Learner Autonomy: College Students' Strategy Use In Web-based English Learning

With the introduction of the theory of autonomy into language learning, research on how to create learning environments for autonomous learning has proliferated. The advent of web-based instruction in the 1990s has been seen as an alternative to this. Web-based instruction is characterized by the physical separation of the teacher and the learner, therefore, web-based learning demands students of greater autonomy and a repertoire of language learning strategies. Although many researchers have suggested the importance of autonomy in language learning, a few studies have systematically investigated students'autonomy in language learning in the web-based learning environment, and even few studies have probed students'strategy use in the web-based learning environment. The purpose of this paper is to report on a study which investigated students'autonomy in language learning in the web-based learning environment through examining their strategy use. Two hundred and eight-one sophomores from non-English majors in Huazhong University of Science and Technology participated in the study. The participants were surveyed by a questionnaire concerning their strategy use in the web-based learning environment, and twenty-one students were randomly chosen and interviewed during the study. Data from the questionnaire were collected and analyzed through SPSS, accompanied by the analysis of the data from the interview. The study found that, due to their limited range of strategy use, Chinese college students had a low degree of autonomy in language learning in the web-based learning environment. The majority of the students preferred to use selective strategies, compensation strategies and affective strategies, which are typical of the characteristics of web-based learning. The less frequently used strategies were management strategies, metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, memory strategies and social strategies. Most of them had poor knowledge of language learning strategies and little experience in web-based learning. The results of the study provide an insight of Chinese college students'characteristics of web-based autonomous English learning. However, the study is not exempt from some limitations. It is sincerely hoped that future studies may focus on the effect of learners'attitude, motivation and self-esteem on web-based autonomous English learning and how to incorporate strategy training into specific web-based English teaching.