Developing Autonomous Learning Ability Of Learners With Difficulty In English

Learner autonomy (LA) has been a buzzword in foreign language teaching in the recent twenty years. To know some conceptions about autonomous learning (AL) in language learning and the necessary factors to attain the goal, it is conductive to greatly improve teachers' role as guide, organizer and problem solving and it is also beneficial for teachers to actively get involved in the training process of students' AL, make students become real AL, improve learning efficiency and gain the best effect. English teaching in China pays more attention to implanting knowledge, neglecting the main position of the students to some extent. As a result, some students turn out to be low achievers in English. AL has attracted linguists' attention for a long time. However, few people have done much on cultivating the AL of the learners with difficulty in English. The thesis aims at cultivating learner autonomy of the learners with difficulty in English in the process of foreign language learning and how to promote AL in the current pedagogic context.The thesis first reviews what has been achieved in the study of AL at home and abroad, then it discusses the necessity of developing the autonomy of learners with difficulty in senior high school. Furthermore, this thesis surveys the causes and the definition of "learners with difficulty" given by scholars, explores the causes of difficult learners in English. After that, a questionnaire is designed to examine the degrees of the students' autonomy and to get information from the students in Egang Senior High School about their present situation in their autonomy of learning English. From results analyzed by SPSS, the data show that the learners with difficulty have poor learner autonomy in common, there is a positive correlation between the learner autonomy and their scores. So the author puts forward some teaching strategies including emotional strategies and cognitive strategies, which aim at fostering learner autonomy of learners with difficulty. In order to put the theory into practice, the author takes the problems of foreign language teaching in senior high schools into consideration. Therefore, the thesis introduces some foreign language teaching models that are suitable for different kinds of class types. The results of the experiment shows that the learners with difficulty in English can benefit from the teaching strategies and models. Most of them achieved greater autonomy and made greater progress in their English learning during the experimental time. The problem of learners with difficulty in English is a complicated one in education. It is to be further studied.