Abstract:
The teacher’s teaching approach plays a crucial role in influencing students’ learning
achievements. Teaching approaches are largely classified into two main types: (1) teachercentered
approaches, which typically position the teacher as the primary director of the
educational process, while students are expected to receive and memorize the information
presented by the teacher passively, and (2) learner-centered approaches, which emphasize
learners’ involvement, responsibility, needs, and experiences. Research findings from
international and local contexts endorse learner-centered teaching and highlight its impact
on enhancing learning outcomes, particularly in language learning. Accordingly, and
guided by the theory of andragogy, this case study investigated the feasibility of
implementing a learner-centered English language teaching approach at the Faculty of
Languages, University of Benghazi. To achieve this aim, it was necessary to examine the
degree to which English language instructors currently integrate andragogy’s learnercentered
practices into their classrooms and explore their perceptions of them.
Respectively, the research was conducted in two stages. The initial stage involved 48
English language instructors and focused on assessing their implementation of
andragogy’s learner-centered principles using the Adult Learning Principles Scale
(PALS). The results revealed no evidence of andragogy’s practices among the instructors.
Alternatively, the instructors were strongly committed to the pedagogical, teachercentered
approach. Subsequently, the second stage of the study aimed to explore the
instructors’ perceptions of andragogy’s principles using semi-structured interviews with
ten instructors. The findings revealed a strong theoretical knowledge among the
instructors of the concept and benefits of andragogy’s principles. Nonetheless, the
instructors’ practices were teacher-centered due to several limitations in their
environment. Analyzing this study’s findings in light of andragogy highlighted the need
for adjusting its principles to suit the study setting. Consequently, the researcher proposed
a dual-focused context-specific model for implementing andragogy’s principles for EFL
teaching at the Faculty of Languages
