حبیب سلیمانی

Given the importance of learner autonomy and its relationship with goal orientation, this study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between goalorientations and autonomy in Iranian EFL learners. To this end, two sets of questionnaires were distributed among 60 EFL learners in Kermanshah, to elicit their beliefs on the relationship between goal-orientation and autonomy, and also to predict which goal types contributes significantly to autonomy. Goal orientation was measured with a scale adapted from VandeWalle’s (1997) work-specific goal orientation scale which consisted of thirteen questions on three subscales: performance – prove goal orientation, performance-avoid goal orientation, and learning goal orientation. Learners’ autonomy was assessed by the use of another questionnaire designed by Chan, et al., (2002) on Learners’ Autonomy and consisted of three main sections assessing responsibility, ability, and activity. The results of Pearson correlation indicated that there was a significant relationship between goal-type and autonomy in language learning among advanced EFL learners in the EFL context of Iran. The result of multiple linear regression analysis showed that all three components of goal orientation predict 88.9 percent of the autonomy. The avoiding orientation was excluded from the model due to its non-significant contribution to the regression model. Finally, the results of ANOVA test indicated that the regression models –both first and second step – enjoyed statistical significance. That is to say, the components of goal orientation significantly contributed to autonomy. The result of this study can have pedagogical implication for language teachers, syllabus designers, and material developers in that they can use goal- orientation and autonomy as two determining variables in the process of teaching-learning.