A Study Of Fostering Learner Autonomy In English Classroom Teaching Of Secondary Vocational And Technical School

In recent years, fostering learner autonomy has become a hot issue in the field of education both at home and abroad. Substantial researches on fostering learner autonomy have been carried out by researchers and teachers, most of which aim to foster learner autonomy in universities and middle schools. Yet, the researches on fostering learner autonomy in secondary vocational and technical schools are few. Generally speaking, the students of SVTS are mainly from the countryside, most of whom are poor in English and learner autonomy. Besides, after graduation, they still have to learn new knowledge and techniques constantly so as to meet the need of the rapid development of science and technology. Therefore, fostering learner autonomy in SVTS is especially necessary in that it can not only contribute to the increase of students' academic achievements but also lay foundation to students' life-long education and sustainable development.The newly-published English textbooks for SVTS have come into use with projecting characteristics of the present educational situations. The textbooks have been compiled according to new language teaching theories and attached great importance to developing the students' learning ability. And at the back of each unit, the part titled "Learning to Learn" is included, which aims to help learners know a series of effective learning strategies, elevate their status as the subjects of teaching, so as to foster their learner autonomy.The present study focuses on fostering learner autonomy in English classroom teaching of SVTS. A large quantity of literature has been collected and closely studied. Special attention is paid to the theories of humanism and cognitive psychology, on the basis of which, the hypothesis that fostering learner autonomy in English classroom teaching may improve students' learning achievements is advanced. A two-term experiment was carried out from September of the year 2004 to June of the next year. Based on the abundant literature of the previous research both at home and abroad, a series of classroom teaching experiments is performed to achieve the goal. The results of the experiment show that the score increase range of the experimental class in the 2 tests is obviously elevated compared with that of the controlled class. Therefore, the hypothesis was proved to be feasible and valid.The entire thesis is composed of five parts. The first part states the purpose and significance of the present research; at the same time, the key word learner autonomy is distinctly defined. The second part deals with the literature review both at home and abroad. The third part states the theoretical framework of this study and the influence of humanism and social cognitive theory on teaching model of fostering learnerautonomy. The fourth part is about the experiment, the heart of the whole research. It includes the hypothesis, the subjects, instruments and the procedures. Before the experiment, a questionnaire investigation was carried out to find out the subjects' level of learner autonomy before the experiment. During teaching experiment, a series of valuable, practical teaching methods were designed and implemented in order to promote the students' learner autonomy. The instrument used as the pre-test was the entrance exam for all the junior high school students of Gansu province in 2004. Later, another 2 exams were given to the subjects with one-term interval in between, which were served as the mid-test and the post-test. SPSS11.0 was employed to process the data. Paired sample statistics and t-test were made to testify that the two classes, the experimental class and the controlled class, were at the same knowledge level before the experiment. The scores of the mid-test and the post-test were given paired samples statistics and t-tests. Then comparisons were made between the difference value of the mid-test and the post-test average scores as well as the mid-test and the post-test scores. The results show that the increase range of the experimental class in the two tests is much higher than that of the controlled class. The results offered persuasive evidence to the hypothesis. In the fifth part, the conclusion of the study is drawn that fostering learner autonomy in English classroom teaching can result in the increase of learners' academic achievements. Meanwhile, the implications and limitation of the study are pointed out.