The Development Of Students' Leaner Autonomy In English Reading In Vocational Schools

Up till the present days, the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language have experienced a long period of history, and there has been a great achievement. However, there are some negative phenomena over which both language learners and language teachers feel puzzled and depressed: from their first exposure to English at the beginning of their primary school education till their graduation from the university, learners have spent around 16 years in the learning of English as a foreign language, but the learning effects are not satisfactory. Over the past years, researches on teaching methodology and learners have been on the rise. However, in China, the current relevant researches are mainly concerned with the full-time regular college students and middle-school students, few EFT researchers have explored learners'situation in the field of vocational schools.These students of vocational schools have something in common with the full-time regular college students. But, as we know, the students of vocational school have their own characteristics in the learning process. Most students graduate from junior middle school and their entrance scores are much lower than that of other senior high-school students. And most students generally possess low confidence and motivation in learning. Many of them don't have a good habit of learning, don't know learning strategies, and feel no interest in learning a foreign language. Therefore, it is very necessary to make research on the learners of vocational schools who are often neglected, and provide the English Foreign Teaching (EFT) teachers of these schools with some theoretical support and efficient teaching ways. Therefore, this thesis expounds an efficient way of developing learner autonomy (LA) of vocational school students through the training in English class. In this way, it will be helpful for their lifelong learning. At the same time, considering the student's present English level and ability, this study focuses on fostering students'learner autonomy through English reading classroom teaching in vocational schools.Learner autonomy is a capacity with which a leaner can manage his\her own learning process. Through involvement in planning, monitoring and evaluating one's study, learners have greater control and take on more responsibility in making decisions and taking initiatives in learning. Humanism, constructivism and cognitive psychology are theoretical bases of learner autonomy. To find the way of cultivating students'learner autonomy in vocational school, I made a literature review in the thesis on the theoretical bases.From September of the year 2006 to June of the next year, a two-term experiment was carried out to the students from two classes of Grade 06 in Chengdu Normal School. Based on the theories of learner autonomy, a series of classroom teaching experiments was performed to achieve the goal. One class was the experi- iv mental class (E-Class), the other class was the controlled class (C-Class). The C-class was taught by using the traditional teaching methods. The E-class was exposed to the new teaching methods, which could facilitate learner autonomy. In class, the teacher motivated the students'internal willingness, trained them to have a broader repertoire of different learning strategies known or unknown, and provided them opportunities to apply these strategies to their individual study. The experiment is significant in that it presents the learner-centered notion in education and aims at developing learner's autonomy in English reading. It demonstrates the pedagogical implications through the analysis of the results of the empirical study by using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science): (1) students become more autonomous and independent when they are motivated and equipped with a wide range of learning and reading strategies for different learning tasks; (2) the improvement of learners'receptive (reading) competence is correlated with strategies-based instruction.The thesis concludes that learner autonomy can be fostered through motivating and training students in class. Thus, EFT in vocational schools can be efficient.