Students' Autonomous Language Learning: The Trend Of English Teaching Reform

The ultimate goal of English language teaching (ELT) in China is to develop learners' communicative competence and good learning strategies, so as to become autonomous language learners and users. It' s generally agreed that good teaching is good communication between teachers and students and also among students, and the best efficiency in ELT comes from effective co-operation between the teacher and the students. This paper explores some of the key concepts of learner autonomy and considers their implications in Chinese EFL contexts. Based on the justification for promoting autonomy, three components have been identified as central for developing autonomy, which roughly correspond with the three areas for learner preparations that have been suggested as the prerequisites for implementing the concepts in the classroom. Considering rigidity of the English teaching syllabus in China, it is proposed that a pedagogy for fostering learner autonomy can be interwoven into a regular EFL program.Also, this paper shows a survey of English teachers and non-English majors regarding the attitudes of the two approaches of English learning, namely the teacher-dominated and the learner-centered approaches. In view of their attitudes, the author have analyzed the change of the teacher' s role in teaching as compared with that in the past, and have illustrated the importance and requirement of training Chinese learners of English, to be independent and autonomous in their learning. Therefore, teacher' s role as an organizer or a director in the class is as necessary as his or her role of a participant in students' activities. The teachers are supposed to present the practical approaches and procedures of teaching to develop students' autonomous learning abilities. So English teaching reform is becoming more and more popular and even a trend in ELT.