A Study On College English Learners' Beliefs About Campus-web-based Autonomous Learning

With a view to keeping up with the new development of higher education in China, College English Curriculum Requirements (Requirements hereafter) promulgated by Ministry of Education and effective as of January 2, 2004, provide colleges and universities with the guidelines for English instruction to non-English majors. Requirements explicitly states that colleges and universities should enhance learners' ability to study autonomously and remould the existing unitary teacher-centred pattern of language teaching by introducing new teaching model with the help of multimedia and network technology.Campus-web-based College English autonomous learning is demanded by keeping up with times and by implementing Requirements. It is a new teaching model on the exploring stage. So, it is a new issue for learners and instructors. In this new issue, learners are the focus. Requirements point out, "an important indicator of the successful reform of the teaching model is the development of individualized study methods and the autonomous learning ability on the part of students". Learners' beliefs are of the utmost importance to the development of individualized study methods and autonomous learning ability. Positive beliefs will promote campus-web-based autonomous English learning whereas negative beliefs will block it. Therefore, it is crucial to make clear learners' beliefs on the initial stage of campus-web-based autonomous English learning implementation, which is beneficial to prescribe the right remedy to the individual problems in the carrying-out process. Based on these reasons, this thesis is to investigate the freshmen from 6 natural classes in Sichuan University with the self-designed questionnaire so as to reveal their beliefs about campus-web-based autonomous learning.The first chapter of this thesis reviews the definitions of autonomous learning and web-based learning, the characteristics of autonomous learners and web-based learning, the relationship between web-based learning and autonomous learning and the importance of web-based autonomous learning. The second chapter elaborates the theoretical foundation of web-based autonomous learning from philosophical and psychological perspectives. Chapter three presents the concept of learners' beliefs and the significance of investigating learners' beliefs in web-based autonomous learning.Chapter four, the main body of this thesis, introduces the design and source of questionnaire, research objectives, subjects, means of data collection and analysis and reliability test of questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of two parts: part one includes items about subjects' basic information and English learning situation; and part two, which is the principal part of the questionnaire, focuses on learners beliefs about campus-web-based autonomous learning from seven sections: beliefs about the nature of the English language learning, beliefs about autonomous learning, beliefs about the role of the teacher, beliefs about self-efficacy, beliefs about attribution, beliefs about campus web-based resources and beliefs about autonomous learning management. The author describes, analyzes, and discusses the findings and further illustrates the influence on the development of beliefs from the teacher, gender, major, and motivation factors.Chapter five concludes this thesis by putting forward the pedagogical suggestions and pointing out its limitations based on the investigating results. Under the present College English teaching and learning model, College English learners hold conflicting beliefs about campus-web-based English autonomous learning. On the one hand, the College English learners by and large hold positive beliefs about English language learning and autonomous learning, and they are willing to shoulder responsibilities for their learning and are ready to learn autonomously in web-based learning situation. On the other hand, they have a low sense of self-efficacy and do not have much confidence in web-based autonomous English learning. The best way to enhance learners' confidence is to let them experience the success of web-based English autonomous learning. Therefore, College English instructors should explore a new role to guide learners to learn English autonomously based on campus networks. The new role for instructors has two tasks: the first task is to help learners develop an adequate set of values, ideas and techniques in the field of English language and web-based autonomous English language learning; the second task is to establish and manage the resource center which is central to autonomous language learning.Campus-web-based College English autonomous learning is a large scale teaching and learning reform. The investigation on learners' beliefs is only the tip of an iceberg. The author tries his best to avoid the omissions and mistakes in the process of investigation and analysis, but it is unavoidable due to the author's limited ability and lack of experience. So, future exploration on this issue is necessary.