A Research On The Classroom-based Strategy-training Model (CSM) On Promoting Learner Autonomy Of Non-English Majors In Higher Vocational Institute English Teaching

The concept of autonomy has gradually found a place in the mainstream education since the early 1980s when Henri Holec introduced the term'autonomy'to the field of second language pedagogy. There are changes to the curriculum towards a more learner-centered kind of learning, and many countries have already had learner autonomy as an objective in their curricula. As a result, last decades have seen the shift of focus of responsibility from the teacher to learners. As a hot issue in the field of pedagogy, autonomy has attracted great attention from educationalists both at home and abroad. Many scholarly works have been written, defining it, exploring its theoretical background, or studying how to apply it to language teaching and learning. We find that most studies focus on the theory description or on how to promote learner autonomy in foreign language teaching at a comparatively higher language level. Few researchers center upon promoting learner autonomy of students who are of a comparatively lower language level. As is known, Learners from different backgrounds are of mixed linguistic levels and students in the higher vocational college are generally of a lower English lever. Besides, they have their own professional requirements for their future lives, which is also different from those of the non-vocational colleges. So traditional classroom teaching is far from enough to meet all the students' demands, and the best way out is to make students take the responsibility of their own learning and learn what they need to learn autonomously. In a word, higher vocational college English teaching should aim at promoting students'autonomous learning.This paper presents a study of learner autonomy training in the higher vocational college. It starts with an analysis of the various accepted definitions of learner autonym and its theoretical foundations, trying to gain insights into what learner autonomy means and consists of. Then, after an analysis of the features of learner autonomy and the factors that affect the development learner autonomy, it has a review of the approaches adopted to develop learner autonomy, including the classroom-based approaches, the student-based approaches and teacher-based approaches. Based on the analysis, the paper brings forward the Classroom-based Strategy-training Model(CSM), which integrate strategy training into regular course, with emphasis on explicit instruction on the part of the teacher, reflection on the part of the students and positive interdependence between students and the teacher and among the students. It demonstrates a one-semester study to cultivate learner autonomy among higher vocational college students in Wuhan Bio-engineering Institute. The study has adopted a random sampling of two groups:the experimental group and the controlled group. Results analysis of the experiment indicates that the CSM model is effective in enriching the subjects'meta-cognitive knowledge and promoting the establishment of learner autonomy, and it is also effective in the students' performances reflected from their academic records.