Employ The Learning Strategies To Foster The Students' Learning Autonomy In Second Language Learning

On the basis of the English Curriculum Criteria (Experimental Draft), the tasks of English course in basic educational stage are as follows: Stimulate and foster the students' interest in learning English; found their self-confidence and self-esteem; form good learning habits and efficient learning strategies to develop the students' learning autonomy and cooperative spirit, thus make a solid foundation for their lifelong learning and development. The nature of criteria demands that we should integrate the use of learning strategies with the fostering of learning autonomy closely, that is, learning strategy is a guarantee for students to improve their learning efficiency and develop their learning autonomy.Language learning strategies are methods and steps consciously selected by language learners so as to improve their language proficiency. The study began in the midl970s. Over the past 30 years, much research has been done on it and great achievements have been made, which concern mainly with definitions and classifications, the difference between strategy employing and strategy training. But up to date, studies on the strategies used by middle school students have just began. Some researchers have planned to investigate the strategies used by senior middle school students in ten schools in Jiangsu Province by means of questionnaires, interviews and making diaries.Learning autonomy is an ability for the learners to control their learningcontent and process on the basis of their own need and wish. Once the students have got the learning autonomy ability, they can continuously learn new knowledge, new techniques, accept new challenges, and undertake new tasks. Education must aim to teach the students "how to learn" . So study on the use of learning strategies by middle school students and how to foster the (?)arning autonomy based on them are of realistic important significance.The present study intends to investigate, from cognitive perspective, the learning strategies employed by the ordinary senior middle school students (from Panjin Experimental Middle School, Liaoning Province) using a 5-scale questionnaire of learning strategies, required by the Curriculum Criteria. The thesis wants to answer the following research questions:1) How are the learning strategies employed by the ordinary senior middle school students?2) Find out the correlation between the learning strategy employing level and the students' language learning achievements.3) How can we employ the learning strategies to foster the learners' autonomy? The study revealed : 1) The use of the four learning strategies by studentsis in the medium or low level, not satisfactory. 2) There exists obvious divergence in strategy employing between good learners and poor learners, and the divergence leads to the different results of the second language achievements. That is, they are in the direct proportion. Based on the results of the research, the thesis suggests some specific ways to improve the students' autonomous learning ability.