A Study On Teaching Autonomy Of Tertiary EFL Teachers In China

“Autonomy” embodies individual subjectivity and human initiative. It is ofcritical importance to foreign language teaching, since it directly impacts on teachers’value orientation and their teaching methods.“Autonomy”, according to Holec (2008),has fostered a powerful investigation drive in the field of foreign language learningand teaching. Autonomy was first conceptualized in foreign language learning inEurope. It began to draw the attention of Chinese researchers at the beginning of thiscentury. In the past decades, Chinese researchers have introduced the theory, initiatedtheir own researches, and applied it to EFL teaching, whose accomplishments mainlylie in the study on learning autonomy. The diverse autonomous learning modes andmethods developed by researchers in the field, however, fail to improve EFL learningeffectively. As a consequence, some researchers reconsider the role of teachers andthe function of teaching upon serious reflection (Wu,2005; Zhou,2010; Wen,2010).Language learning, according to Little (1995), is a dialogue between teachers andlearners, and learner autonomy depends on teacher autonomy. Teaching, therefore, hasa crucial role and needs to be emphasized in EFL teaching. Based on the backgroundof foreign language teaching reform in China, this study focuses on tertiary foreignlanguage teachers and explores their teaching autonomy both theoretically andempirically.The theoretical study consists of three aspects, the origin exploration of“autonomy”, literature review and the concept development. First, the study traces theorigin of “autonomy” and “teacher autonomy” in the fields of philosophy andhumanistic education, and interprets its rich connotation and implication. The authoralso explores its emergence in Chinese EFL teaching, and identifies its relation to EFLteaching tradition. Second, the author, with a focus on constructs and definitions ofteaching autonomy, comprehensively reviews the previous research in the field. Theachievements and problems are summarized, which lays a theoretical basis for thisstudy. Third, the author puts forward the concept of teaching autonomy (TA) of a foreign language teacher and argues that the competence is the core of teachingautonomy. He later defines the concept and its dimensions in different perspectives.The empirical study aims to verify the TA concept and investigate the TAperformance of tertiary foreign language teachers. The author adopts a case studyapproach with the major design as the following:1) six teachers were selected asresearch subjects, whose selection was based on university type, course (teaching)type and teaching years;2) the research applied both interview and class observationmethods;3) the interviews were conducted in the spring semester in2012, and theobservation in the fall one;4) the author collected data from the selected teachersincluding records of interview and observation, which were transcribed, teachers’journals and teaching PPT and other files related;5) both qualitative and quantitativemethods were adopted in data analysis.From the above discussions, this dissertation draws the following conclusions.First, autonomy has rich connotations in the fields of philosophy and humanities,which should be considered and included when defining teaching autonomy. Second,teacher autonomy is mainly reflected as a teaching competence in the context ofclassroom teaching. It is defined as teaching autonomy in the present study. Teachingautonomy comprises three dimensions: teachers’ knowledge capacity, thinkingcapacity and innovative capacity. Third, case teachers’ introspective description ofknowledge, thinking and innovation is relevant to their teaching performance. Thethree dimensions, therefore, may contribute to their teaching autonomy. The empiricalresearch findings can justify the validity of the TA concept and the dimensions tosome extent. Fourth, case teachers show strong autonomy in their teaching, which canpartially represent the state of TAamong tertiary EFL teachers. Finally, the study putsforward some suggestions for tertiary teachers’ teaching and development. Teachersare suggested to better cultivate their teaching competence, by which they willstrengthen their teaching autonomy and achieve their professional development aswell.