Abstract: This study aims to investigate teachers’ beliefs on learner autonomy by exploring what learner autonomy means to 83 university foreign language teachers via questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Although the teachers generally accepted theoretical understandings on learner autonomy, different positions were found on students’ involvement in decision making and the degree to which teachers should get involved in promoting learner autonomy. The teachers agreed that students’ autonomous learning ability was generally poor and learners were believed to be the crucial factor affecting learner autonomy. It is argued that to promote learner autonomy teachers should critically examine their beliefs on learner autonomy. Meanwhile they should increase their awareness of learner empowerment in foreign language teaching, and students should be given more metacognitive strategy training. Reasonable attribution is of great importance to the influential factors on learner autonomy. This study offers a new perspective and implications for fostering learner autonomy.