An Experimental Study Of Fostering Junior Students' English Learning Autonomy

The current curriculum reform helps to improve the quality-oriented education. It puts forward the task of changing the students' ways of learning. Autonomous learning is essential to the implementation of the curriculum reform. It is not only a new tendency of English teaching and learning in middle schools, but also an important factor affecting junior students' English learning. Its objective is to let them know how to learn. The foundation will be laid for them to acquire the ability of lifelong learning and to achieve sustainable development. Yet, how to foster junior students' English learning autonomy is still at issue.Being a Chinese teacher of English in a middle school, I conducted the experimental study. Data were collected mainly through questionnaires, interviews, teacher's observations and scores of examinations. The result was analyzed both in quantitative and qualitative methods.The experiment lasted an academic year (Sept. 2003 - Jun. 2004). The research findings show that it is an effective way to heighten the students' learning autonomy, to arouse their interest in learning English, to help them set realistic goals and plans, to let them organize their time, to choose and improve their learning strategies, to develop their skills of self-evaluation, to provide them with more time and chances to learn by themselves. At the same time, their learning is greatly improved.