A Study Of Autonomous Learning Of Non-English Major Freshmen

Since Henri Holec formally put forward the concept "learner autonomy" in1981, there have been lots of researches in the area of language both internationally and in China. However, most of the researches narrowly focused on how to promote ability for autonomous learning by learning strategies, teacher’s roles in the process of students’ autonomous learning, and how to aid autonomous learning by multi-media and network. However, researches on the real ability for autonomous learning of freshmen were rather limited. This study focused on out-of-class English autonomous learning with its lens placed on obtaining first-hand information. At first, it analyzed the autonomous learning of non-English major students at the beginning of the first semester, then it analyzed whether their abilities have been improved one semester later, and the differences in autonomous learning between high-proficiency students and low-proficiency students.For the research purpose above, this research focuses on the following research questions:1) What is the situation of out-of-class autonomous English learning of freshmen in Hubei Polytechnic University?2) One semester later, are there remarkable changes in freshmen’s out-of-class autonomous learning compared with how they did at the beginning of the semester?3) What are remarkable differences between high-score group and low-score group in autonomous learning?The research adopted quantitative and qualitative methods including questionnaires, interviews, observation, and learning diary. The participants were100freshmen majoring in financial management and engineering supervision in Hubei Polytechnic University. In the quantitative part, all data collected from questionnaires were processed by software SPSS13.0, which contribute to accomplish this research. Independent-sample T-test was used to analyze the changes in out-of-class autonomous learning between the beginning of the first semester and the end of it. Paired-sample T-test was also applied to analyze the differences between high-score group and low-score group in out-of-class autonomous learning. In the qualitative part, interviews among12students, observations of students’performances in English class, and English learning diaries were used as supplementary information resources.The findings of the research are concluded as follows:Firstly, when non-English major freshmen entered college, most of them had a strong motivation for learning English in order to make a good foundation for personal development in the future. Secondly, at the beginning of the first semester, students needed teachers’ guidance in their learning methods and strategies and suggestions to solve those problems they met in the process of learning. Thirdly, some students can seek for help from peers in the process of autonomous learning, others learnt independently without asking for help. Fourthly, students in low-score group needed teachers’ help, guidance, monitoring and communications more, while students in high-score group hoped to obtain guidance for improving their English proficiency and recommendation for learning material so as to improve English language skills from teachers. Fifthly, the general level of out-of-class autonomous learning has been improved to a certain degree for some students made progress in how to learn independently.Based on the findings of the research, the paper draws implications on how to improve the abilities and effects of out-of-class autonomous learning:Firstly, at the beginning of the first semester, training is necessary to enable students to carry out autonomous learning. Teachers should explain what autonomous learning is, how to learn autonomously, and the purpose of autonomous learning for students, and actively solve students’ problems in their autonomous learning. Secondly, autonomous learning platform, which could meet the needs of learning English after class, should be made fullest use of by both teachers and students. Thirdly, English teachers should guide and encourage students to learn in a cooperative way, which could provide more supports for students and make the effect of autonomous learning better. Fourthly, English teacher should try their best to give more care and concern for students in low-score group, while give more guidance and supports to high-proficiency students for their better improvements.