A New English Curriculum-based Study Of How To Cultivate Senior High School Students' Autonomous Learning Ability

English is considered as one of the basic subjects in Chinese high schools. It is our urgent task to educate English professionals with lifetime learning ability who can adapt to the 21th century. Under the new curriculum circumstances, senior English teaching is turning its attention from English language to whole person education. It also emphasizes the nurturing of students' autonomous learning ability and lifetime learning ability. New Curriculum Standard for Senior English Teaching requires teachers to change the traditional teaching methods and help students improve their learning by adopting "self-regulated learning" methods. It has been discovered through investigation that most senior middle school students haven't formed a good habit of studying independently. They play a passive role in their studies and rely too much on their teachers. Therefore, we teachers should have a knowledge of the theory of independence study, improve our teaching methods, cultivate the students' autonomous learning ability and make the students learn how to study. Based on the present situation of senior English teaching, this thesis puts forward some suggestions and measures on how to train students to study on their own. This research is based on humanistic learning theories, constructive views of education, metacognitive theory and the theory of the zone of proximal development.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One: to analyze the current senior English curriculum. This part is focused on comprehensive analysis of the new Curriculum Standard for Senior English Teaching and senior English text book, and points out one of the purposes of present curriculum reform: to change students' way of learning and nurture their autonomous learning ability.Chapter Two: to study and analyze the present senior English teaching and learning. This chapter looks into the students I am teaching by giving out a questionnaire. It also looks into some English teachers in Qichun county by talking with them. All this is done to find out to what extent the students are studying independently, and try to find out how it comes into being.Chapter Three: to illustrate the theoretical evidence of advocating students to study independently. This part introduces the conception of independence study and sometheories in relation to it. It is based on humanistic learning theories, constructive views of education, metacognitive theory and the theory of the zone of proximal development, which shows that the nurturing of autonomous learning ability is scientific and feasible.Chapter Four: to discuss the strategies promoting independence study. This chapter advances some teaching strategies including changing teaching notions, creating conditions for independence study, nurturing students' learning strategies and reforming evaluation system. And it also puts forward self-regulated teaching model.Chapter Five: to illustrate self-regulated teaching model. Taking the "Reading" part of Unit 13(Senior English for China Book IB) as an example, this part tries to clarify how to put theories into practice and cultivate students' autonomous learning ability.