Constructing A Classroom Teaching Model To Develop English Learner Autonomy In Senior High School

The development of autonomous individuals is the long-term goal in most, if not all, educational endeavors. It is not only of great significance for the lifelong development of the educatee, but also a royal road to achieving the efficiency and effectiveness of educating. The English Curriculum Standard places such emphasis on learner autonomy that it is one of the goals in our teaching reform to train students to improve their autonomy in language learning. It is necessary for the English teachers to help students develop their autonomy in language learning and the ability to take charge of their learning. But as a matter of fact, most of our English classroom teaching are still "transmission" teaching which emphasizes on teaching English language points rather than developing the student's ability to learn. This traditional teaching model can no longer adapt to the development and requirement of quality education in new situations. What kind of teaching model can achieve the goal set by The English Curriculum Standard is a question every English should pay sufficient attention to and research into.In fact, since 1980s, great achievements of learner autonomy research have been accomplished and applied to teaching practice in many subjects, which are also of instructive significance for English teaching and learning. However, bound up by the negative influence of the traditional teacher-centered classroorr. teaching model, examination-oriented education, and inefficient teaching conditions, most senior high school English teachers have not applied those theories effectively to their English teaching. There is still a considerable gap between the theories and practice. Therefore, based on the study and survey, the author set out to combine the theories with practice, and further attempted to explore an effective way as a bridge to connect the two, that is, a new classroom teaching model that meets the demand of The English Curriculum Standard.In this thesis, the author first defines the term of learner autonomy and summarizes the factors that influence it and the features of it, then reviews the major methods in foreign language teaching and classroom teaching models applied by most senior high school English teachers. Based on an analysis of the successful experience of the classroom teaching models aiming at developing learner autonomy in other subjects, the author brings forward some principles for the new classroom teaching model aiming at developing English learner autonomy.After that the author makes a survey, analyzing the main factors which influence English learner autonomy in the current teacher-centered classroom teaching model, and argues that this model, aiming at teaching language points, should be changed, because this traditional teacher-centered classroom teaching model goes against the practical feature of language learning as well as the educational principles of the cognition development of senior high school students.Based on the survey and study, the author proposes a classroom teaching model to develop English learner autonomy, with the guidance of related theories on learner autonomy and second language learning and acquisition, expatiating on the six elements of this teaching model: the teaching theories, teaching aim, teaching conditions, roles of the teacher and student in autonomous learning, operation and evaluation of the model.In order to further illustrate the guidelines and operation of this classroom teaching model, the author presents the process of teaching a reading text as an example. In this part, the author compares the new model with the traditional model in many aspects. My teaching practice has proven that this classroom teaching model is not only beneficial to the development of learner autonomy in language learning but also effective in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our English teaching in classroom.Finally the author emphasizes the necessity and feasibility of developing learner autonomy in senior high school English classroom, as well as the...