Fostering College Students' Autonomous Ability In English Learning

In order to be adapted to the society's development, college students must have autonomous learning capability. Learner-centered teaching mode is the hot issue in the field of foreign language teaching and learning for nearly 20 years. In this mode, teachers'role is changed in the classroom; teachers are not the centre of teaching, but students are the centre in the learning process. It advocated that students should undertake more responsibility for their learning. That shows the idea of autonomous learning. This thesis discusses the definitions of autonomy. Autonomous learning is not a specific learning mode so there are several different approaches to fostering learners'autonomy in practice. Therefore, this thesis is going to introduce and analyze five approaches: technology-based, classroom-based, curriculum-based, teacher-based and learner-based approaches.The key point of the thesis lies in the application of autonomous approaches in college English teaching. Because of the necessity of autonomous learning in college English teaching and learning, the author of this thesis puts forward some suggestions for fostering college students'autonomous learning ability. First, the section emphasizes that autonomous learning must be based on teachers'leading role, students'subject status and a good teacher-student relationship in English teaching and learning under a harmonious and interactive English learning atmosphere. Second, the following section proposes a combination of autonomous learning and other learning modes, such as task-based learning, co-operative learning, inquiry learning and computer-assisted language learning. At last, it is pointed out that formative evaluation is very important for students to manage their autonomous learning process and how college English teachers take use of different forms of formative evaluation according to its different characters to promote students'autonomy.