English Language Teacher’s Autonomy: A Comparative Assessment Of Self- Driven And Software-Driven Pedagogy In Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the English Language Teacher’s Autonomy (ELTA) by comparing the two different modes of pedagogy defined as self-driven and software-driven English language teaching at the university level in Saudi Arabia. An exploratory, as well as cross-sectional descriptive research design, was adopted in this study. The primary data was compiled using a self-administrated web- based structured questionnaire. Non-probability snowball sampling techniques were used to collect the data. Normality (Kolmogorov–Smirnov test) and homogeneity test (Levene's test) were checked before applying parametric and non-parametric tests. The statistical significance level was p-value

<0.05 throughout the analyses. The Kruskal-Walli’s test by ranks or Kruskal–Wallis H test, was performed as per the data normality and homogeneity conditions permitted in this research study. A statistical program (SPSS version 23.0) was used for the data entry, data coding, value labeling, and data analysis. The survey results revealed that there is a remarkable difference in the pedagogy of English language teaching among self-driven, software-driven, and mixed approach methodologies for English language teaching autonomy in Saudi Arabia from a statistical point of view. The self- driven approach was found to be the least accepted method in English language teaching autonomy, whereas the mixed (an amalgam of self-and software-driven English language teaching autonomy) approach was found to be the widely accepted method. The software-driven approach fell somewhere between a self-driven approach and a mixed approach in terms of effectiveness. Overall, the outcomes derived from this study will benefit one or another manner to the English language teachers and other schools’/colleges’/universities’ management to comprehend the strengths and weaknesses of the English language teaching in the Saudi Kingdom and help in providing desired autonomy to the English language teachers. The current findings can be further explored by mediation and moderation analysis employing grouping variables and scale variables for more precise results involving a larger sample size.