Who is More Responsible? Preparatory Class Students’ Perceptions of Responsibility

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to explore learners‟ perceptions of their own responsibility in learning English. The question of whether our learners in Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University (hereafter COMU) Compulsory and Voluntary English Language Prep Classes are responsible enough for their own learning or not is the main focus of this study. Whether some variables like gender, the type of the prep class education (compulsory or voluntary) and the students‟ departments will affect their perceptions on responsibility is questioned in this study. Quantitative research methodology was used in the study. Being a sub-category of a survey method, a questionnaire was used by the researchers to find out the students‟ perceptions of responsibility in English preparatory classes of COMU. Findings reveal that female students are much more responsible than the male students are. Also, voluntary learners are less aware of their strengths and weaknesses in learning English. Students at Travel Management were found to know what to practice in English and how to learn English more when compared to the students of Archeology. Furthermore, students seem to have some problems in planning and revising their own learning. Bearing the findings of the study in mind, suggestions were drawn at the end of the study.