The Research On Improving Non-English Major Students' Autonomous Learning Ability By Writing Learning Journals

As a heated topic in the field of second language acquisition, the role of autonomous learning in promoting English learning has been repeatedly emphasized, therefore it has great significance in college English teaching and learning. Also, the autonomous learning is affected by some other factors, and the insights into the factors and their impacts may shed help to improve learners' autonomous learning ability.Therefore, this study aims to identify the factors which affect learners' autonomous learning by adopting the research means such as learners' journals, in-depth interview and questionnaires, and tries to answer the following three questions:(1) What are learners' perceptions of factors that affect Chinese students' English autonomous learning? (2) What are the differences for the impact of these factors on various learners? (3) Among these factors, which of them exert deeper influence on learners according to their own perception?The major instruments employed in the present study are instructive journal and in-depth interview. The participants are 135 non-English major freshmen from Wuhan University of Science and Technology. The study analyzes and classifies the factors according to phenomenological approach proposed by Creswell (1998).This study indicates that the factors influencing autonomous learning by learners' own perception include goal setting, self-efficacy, learning attitudes, learner self-esteem, attribution, learning motivation, teachers, peer groups, learning environment, socio-cultural and educational technology. The results also indicate that the impacts of these factors on English learners of different proficiencies are also different. The study also makes subjects judge the extent of the factors on their autonomous learning through a questionnaire. The result shows that learning motivations, learning strategies, learning cognitive emotional factors and self-attribution are the most important factors for leaner autonomy. The result also shows that the learning environment, science and technology support, human support, that is the support from teachers and peers, as well as social and cultural environment, play important roles.This study reveals the learners'perceived the influencing factors in their autonomous learning and the different impacts of these factors on different learners. These results provide more evidences for factors which are assumed to affect learner autonomy in Chinese context and bring positive guidance for how improving learner autonomy which is one of important goals of college English teaching and learning.