Between teacher’ roles and students’ social: Learner autonomy in online learning for EFL students during the pandemic

The study’s objectives were to determine how students’ capacity of autonomy and its influencing factors promote student autonomy in online learning during a pandemic. It was a qualitative design, and the participants were twenty-five students enrolled in an English Language Teaching Methods course at one of Indonesia’s public universities, in Surabaya. The data were collected via online survey and interview. Descriptive statistics, reduction and verification were used to analyze them. The results indicated that the capacity of EFL student teachers during online learning was moderate. Although students could engage in self-direction, self-instruction, and self-access, the instruction’ role was still required since learner autonomy should be taught incrementally to foster their autonomy. Next, motivation and collaboration were the most influential determinants of students’ autonomy. When students are motivated, they would have responsibility to study to attain their goal. Thus, the teacher provides numerous collaborative activities and strategies that promote students’ active learning during online learning. Collaboration offers more opportunities to acquire the necessary complex skills. Online learning actively encourages and complements students to access information, and facilitate independent learning. For findings that are more generalizable, it is suggested that additional research be conducted with larger samples or additional instruments.