Learners' Awareness And Behaviour Of Autonomous Foreign Language Learning: A Case Study

This research project is an effort aimed to explore learners'awareness and behaviour of learner autonomy in their foreign language learning in a Chinese foreign language high school context. It is a case study carried out in Beijing Foreign Language School Affiliated with Beijing Foreign Studies University. The participants are 145 students from Year Eight and Year Eleven. The researcher uses a triangulation which consists of a questionnaire survey, interviews, and campus observations to probe learner's awareness and behaviour of autonomous foreign language learning in their learning process, and through statistic analysis to find out whether their learner autonomy changes as stay time on campus and gender do. The data analysis reveals that the learners possess positive attitudes towards learner autonomy and demonstrate a fairly high degree of learner autonomy in their foreign language learning. It has also been found that learners'awareness and behaviour of learner autonomy change over time during the learners'stay at the school, and gender is significantly correlated with learners'autonomous foreign language learning behaviour. Fostering learners'awareness and capacity of learner autonomy is an important goal of the present curriculum reform of elementary education, thus this paper is of significance in further understanding the status quo of learners'awareness and behaviour of learner autonomy.