A Descriptive Study Of Teachers' Roles In Cultivating Learner Autonomy Under CALL Environment

With the integration of computer and network into foreign language teaching, and the publication of the latest College English Curriculum Requirements, the traditional education system should be changed in order to cultivate students'learner autonomy under computer assisted language learning environment. Then many scholars carried out a lot of researches on the formation of learner autonomy under CALL or the transformation of teachers'roles under this environment. However, there are limited studies on teachers'conception about their roles in cultivating learner autonomy under CALL as well as the practice situation. And this thesis aims to make a research on this situation and to make recommendations.This thesis adopts both quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the following questions: 1) What are teachers'attitudes and cognitions bout CALL model? 2) What are the teachers'conceptions about their role in cultivating leaner autonomy under CALL environment? 3) What are the teachers'actual performances in cultivating learner autonomy under CALL environment? 4) What are the affecting factors for the perfection of teachers'roles? And 121 participants from XingTai College, China University of Geosciences Great Wall College and Hebei University of Engineering are involved in this research. They are English teachers who conduct instruction under similar environment by applying computer and the internet to cultivate students'learner autonomy.This study finds that firstly, the subjects generally hold positive attitudes about CALL model and have a clear cognition about the chances and challenges brought by the application of computer technology. Secondly, the subjects'cognition about teachers'roles in cultivating learner autonomy under CALL is basically all-round and clear. But there are also some unclear points which should be proved, especially the ones concerning facilitator. Thirdly, although the subjects meet most of the requirements of teachers'roles in cultivating learner autonomy under CALL environment, there are still some aspects in each role which cannot fully meet learners'needs and wait for improvement, especially as a counselor, resource provider and helper. Fourthly, from teachers'perspective, the disparities between beliefs and actual performances are mainly caused by the factors involving four major education segments including student, teacher, equipment and management. And their own reasons are the most important ones, such as the limited recognition of the students'need, unprogressive technological knowledge and skills, and the deficiency in providing enough helps to promote learner autonomy.