A Survey Study On Non-English Majors' Autonomous English Learning In The Normal College

Ever since the early 1980s, learner autonomy and promoting learner autonomy have taken on a growing importance in the field of foreign language education. A large number of researches on learner autonomy have been conducted in the western countries as well as in China, those researches mainly fall into three broad categories: theoretical researches, experimental researches and survey studies. Among the survey studies, none of them focuses on non-English majors in the normal college. However, the students in the normal college are future teachers. They meet the new curriculum requirements issued in the national English pedagogical reform. And the new issued curriculum requirements demands that the students'learner autonomy in learning English should be promoted. After nearly two years'experiments of college English pedagogical reform, what is the situation of the students'beliefs about learner autonomy and the degree of their learner autonomy? Can the teaching mode and approaches help to foster students'beliefs about learner autonomy and their autonomous English learning ability? In order to answer these questions, the present survey study aims to find out the general beliefs and characteristics that non-English majors in the normal college have in autonomous English learning, thus explore some practical ways to promote learners'autonomy.The subjects of the study are 201 second-year non-English majors from a representative normal college. The instrument used in the present study is a questionnaire derived from other researchers. The questionnaire consists of three parts. Part one is about personal details. Part two consists of 10 statements of beliefs about learner autonomy. Part three contains 31 statements concerning five aspects of learner autonomy: being able to understand what has been taught in class; being able to formulate the learning objectives, make learning plans; being able to select and implement appropriate learning strategies; being able to monitor the use of learning strategies, monitor the acquisition procedure; being able to self-assess, evaluate what has been acquired. In order to explore the issues in more depth, an interview was conducted among 20 volunteers after the questionnaire. The procedures for analyzing the data are: First, reliability analysis was conducted by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS13.0), in order to check whether all the items within each category in the questionnaire were internally consistent. Then by using SPSS, the descriptive statistic analyses were applied to calculate range, minimum, maximum, means and standard deviations of the variables concerned in the questionnaire.Results from the study show that non-English majors in the normal college have positive beliefs about autonomous English learning. They are not only willing to take responsibility for their own learning but are also fully aware of the importance of learner autonomy. And the general characteristic of non-English majors'autonomous English learning in the normal college is that the degree of their learner autonomy stays at a medium level. Most students can formulate their own learning objectives and make their own English learning plans. While students sometimes understand what has been taught in class, sometimes monitor the use of learning strategies and the acquisition procedure, sometimes self-assess, and evaluate what has been acquired. Especially, students usually don't know selecting and implementing appropriate learning strategies. The main reasons for these results are: The teaching mode and approaches conducted in the college English pedagogical reform can help to foster students'beliefs about learner autonomy and their autonomous English learning ability in a certain degree. But there are still some limitations. The present thesis will discuss some approaches and ways that are helpful to promote students'learner autonomy: the student-centered and topic-based teaching approach; cooperative learning; web-assisted instruction; establishing self-access centers and strategy training.The results of the present study give some implications to college English teaching: teachers should change traditional roles and have the new roles as counselors, facilitators, guide and helpers.