Teacher Autonomy In College English Teaching In China

This paper studies the notion of teacher autonomy (TA), illustrates the relationship between learner autonomy (LA) and TA, and reaches the conclusion that LA depends on TA and the development of TA can motivate LA.In accordance with the latest College English Curriculum Requirements, the researcher made some investigations on the topic of TA in Ningbo University, Zhejiang. By listening lessons of college English of several of her colleagues, interviewing some of experienced professors at the university, having much discussion with some of her colleagues, she made tentative and meaningful attempts to study and explore the interconnection between TA and LA, trying to find the relationship between them and how TA could influence LA and the learning outcome. At the same time, she employed a survey to make some attempts to find out students'opinions on the ideal teachers and explore how autonomous teachers could help students with their autonomous learning. By utilizing questionnaires and interviews as the main investigation tools, she conducted comparatively all-round investigation and study.The results of the study show that autonomous teachers play a very important role in College English teaching. TA and LA are two inseparable parts. With the help of autonomous teachers, a majority of the subjects can increase their learning interest, strengthen their self-confidence, improve the overall English skills, promote their application of learning strategies and gradually became autonomous learners.