Learning Styles In Autonomous Listening Class: An Investigation

In traditional college English teaching, it is common that teachers just fix their attention mainly on language knowledge, teaching methods, and the collections of teaching materials. Seldom do they spare time or effort studying the center of learning: learners and their autonomy, strategies and learning styles. However, the role of foreign language teachers has changed fundamentally since the advent of autonomous learning.The concept of autonomous learning (learner autonomy) originated from the late 1960s, and brought about social and ideological changes. Although learning autonomy has attracted more and more interest, a consensus on its definition has not been reached. Autonomy is, simply understood as the facility to study independently. In 1987, in several articles on learner autonomy, Dickinson defined this term as having the same meaning as self-directed learning, independent learning, far-way learning, and student-centered learning, etc. Little defines autonomous learning as learners' psychological reaction against the contents and process of learning. Holec reckons that autonomous involves five parts: determining learning objectives, deciding learning contents and speed, selecting learning methods, monitoring learning process and evaluating learning effects. Developing learners' autonomous learning ability is the ultimate purpose of higher education.As a result of the change in teacher's role, the students' role in classroom teaching has changed, too. First, the students should be active learners rather than passive receivers. They must know what to do and where to go under the guidance of the teacher. They must be industrious enough to consult the reference books or surf on the Internet so as to gain some knowledge on their own. Second, the students should be active participants or performers in class. Third, the students themselves should realize very clearly that it is themselves not the teachers that should take whole responsibility for their learning because they are afforded the opportunities to engage in self-generated, personally relevant communication which involves a wide range of motivations, functions, and meanings that may be very useful in the development of language learning.As one of the key components of student's role, learning style has been defined as the set of characteristics that make the same teaching method wonderful for some students and terrible for others. Learning styles refer to the way one likes to learn. They are put into action through specific strategies. According to Oxford and Anderson, learning styles have six interrelated aspects, namely cognitive, executive, affective, social, physiological and behavioral aspects. There are no positive or negative traits, only preferences, and even strong preferences can be changed. Students tend to learn better when the classroom instructor fosters their learning styles.In short, this study mainly concerns with the effects of learning styles in autonomous learning mode and what roles should the student adapt to better contribute to an autonomous learning classroom of English listening. Supported by empirical evidences collected from the current wide-spreading autonomous learning mode in the teaching of listening, we aims to prove how we can effectively promote learners' listening ability by elevating their learning autonomy and creating environments which are matched with their newly adapted roles.