Learner-training-based Learning Guidance For English Major Freshmen

Many students are admitted to universities every year and some of them choose English as their major. These freshmen of English major show great interest in their learning, but the lack of effective learning strategies and of the ability to learn independently make them feel at loss at the very beginning of their first term in college. So in the first year of college, especially in the first term, they need teachers to offer them a timely and effective guidance and help.Researchers have noticed this problem and have carried out some researches on how to help freshmen adapt themselves to their learning as English majors. In these researches, freshmen’s confusion and difficulties in their learning are revealed and some appropriate and helpful countermeasures are proposed. However, it is not enough to give the teachers some suggestions. What’s more important is to establish a systematic way to train and help freshmen to improve their current learning situation.Based on learner training theory, a systematic way of learning guidance is established in this study. The subjects of this study are120freshmen of English major from Langfang Teachers’College. A pre-questionnaire and a post-questionnaire are used in the data collection. Qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis are applied in the data analysis. By comparison of the two questionnaires, the paper aims to find out freshmen’s current learning situation and to see whether the learning guidance system is effective.From the data of the pre-questionnaire, it can be found that the freshmen’s sense of having responsibility for their learning need to be increased and their autonomous learning ability need to be cultivated.The research findings show that teachers’ guidance based on learner training is a timely and effective way to help freshmen overcome the difficulties in English learning. After a term of practice, freshmen have improved themselves in the following aspects such as beliefs of language learning, learning strategies, information about the English specialized courses, the use of learning resources and their autonomous learning abilities In a word, learning guidance for English majors has significant results, which can be carried out at colleges to help freshmen with their adaptation to English learning and with their involvement in the development of their study in terms of goal-setting and choice of methodology.