Empirical Study Of Non-English Major Students’ Autonomous Language Learning At The Higher Vocational College

With the development of lifelong learning and respect for the individual,autonomous learning is a learning style strongly advocated in the world. And it hasbecome a buzz word in the field of foreign language teaching and learning. Living inthe age of information explosion, one’s learning competence is a key factor for one’ssustainable development.As a compulsory subject in the higher vocational college, the college English isalso an important part of the university education.Based on the contemporary education psychology especially the three theoriesnamely cognitive psychology, constructive psychology and humanistic psychology, theauthor conducted a survey and a detailed analysis through the questionnaire, interviews,students’ diaries and classroom observation. The aim of this study is try to answer thefollowing questions:1. What are the main factors affecting the non-major in English students’autonomous learning at the higher vocational college?2. What are the effective ways to foster the non-major in English students’autonomous learning at the higher vocational college?Through the statistics and analysis of the data collected, this paper analyzed thesituation of the non-major in English students’ autonomous learning at the highervocational college from the two dimensions of horizontal and longitude and twodifferent angles of students and teachers. The author drew the following conclusions.（1） The main factors affecting the college students’ autonomous languagelearning are the students’ motivation and attitude, teachers’ role and learningstrategies.（2）There are three ways to cultivate the college students’ autonomous languagelearning: teachers, students and learning environment. Firstly, teachers should changetheir beliefs, create some opportunities of autonomous learning for the students, takethe form of the formative evaluation, pay attention to training the students’ learningstrategies in and out of class; Secondly, college students need a correct attitude, theyshould improve, evaluate and reflect their learning in the form of diaries, tests,competitions and so on. The most important thing to improve the students’ autonomouslearning is persistence. Thirdly as a component and extend of the classroom teaching,extracurricular activities are effective and natural path to improve the students’ autonomous learning. Under their teachers’ instruction, the students can make use ofthe resources of libraries and the network to create a harmonious learning environmentand improve their skills autonomously.