A Survey Study Of Autonomous Learning By Chinese Non-English Major Postgraduates

This thesis reports a survey study of the autonomous L2 learning by 100 first-year non-English-major Chinese postgraduates via the instruments of a questionnaire and semi-structured interview after the questionnaire.It attends to address the following research questions:1.To what extent do Chinese postgraduate students conduct autonomous L2 learning?1) What are their beliefs in autonomous L2 learning?2) Can they determine their objectives of autonomous L2 learning?3) Can they implement the strategies of autonomous L2 learning?4) Can they monitor their process of autonomous L2 learning?5) Can they evaluate the efficacy of their autonomous L2 learning?2.To what extent do Chinese postgraduate students conduct the internet-based autonomous learning.1) What are their beliefs in internet-based autonomous learning?2) What are their behaviors in autonomous learning?3.Are there any statistically significant differences between male and female postgraduates on autonomous L2 learning?The results of the data analysis reveal the following main findings in line with the research questions:1.The overall degree of the postgraduates' autonomous English learning is not so satisfactory as expected.Their gain in the average means of all the questionnaire items is 3.35.2.They have no very definite motivation and objectives of autonomous L2 learning in the stage of being postgraduates.What is more,they fail to be aware of the significance and the role of English in their major research.The means of determining the learning objectives and evaluating the efficacy are 3.33 and 3.10 respectively.3.Most of postgraduates are so passive in cooperative learning and English activities, such as exchanging with foreign experts and paper writing in English in the foreign journals.The means of them are 3.33 and 3.08 respectively.4.The internet does not play a real role in the autonomous L2 learning.In most cases, it is a tool to relax and entertain themselves.The means of watching English movies to practice their English and listening to VOA and BBC to improve their listening comprehension is 3.23.5.Female postgraduates perform better in the category of determining their objectives of autonomous L2 learning than male ones.The means of them are 3.89 and 3.43 respectively.However,the male postgraduates perform better in the category of the internet-based autonomous L2 learning than female ones.The means of them are 3.88 and 3.21 respectively.But the differences in the whole questionnaire between male and female postgraduates are not of statistical significance.The above findings shed light on the autonomous L2 learning by non-English-major postgraduates in Chinese universities.Some measures should be taken to foster their autonomous L2 learning.(1) Highlighting postgraduates' awareness of autonomous L 2 learning.Why they learn English is not purely pass the exams,but the implication of English in their research.(2) Asking for instructors scaffolding for postgraduates' L2 learning.The duty of them is not only to impart language knowledge,but to create opportunities for them to autonomously learn English and exchange each other.(3) Requiring for explicit strategies training for autonomous L2 learning. According to survey,it was found that most of them have poor knowledge in translating,spoken and writing strategies.We English teachers should help them grasp some cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies.Meanwhile,more postgraduates should be encouraged to have cooperative learning and learn to evaluate their autonomous learning.(4) Making good use of internet resource in autonomous L2 learning.The ideal teaching environments should be created.Only in this way can postgraduates be the center of learning in and out of class.