A Study Of Autonomous Learning In English

Autonomous learning has become a hot issue in educational field over the past twenty years and it is important to cultivate learners' ability to self-direct their learning and live independently or successfully later in society. The ultimate goal of quality-oriented education is to promote learner autonomy. But how to promote learner autonomy is still a question. What is being advocated in the thesis is the development of learner autonomy through learning training.In the study, I first explored the level of autonomy, the relation between the level of autonomy and English achievement, the differences between male students and female students. Then student training is incorporated in the English course to foster learner autonomy. The activities include the following aspects: to assist learners to analyze their needs and identify their preferred ways of learning and build up their confidence in autonomous learning; to encourage learners to set their realistic goals and plans; to develop skills needed to negotiate the resources; to develop learners' skills in self-evaluation; to provide learners with efficient learning strategies. The experiment lasted one term. Data collection was conducted mainly through questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations, and the scores of examinations. The result was analyzed in quantitative and qualitative method.The survey showed that the level of autonomy is low and significantly correlated to academic performance. In general, there is no significant difference between male and female students, but in motivation and strategy, females are higher. After training, learning autonomous awareness has greatly improved. They use strategies more frequently; they can organize their time more effectively and get benefits from various resources. At the same time learning training also helps students upgrade their learning achievement.