasha- Riechmann, 1994) and Teacher Autonomy Scale (Pearson & Hall, 1993) were the instruments used in this study. The results of multiple regression analysis revealed that there was a significant relationship between teachers’ autonomy and their teaching styles. The results also showed that about 28% of the variation in the teacher autonomy could be explained by taking teaching styles into account. In particular, among the teaching styles, Expert and Delegator styles had the significant relationship with the teacher autonomy. This study recommended that instructors be assisted to improve their teaching styles and autonomy as the gain in these factorscan enhance learners’ language learning achievement

کلیدواژه ها:

teaching styles ، teacher autonomy ، academic autonomy ، expert style ، delegator style ، facilitator style