A Correlational Study Of College Students' English Learning Motivation And Learner Autonomy In Independent College

In recent years, Learner Autonomy (LA) has become a buzzword in the field of foreign language teaching. Imported by Holec into this field in 1980s, this concept has captured great attention from educators at home and abroad from then on. A lot of books and articles have been published to elaborate and discuss aspects from theoretical foundation and significance of application to strategies of implementation and practical results. However, these studies mostly focus on the definition of LA, the description of the characteristics of autonomous learners, the analysis of the theoretical foundation and how to promote LA. There are very few researches on the correlation between English learning motivation (one of the important factors among individual differences of learners) and LA. This kind of research is even fewer in China, let alone regarding non-English major undergraduates of Independent College as the participants of the study.Directed by self-determination theory, cognitive theory and constructivist learning theory, the current study probes into the characteristics of English learning of non-English major undergraduates of Independent College as well as the correlation between college English learning motivation and LA in the form of questionnaire, regarding second-year students in Beijin School of Hunan Business College as the participants.By analyzing the collected data of students' English learning motivation and learner autonomy with SPSS12.0, the author comes to the conclusion: students in Independent College have strong motivation of individual development and comparatively weak motivation of intrinsic interest. Furthermore, they lack the ability of selecting and monitoring learning strategies. Female students can achieve higher marks than male students in English tests due to the fact that they own stronger motivation and LA. The stronger students' motivation of intrinsic interest and individual development is, the more capably they set learning goals and monitor learning process, the higher marks they can obtain in CET4. Learning motivation has a positive correlation with LA, i.e. the stronger motivation students have, the better they perform in autonomous learning.Therefore, properly treating and handling the problem of English learning motivation can exert a positive effect on promoting LA undoubtedly. In the process of implementing and organizing the teaching activities, teachers should pay more attention to cultivate students' intrinsic interest in English learning, impart learning strategies and skills to students and advocate effective cooperative learning between male and female students.