A Study On Gender Differences In English Autonomous Learning Of Higher Vocational College Students

Based on a review of the studies of foreign language autonomous learning and of gender differences related to foreign language learning at home and abroad, this research is to verify a hypothesis that gender differences also exist in the process of English autonomous learning of Higher Vocational College students (HVC students). This research investigates the status quo of English autonomous learning of the second-year students of Aquaculture Major and Environment Test Administer Major in Rizhao Polytechnic by means of questionnaire, interview, class observation and teaching training. During the research, the author offers guidance for male and female students in order to avoid problems that may encounter in English autonomous learning and help them learn effectively. For the specific differences that exist in male and female English autonomous learning, the author analyzes and sorts them in a scientific way, and finally draws a conclusion and gives some suggestion. The results, especially the questionnaire and teaching training results, have been counted and analyzed with the statistical tool of SPSS 13.0.The results show that gender differences have been reflected in English autonomous learning in the following aspects: motivation, preview work, learning goal, learning plan, in-class state, note taking, and participation in discussion, self-monitoring and self-evaluation and so on. At the aspect of learning motivation, most male students are motivated by extrinsic motivation, while, female students are inspired by intrinsic ones at large. And female students are better at those aspects: setting learning goals, making studying plans and taking notes in class. Female students have stronger self-control ability than male students do. Therefore, female students have clear aims. However, because of male sense of fun and playfulness, they do much better than female students at the aspects of taking part in discussion in class, but no better than female students at taking note and making self-evaluation. Next, the data are analyzed and discussed and English teaching inspiration is summarized from the differences.And the education management measures are proposed. For example, teachers should guide the students study in an autonomous way, avoid gender bias and respect the gender differences on the psychological development. What's more, they should take gender differences into account. They should clearly understand the characteristics of HVC students and teach according to their actual situation. Besides, they should create a relaxing and friendly language learning environment that accommodates male and female students alike since classroom environment is the starting point in initiating English autonomous learning. Lastly, the author has pointed out the potential shortcomings of this paper and given the proper directions of the further studies on this topic.