An Investigation Into The Relationship Between English Majors' Perceived Social Support And Learner Autonomy

The common consensus has been reached among linguists, scholars and teaching staffs that the cultivation and promotion of learner autonomy in foreign language learning should top present-day educational concerns since the introduction of the educational concept"learner-centeredness"twenty years ago. Numerous experts and teachers at home and abroad have discussed about learner autonomy from different perspectives and how to develop learner autonomy in English learning has been explored from different angles. However most of previous research aimed at exploring the internal factors influencing learner autonomy, while external factors have long been unjustly neglected in learner autonomy studies. Meanwhile, social support, as one of external factors, has been considered to be critical for academic productivity and psychosocial adjustment. However, almost all of the preceding empirical evidence regarding the connection of social support to academic achievement comes from North American settings and the role of social support in developing learner autonomy remains unknown.This study was designed to investigate the relationship between students'perceived social support and learner autonomy by answering the following three research questions: 1) What are students'perceptions of social support in English learning? 2) Is learner autonomy correlated with learners'perceptions of teacher academic support, teacher personal support, peer academic support and peer personal support? 3) What is the role of learners'perception of social support in developing learner autonomy? The answers were explored through the questionnaire. The subjects of this study are 149 undergraduate English majors (55 males and 94 females) in three grades (53 freshmen, 45 sophomores and 51 juniors) from Huangzhong University of Science and Technology. The questionnaire completed by the subjects consists of three parts: basic information about the subjects, students'perceptions of social support and students'beliefs about learner autonomy.The results of the study indicated that students held that they have the perception of peer personal support to the strongest degree, and teacher academic support next, teacher personal support the third, and peer academic support last. The analysis of the data revealed that students'perceived peer personal support, peer academic support, teacher personal support and teacher academic support each were positively correlated with learner autonomy in descending order of association. Furthermore, the results also revealed that peer personal support, peer academic support, and teacher personal support were moderate determinants of learner autonomy and they were found to play important roles in developing learner autonomy. It is suggested that English teacher should pay due attention to students'affective factors, and care about them both academically and personally, and moreover, encourage students to carry out cooperative learning by establishing a harmonious relationship between peers characterized with mutual care, respect, value, assistance, and support and the like.