| Since the publication of Henri Holec's Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning in 1981, the concept of learner-centered has been set up. How to cultivate LA becomes the commonsense of educators and researchers. Once the learners have the ability to learn autonomously, they will be able to master new knowledge, new technology, face new challenges and tasks. In the future, the illiterate are not those who have no knowledge, but those who have not mastered the way to leant. English, as an international language, is now being used more and more in every area. Thus, to cultivate learner autonomy (LA) in English learning is urgent and necessary.The author of the thesis will discuss the importance and necessity of cultivating LA and also how to cultivate LA in Elementary English Teaching by getting some theoretical support from the Social Constructivist Approach (SCA). Little research has been done so far in this area.SCA believes that knowledge is essentially constructed by individuals rather than transmitted from one person to another, but such constructions always occur within specific contexts, mainly as a result of social interactions. It emphasis the complete involvement of the learners in the teaching-learning process. Teachers, learners, tasks and context are four factors which influence each other in the teaching-learning process.Can learners be cultivated into autonomous learners? Whether the cultivation of autonomous learning can benefit the students' English learning? This thesis aims to answer the questions in Chapter IV by carrying out an experiment in Grade One in the Attached Middle School of Northwest Normal University.The experiment was done in one year in two classes. One was the Experimental Class (EC) and another was the Control Class (CC). The instruments used in the experiment were a questionnaire and three examination papers. The questionnaire which was adapted from Nunan (1996) and modified by the author included 27 items concerning autonomous learning. It was handed out to the students for three times. Each time after the questionnaire was handed out, the students also had an examination. The examination papers had the same style as the NMET and they were made by the teachers in groups. The students in the EC were trained on some learning strategies and motivated to be interested in English learning. The CC had the regular classes. The results of the questionnaire and the marks of the three examinations were collected and analyzed to find out whether LA could be cultivated andwhether the cultivation of autonomous learning would benefit the students' English learning.Analysis of the quantitative data were run on the computer using SPSS for Windows (Version 10.0). First, descriptive statistics were calculated for the Original Test (OT), Test 1, Test 2 and Test 3 to find out at the end of the training if the students in the EC could get higher marks in examinations than the students in the CC. Second, descriptive statistics were calculated for Pre-test, Mid-test and Post-test to find out if the result agreed with the change of examination marks between the two classes.Our conclusion is that LA could be cultivated and the cultivation of LA benefited the students' English learning, especially for the females. Females are likely to accept training strategies and they are good at using them to improve their learning. Some males are good at arranging their own learning even before the training. But males don't accept the idea of being trained to become autonomous learners as well as females do. The students don't like to communicate with others and use English as a tool both in class and after class even after the training.There are five parts in the thesis. In the first part, a general introduction was given to LA and SCA. The aim and meaning of the present research was also stated in this part In the second part, the author introduced briefly the researches that had been done abroad and at home. In the third part, the author talked about the four important factors in the te...
|
PDF Full Text Request