An Action Research On Cultivating Learner Autonomy In English Learning In A Secondary Vocational School

Learner autonomy has been studied for a long period of time. It has also become a buzzword in foreign language teaching in recent years. In China, the Ministry of Education has set one of the main goals of English teaching and learning as"developing the students'autonomous English learning"in The Course Requirement for College English Teaching. This urgently demands teachers and advanced education authorities to create the prerequisites for autonomous learning to guarantee that all the students will improve both in intellect and in overall abilities. For students at Secondary Vocational Schools, they will meet more challenges if they can not keep on learning English after graduation. Therefore, it is necessary for them to learn how to take responsibility for their own learning at school. In order to improve the students'abilities of autonomous learning, we must cultivate their learning strategies first. Thus, they'll have the ability to continue learning and become more valuable to the society after they complete their formal education.There are many definitions about"action research", among which the one put forward by Kemmis and McTaggart (1982:5) is accepted by most people ."Action research is a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social ( including educational ) situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of (1) their own social or educational practices ; (2) their understanding of these practices , and (3) the situations (and institutions ) in which these practices are carried out ."There are differences between action research and the traditional educational research . The traditional educational research usually adopts psychological accounting research method ,which requires strict experimental designs and suppositional verifications as well as the random interviewees chosen through testing , and test the changes and results of the interviewees after they have been"dealt with"through certain methods . For the educational research , this method is much limited . As a teacher , we pay more attention to the progress made by every student . We emphasize whether different teaching methods are fitter for different students , whether their potential is fully developed and whether they can get best results . Action research focuses on some certain problems in some certain circumstances . It solves some specific problem in the complicated society and educational circumstances.This study was based on constructivism theory, humanism theory and pedagogical theories on autonomous learning. This thesis aims to document the importance and necessity of student autonomy in English language learning to explore ways and activities to develop the students'autonomous English learning abilities. It also aims to improve the students'English learning abilities and lay a solid foundation for them to go into the society.This study adopts qualitative and quantitative research methods, which includes questionnaire and interview methods in addition to experimental research. The thesis presents an investigation into the English learning of the two Nurse Classes I'm teaching. Through the investigation I found there is great correlation between the results of learning and the ability of autonomous learning. Poor learning abilities result from impropriate way of learning strategies. Developing students'autonomous English learning abilities can improve not only the results of learning, but also help students from secondary vocational school in later years.The author hopes that this thesis will shed light for Secondary Vocational School EFL teachers in their English teaching practice and make some contribution to the field of autonomous learning.