On The Cultivation Of Autonomy In Foreign Language Learning

The National English Curriculum Standards which was promulgated in 2001 by the Ministry of Education points out, "The focus of the reform of the English Curriculum is to change the tendency of overemphasizing the explanation and illustration of English grammar and vocabulary and to change the tendency of neglecting the cultivation of the comprehensive ability to use the language in the primary and secondary English education in our country. The purpose of the English education is to develop the students' comprehensive ability to use the language and to enable the process of English learning to become the process of making students into autonomous learners." How can the language learning process become the process of developing learner autonomy? This is an issue that the reform of basic education curriculum in our country has focused on. And it is also the main issue that the realm of foreign language teaching has focused on. This dissertation tries to expound how to make the language learning process become the process of developing learner autonomy, namely cultivating autonomous foreign language learners.The dissertation is composed of three parts: introduction, negotiation in foreign language teaching and the cultivation of autonomy in language learning, and self-access language learning and the cultivation of autonomy in language learning.Chapter One in Part One tries to analyze "autonomy", "learner autonomy" and "autonomous foreign language learners" and therefore pave the way for the following part of the dissertation. "Autonomy" means "self-control" or "self-regulating". The control and regulation originates from internal forces. The opposite of autonomy is heteronomy. It means regulation from outside the self, by external forces. Students are often regulated by external forces when they study at school. These external forces have the potential of developing students' independence and autonomy and the potential of developing students' dependence and heteronomy. Teaching should provide students with the experiences of cultivating their independence and autonomy. Many researchers try todefine "learner autonomy" and it is defined as ability, learning process, educational practices or a political concept. In the dissertation we define it as a learned ability. We think that "learner autonomy" can be effectively cultivated through students adopting the way of self-access language learning. "Autonomous foreign language learners" can independently analyze their foreign language learning needs, set learning goals, choose learning content and resources, set learning speed, select learning methods, monitor and evaluate the whole learning process. These abilities should be cultivated through negotiation in foreign language teaching and through self-access language learning.Negotiation in foreign language teaching refers to the discussion among teachers and students. It is a way to help them solve the problems that they encounter in their daily study through dynamic democratic communication in a harmonious atmosphere in class. During the negotiation process, students must think, express their opinions, make judgments and make decisions, which enable students to become active and initiative. These experiences help develop students' independence and autonomy, reduces their dependence and heteronomy; they can also help develop students' abilities to analyze their foreign language learning needs, set learning goals, choose learning content and resources, set learning speed, select learning methods, monitor and evaluate the whole learning process. Meanwhile, negotiation creates real opportunities for students to learn to communicate in the foreign language.Part Two tries to deal with the issue of cultivating autonomy in foreign language learning from the perspective of teaching style transformation, namely how the teacher can introduce and practise negotiation in foreign language teaching, and make the foreign language learning process become the process of developing learner autonomy as well. This part is composed five chapters.C...