Learner Autonomy And Its Impact On Reading

The last twenty years have witnessed the growing attention to learner autonomy and learner autonomy has thus become an unquestionable goal of language education. In 2004, the Ministry of Education of China demanded that colleges should put emphasis on student-centeredness, individualization, and autonomous learning. The paper begins with the exploration of theories in the realm of leaner autonomy and autonomous reading in an attempt to discover the theoretical ground for the implementation of a new approach in order to solve a particular problem in English language learning, i.e., the college's fresh students' low reading proficiency, especially after six years' official classroom instruction. The paper is then aimed to gauge the feasibility of implementation of the out-of-class autonomous reading program, including the examination of the ways and approaches to cultivate the students' readiness for autonomous learning of reading after class, and to help them form a good habit of reading out of class which probably benefits them for a lifelong study. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in the research to double-check the validity of the data and findings.The quantitative data were obtained from a questionnaire responded by 30 first-year English majors from Anhui University of Finance and Economics. The results show that:1. The students lack of ways to learn language autonomously, but they hold positive views towards out-of-class autonomous reading program, so their cooperation and initiation in participating the program can be anticipated.2. The subjects are very aware of the benefits of the out-of-class reading program, and they also show great interest in the program. However, in real life, they haven't formed the good habit of reading after class, and often find excuses not to do so, it is teachers' responsibility to cultivate or even monitor their reading activity.3. Students' and teachers' responsibility and change of roles are also to be valued in the learning process. Actually, students' autonomy in after-class reading can only be realized by the right direction and guidance of the teacher.4. The students show different taste in reading and have diverse focus...