A Study On Learner Strategies Of Independence In A Junior Middle School

Over the last two decades many learner-centred approaches to language education have emerged, all of which include autonomy and independence among their aims. Some researchers even maintain learner autonomy should be the ultimate goal of education. So teachers should not only teach the students knowledge and skills, but also cultivate them to be independent and responsible. The procedures and techniques for doing this have been known as learner training.This paper presents a learner training programme conducted with students of Junior Two in No.3 Middle School in Baotou. This research aims at raising the subjects' self-directed learning attitudes and developing their ability of employing learning strategies so as to help them become independent learners. The techniques which are employed for data collection include: questionnaire, interview, learner's diaries and teacher's journal.65 copies of two kinds of questionnaires were handed out and all of them were collected at the beginning and the end of the semester respectively. A questionnaire about learner's attitudes was completed before and after the training to find out the effects of the training on students' attitudes.The other questionnaire was first done at the beginning of the semester to investigate the learner strategies that the students employed in their study. At the end of the semester it was used again to discover the effect of the trainingTo further discover the effects of the training two interviews were carried out at the beginning and the end of the semester respectively. Three students were interviewed. The first interview was carried out to find the students'...