Teach Smarter, not Harder: A Call for Empowering EFL Teachers with Strategies to Activate Learner-Centeredness

Learner empowerment entails making them autonomous in both learning and living and this is also the fulcrum on which the post-pandemic educational paradigm rests. Teachers in the contemporary times are required to train their students on the strategies of lifelong learning and become self-learners. Therefore, this study aims to gauge the perceptions of 110 EFL teachers at Qassim University on their level of motivation and empowerment for their B.A students. The study also establishes correlation between motivation and student empowerment. A quantitative research design is applied here to achieve the goals of the study. A reliable and validated 20-close ended questionnaire items is administrated to the participants using Google Forms and precise data sought. The study results show that EFL teachers at Qassim University have a high positive perception in motivating their students to English learning with a total average of (M=4.11). Furthermore, the study also reported a high level of student empowerment with strategies of self-learning reaching (M=3.90, STD=.708). Finally, a strong and direct correlation was found between motivation and empowerment of Saudi EFL students, in which Pearson coefficient was computed at (.841) and the probability value (Sig.=.000). Accordingly, it is recommended that EFL teachers use active strategies which motive and empower their students to be centered in the learning process.