Research On Fostering The Students' Autonomous Learning Ability Through English Teaching In Vocational College

Promulgated by the department of tertiary education in the Ministry of Education, "The Basic Requirements for the Teaching of English as a course in Vocational colleges" (Trail) has definitely pointed out that vocational college students' autonomous learning ability in English should be cultivated in order to lay a firm foundation for their lifelong learning. This is not only the demand on talents by the societal development but also a requirement for the learner themselves. Through the analysis of the status quo of college English teaching in vocational colleges, the present study has unveiled that the English classroom teaching in vocational colleges is not helpful for the training of language skills, for the teaching pattern is monotonous to a large extent, which can't stimulate students' enthusiasm in learning English, in addition to students' relatively weaker ability of autonomous learning. Looking into this issue and analyzing those factors influencing the formation of autonomous learning ability of English, this essay analyses the factors influencing the formation of students ability of autonomous learning in order to construct a series of teaching strategies in the hope of further bringing up the English autonomous learning ability of students from vocational colleges. This research follows the principle of "combining the academic study with parctice" and brings the constructed strategies into practice by analysing the theory, apart from which, the feasibility of the construction of those strategies is tested by practice.This thesis consists of seven parts:Part One is the introduction which highlights the background of the research question, the status quo of the study of this question both at home and abroad, purpose and significance of this study, the research methods and the novelty of the present study.Part Two defines the four core concepts including English Teaching in Vocational Colleges, Autonomous Learning, Autonomous Learning Ability and Autonomous Learning Ability of English, which altogether direct the development of this thesis.As the theoretical foundation of this thesis, Part Three describes learning theory of constructivism, lifelong learning theory, theory of subject education and theories of second language acquisition by Krashen. Part Four analyzes the factors affecting the formation of vocational college students' autonomous learning ability in English. These factors can be divided into interior ones and exterior ones, the former covers learning motivation, setting learning goals, the development of meta-cognition and self-discipline and the latter includes the teacher-student relationship, choice of learning materials and learning methods as well as the use of multi-media equipment.Teaching strategies of cultivating vocational college students' autonomous English learning ability are located in Part Five. The strategies followed the interior factors are stimulating students' motivation of learning English, directing students to set learning goals, exploring students' meta-cognition in order to improve their ability of self-control. The strategies followed the exterior factors are building democratic teacher-student tie to form the atmosphere of autonomous learning, training of English learning methods under the leadership of teachers, making reasonable use of on-line information and multimedia for fully exercising students' autonomy, leading students to scientific self-evaluation, establishing simulated "autonomous learning center".A practical research on the cultivation of vocational college students' English autonomous learning ability is recorded in Part Six. Freshmen majoring in Art from two classes in a provincial vocational college in HeBei province are selected as the subjects of the present study. The strategy-based new teaching method is carried out in the experimental class, while students in the control class are taught traditionally. After the experiment, the test scores and questionnaires are used to testify the reasonability of constructing the above-mentioned strategies. The result shows that the strategies are effective and they can cultivate students' ability of autonomous learning in English.Conclusions are drawn in Part Seven, where issues deserving consideration in future researches are mentioned.