| Learner autonomy or autonomous language learning, based on theories such as constructivism in cognitive psychology, humanism in psychology, communicative competence in sociolinguistic and motivation, individual learner differences as well as learning strategies in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) studies displays its great vitality in this information era. The autonomous language learning situation, so to speak, provides a favorable setting for autonomous language learning. Theoretically, the traditional teacher's role as the language instructor and authority of the class will change accordingly in the new autonomous language learning situation. The present study is conducted to perceive the students' beliefs and executive abilities about autonomous language learning as well as their expectations of the teacher's roles in the different learning situations. The questionnaire survey is conducted by making a comparison of the data obtained from the students learning in the two different learning situations so that we can get an overall picture of this research subject.The data analysis shows compared with the students learning in the traditional classroom situation the students in the autonomous language learning situation take a more positive attitude toward autonomous language learning, but they have inferior executive abilities to pursue autonomous language learning because they lack learning strategies, expect to rely more on the teacher and have lower sense of self-efficacy. All these result in their higher expectation of the teacher's roles. Therefore, we still have a long way to go to make our students learn autonomously and independently. In order to achieve this goal, the teacher should serve as 'scaffolding', providing learner training to enhance the students' autonomy.The present study is only a tentative one. Before the thesis comes to the conclusion, some proposals are put forward so as to offer a modest spur to trigger more valuable contributions in this field.
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