Cultivating Normal School Students' Learning Autonomy In EFLT

With the globalization of world economy and China's entry into WTO, English is playing amore and more important role in our life. English learning becomes even more important forschool students. Although much time and efforts are put into learning, some learners still cannotachieve such satisfactory outcomes as high test scores or eloquence in speaking. Based on theprobing into the current situation of English learning and teaching in China, the problem seemsthat these learners are lack of responsibility for their language learning and they do not knowhow to control their learning process. This paper focuses on how to promote learner autonomyto improve the efficiency of English learning with regards to the characteristics and needs ofChinese learners. The key questions addressed in this paper are:1. Is it possible to promote learner autonomy in China?2. What are the theoretical bases for developing learner autonomy in EFLT?3. How to help our learners to be autonomous?With regard to the research, a hypothesis is put forward that learning strategy training canpromote learner autonomy. Firstly, this paper presents a training program conducted in Ping DuNormal School. The study lasted for two semesters with the objectives to enrich the learners'meta-cognitive knowledge, to improve the learners' level of self-regulation. Secondly, the authorsuggests that teachers take affective,motivation needs into consideration to create a supportiveenvironment, in which learners can be emotionally and actively involved in their languagelearning;Finally, the author suggests that help should be offered to learners to reflect on theirlearning process, to make learners have explicit awareness of their own learning strengths,weakness and learning styles, and to make them have a good ability in goal-setting, plan andchoice-making. In doing so, better results will hopefully be expected from foreign languagelearning.