Experimental Investigation On Self-assessment Strategies And Autonomous Language Learning Among High School Students

Recently, the studies in learner autonomy and self-directed learning have been hot topics and commonly mentioned in practical teaching. It is certain that teaching should be aimed at producing autonomous learners who are responsible for their own learning. It is greatly significant to produce life-long learners by improving their autonomy in language learning, thus to improve teaching and learning. Self-assessment is believed to be one of the essential learning strategies for autonomous language learning, which enable learners to plan, carry out and check their own learning, control their own progress and connect learning with individual needs.The author of the thesis conducted an experimental investigation in order to find the effects on training learners' autonomy by carrying out planning, self-assessment activities in his English teaching for high school's second graders, thus to train learners' learning strategies.Strategy training covers cognition strategy, metacognition strategy, society strategy and affection strategy. This thesis focuses on the development of one aspect of the metacognitive strategies, i.e. self-assessment strategy. To explore the effects of the self-assessment strategy development, the author made an experimental investigation on one class in a countryside high school. The development activities include making plans, filling in self-assessment checklists, writing learning logs or diaries. The purpose of the activities is to raise students' language learning awareness and provide opportunities for students to discover their own progress in their language learning process.The data from questionnaires, self-assessment checklists, and students' weekly diaries indicate that:Students' self-assessment ability has been improved.Students' planning skills have been enhanced a little bit.Developing learners' autonomy can promote their learning autonomy, but greatly significant effects remain to be seen in the long run.