A Study On The Autonomy-facilitating Factors In College English Curriculum

This dissertation, mainly by means of qualitative research method, aims to make asystematic study of major curriculum factors, which are involved in College EnglishCurriculum Requirements. These factors are crucial in satisfying needs of individualizedlearning and facilitating efficient autonomous learning. This dissertation is mainlycomposed of four parts.Part One (including Chapter Two and Chapter Three): In this part, the writertraces the progress and achievements made in theory and practice research in the field oflanguage autonomous learning. He then makes critical comments on definitions thatscholars and researchers have developed so far and argues that the ability to utilize andimprove material and social factors should be taken as a dimension to define the concept offoreign language autonomous learning, on the basis of the impact of social environmentaland material factors on learning. The author updates the definition of language autonomouslearning as follows: foreign language autonomous learning is the learner·s willingness andability which is related closely to language learning, including the willingness to takeresponsibilities for his own language learning and the ability to make full use of learnerstrategies and utilize the social and material factors, which help grasp the target language.The willingness to take responsibilities for learner·s own language learning and the abilityto make effective use of learner strategiesμ is termed as the internal factors of foreignlanguage autonomous learningμ, for it is possessed by learners themselves and it affects thedegrees of foreign language learning. While the material and social factors, which mayaffect foreign language learning, is termed as the external environmental factors offoreign language autonomous learningμ. Both the external environmental factors andinternal factors work together and determine the degrees of foreign language autonomouslearning. It is an innovation to regard the external environmental factors as a dimension indefining foreign language autonomous learning, for it lays a solid foundation for theoverall research project.Part Two (Chapter Four): This part, based on the critical analysis of three majorcurriculum models from the perspective of humanistic learning theory, exposes their limitations that the previous need analysis and curriculum theory overemphasize languageneeds and ignore the learners as learning agents. It is proposed that learners· intellectualfactors, non-intellectual factors and their individual differences should be taken intoconsideration in the course of need analysis, and syllabus and curriculum designs as well.The author, thus, puts forward individual-based curriculum principleμ, whose highestprinciples are to highlight learners· intellectual factors, non-intellectual factors as well astheir individual differences. Only in this way can we create and improve the externalenvironmental factors, and optimize both internal and external ecology of foreign languagecurriculum, and only in this way can we satisfy the need of individualized learning, thusfacilitating effective foreign language autonomous learning“Individual-based curriculum principleμ is another innovation and the core conceptof this research, which reflects College English Curriculum Requirements thoroughly.Some proposals are raised and illustrated on college curriculum in the following fourchapters respectively.Part Three (from Chapter Five through Chapter Eight): The main standpoints aresummarized as follows. In Chapter Five, the author focuses on College English coursesetting and proposes that General English, English for General Education and ESP are theessential components of College English curriculum. It is believed that the threecomponents of the courses are provided through learning resource platform in order for thelearners to choose without any restriction and conduct autonomous learning.Chapter Six discusses the impact of learners· language level and non-intellectualfactors on the choice and development of teaching materials, and illustrates the basicfeatures of autonomy-facilitating teaching materials.Chapter Seven centers on the integration of modern information technology andCollege English teaching and autonomous learning in particular. This chapter explains thenecessity and theoretical foundation for the integration of modern information technologyand College English teaching. It also illustrates the framework of the integratedtechnology-based teaching models and the way to combine in-class teaching andout-of-class autonomous learning and cooperative learning. The learners can takeadvantage of the model to meet their need of individualized learning. Chapter Eight reviews the evolution of formative assessment and sums up its sevenmajor features, whose mission is to optimize the learning process, to emphasize thelearners· development and to facilitate their learning. By its reference, we examine someconcerned research reports and practice in some universities of Heilongjiang Province(refer to Appendix Two through Appendix Nine), and point out the five outstandingproblems in formative assessment practice. The author also analyzes the underlying causesand corresponding solutions.Part Four (Chapter Nine): The part briefly summarizes the main contents andviewpoints discussed in the research as well as the difficulties and flaws occurring duringthe process.The research is the first time in China to make a systematic study of College Englishcurriculum as a whole aiming to ensure the realization of individualized learning andCollege English autonomous learning.The research, however, can not discuss all external environmental factors. The otherfactors, such as the relation between teacher autonomy and student autonomy, schoolautonomy, social cultural factors and the like, need to be studied in the near future.