Fostering Learner Autonomy In The Teaching Of English

With the teaching of English being more and more communication-oriented, the traditional teacher-centered approach is facing a big challenge and is being replaced by the learner-centered one. This means that learners will assume greater responsibility for their own English learning. Therefore, fostering learner autonomy is of the utmost importance in the teaching of English. Over the last two decades, fostering learner autonomy has become the chief concern in the field of English language teaching. As a result, successive observations and insights have been obtained in diverse researches and studies of learner autonomy. This M. A. thesis aims at an exploration of fostering learner autonomy in the teaching of English based on the illustration of the concept of autonomy, the elaboration on the three conditions for autonomy: learners' attitudes, motivation, metacognitive knowledge and an investigation on learners' autonomous learning competence.Over the last two decades, scholars have held different views on the concept of autonomy. This thesis proposes that autonomy entails learner's willingness and ability to move from teacher-dependence to teacher-independence. Willingness and ability are the two components of autonomy. Willingness comes from the learners' motivation and confidence to take responsibility for their own learning, while ability can be acquired on the basis of knowledge about the learning tasks and the necessary strategies for completing these tasks. Therefore, autonomous learners should have positive attitudes towards their learning, strong motivation and enough confidence to take responsibility for their own learning and should strengthen their ability in doing so with the guidance of teachers, for autonomy does not mean any reduction of teachers' roles. Humanism and constructivism, the theoretical support of autonomy, also imply that autonomy does not mean learning in isolation or learning without teachers and other learners. Rather, autonomy entails the interaction with teachers and with other learners.Different learners will manifest different learning attitudes, motivation and metacognitive knowledge in their English learning. Therefore, fostering learner autonomy in the teaching of English should take into full consideration learners' attitudes, motivation and metacognitive knowledge which serve as three important conditions for learner autonomy. These conditions will largely influence the degree of learner autonomy. This thesis will elaborate on these three conditions and probe into their relationships with learner autonomy.Based on the above theories of learner autonomy, an investigation on learners' autonomous learning competence is carried out in this thesis. This investigation includes a quantitative questionnaire and a qualitative interview. The results of the investigation are analyzed interms of 4 factors: the role of the teacher, learner independence, learner motivation and confidence, and metacognitive knowledge. The findings from the investigation reveal that most learners have strong dependence on the teacher for their English learning. They lack proper motivation and enough confidence in their English learning and their metacognitive knowledge is too limited to allow them to learn independently.Therefore, on the basis of the above theories of autonomy and the research findings of the investigation, this thesis argues that learner training for fostering learner autonomy in the teaching of English should entail three aspects. Firstly, teachers should cultivate learners' awareness of autonomous learning and train their metacognitive strategies to take responsibility for their learning. Secondly, setting up self-access centers can provide learners with an autonomy-supportive learning environment which will contribute to enhancing learners' motivation and strengthening their confidence in their English learning. Lastly, teachers themselves should reconsider their roles in fostering learner autonomy. They should act as facilitators, counselors and resource rather than classroom controllers. In this way, learners can feel more willing to accept responsibility for their own learning and strengthen their ability to do so.The following is the framework of this thesis, which consists of six chapter.Chapter One serves as an introduction, aiming at stating the aim and main contents of the thesis.Chapter Two makes a detailed introduction of the concept of autonomy from two aspects: understanding autonomy and justifying autonomy.Chapter Three elaborates on three conditions for learner autonomy: attitudes, motivation and metacognitive knowledge, as well as their relationships with learner autonomy.Chapter Four and Chapter Five are the main body of the thesis. Chapter Four centers on an investigation on learners' autonomous learning competence by means of a questionnaire and an interview.Chapter Five concentrates on three aspects in the learnar training aiming at fostering leaner autonomy in the teaching of English on the basis of the research findings of the investigation.Chapter Six functions as a conclusion of the whole thesis.