The Guided-Autonomy Syllabus in EFL Contexts

Why are students not motivated? English levels, culture, class sizes, previous education get the blame in university classes. However, most students come into that first class wanting to learn, and in most cases the teacher causes demotivation. The key to sustaining or enhancing motivation lies within a classroom atmosphere built on respect and trust with a syllabus guiding students towards autonomy. Classes should avoid being only fun, and need to foster learners who can continue their learning. This monograph introduces and reports the outcomes of a guided-autonomy syllabus compared to the syllabus of textbook fragmentation. The guided-autonomy syllabus is a goal-oriented syllabus with the teacher acting as a facilitator in an authentic learning environment built on respect and trust gradually creating the autonomous learner. It increases internal motivation starting teacher-centered and gradually moving towards student-centeredness through autonomy enhancing activities, primers in second language acquisition, in an encouraging classroom atmosphere. A student, after a guided-autonomy class said, "it was a great atmosphere, meaningful, and not a waste of time."