Practical Exploration Of Self-access Language Learning Theory In College English Writing Based On Online Learning Environment

Radical changes have taken place in people's lives, work as well as learning styles as mankind steps into the era of knowledge economy in the 21st century. For college students,it is of vital significance to change their learning style and arm themselves with the ability of learning independently to keep pace with the times. Recently, cultivating and improving learners'Self-access Language Learning (SALL) ability is unceasingly attracting people's attention in the field of language education, which aims to be in accordance with the notion of"learner-centered learning"and"life-long education". Furthermore, integrating SALL with online learning environment is the trend of language teaching reform.English writing, as an essential productive and communicative language skill, has being considered as a focus of language teaching and research. Nowadays, growing importance of English as an international language enables more and more people to realize the necessity of learning to write in English for academic or occupational purposes. China's successful entry to the WTO and hosting of Olympics 2008 put forward higher practical requirements for the English writing ability of college students, who will undoubtedly play an important role in international communication after graduation. Cultivating students'effective English writing ability has become the central issue of college English teaching and research. However, English writing skill has been regarded as the most difficult one of the four basic language skills (i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing) although English teachers and students exert themselves to improve English writing proficiency. In view of the current status and problems in college English writing, an empirical study, which aims to improve college English writing proficiency by SALL based on online learning environment, was carried out in Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. 89 freshmen, who are majoring in insurance, law, human resources and taught by the same teacher, were chosen as subjects of this study, with 45 students in the Experimental Group (EG) and 44 students in the Control Group (CG). This study was guided by the following two questions: compared to the traditional English writing teaching instruction, whether application of SALL based on online learning environment in college English writing, 1) is conducive to improving students'writing efficiency, especially their competence in vocabulary application; 2) is effective to arouse students'interest and strengthen their confidence in learning English writing. In the 10-week experiment, the students in EG had a hybrid of online self-access English writing learning and partial classroom instruction while those in CG only practiced conventional English writing instruction. The data information collected by writing tests and questionnaires is the core of this study.The main body of the thesis consists of four chapters:The introduction briefly introduces research background, research questions, research significance and the structure of this thesis.Chapter One is the literature review. First look is given to SALL, which serves as the theory basis for the whole study. The theoretical foundations of SALL, its elements and influencing elements are systematically expounded based on clarifying the learner autonomy and the approaches to encouraging learner autonomy. At the same time, a summary of the studies about SALL in China is drawn with the intention of providing some reference for the study. In Section Two, the online learning environment is elaborated as an ideal learning environment for SALL. The introduction of online learning environment into SALL brings about reorganization of SALL elements and learners'new features, both of which change the connotation and extension of SALL, as well as the readjustment of learners'learning strategies and teachers'teaching strategies. At the end of this section, the mode of implementing SALL in college English writing based on online learning environment is tentatively constructed, and concrete procedures are also explained. In the last section of this chapter, an overview of current English writing instruction approaches and related research is conducted.Chapter Two mainly deals with experiment designs. The concrete factors in experiment, such as objectives and subjects, variables and hypotheses, research procedures, instruments for data collection and analysis, are designed to ensure the experiment to be conducted smoothly. A concise introduction to New Perspective English Learning System (NPELS) is also offered in this chapter.Chapter Three mainly processes a statistic analysis of data information collected by pre-test, pos-test and questionnaires. The SPSS (the Statistical Package for Social Science) and VocabProfile are applied to analyze the results of pre-test and post-test in order to find out whether SALL based on online learning environment is helpful to improve students'writing ability, especially competence of vocabulary application. The questionnaires are collected and analyzed to verify whether SALL based on online learning environment is instructive to strengthen students'learning interest and confidence. Then an analysis of the reliability and validity of the study is followed.Chapter Four offers conclusions as well as the limitations of the study, and implications are put forward.