A Study On Teachers' Role And Students' Autonomy Learning In Senior High School ESL Classroom

With great advocation of quality-oriented education, gradual rise in learner-centered language teaching and lifelong education, more stress has been put on learners'central role in learning process and more attention has been given to developing learners'autonomous learning ability. Education also should be aimed at cultivating learner autonomy for the benefit of learning for life. Teachers play an important role in fostering learner autonomy, which has a direct effect on developing autonomous learning ability as well as comprehensive quality among learners. Numerous experts and teachers at home and abroad have discussed this point, believing that English teachers should redefine their role in order to better facilitate students'English autonomous learning. However, there is no empirical study on teachers'role in promoting learner autonomy from a learner perspective. Many previous studies also show that there is always mismatch between learners'perceptions and experts'or teachers'in terms of the same set of learning context. Moreover, the shift to student-centeredness in language teaching guarantees that the study from the student's angle is of great value. So it is necessary for this study to investigate students'beliefs about English teachers'role in developing learner autonomy by putting forward three research questions:1) What are students'beliefs about teachers'role in developing learner autonomy?2) Does teachers'actual behavior match students'expectations?3) Are there any differences between students of different levels in their beliefs about teachers'role in developing learner autonomy?The answers were explored through the questionnaire. The subjects of this study are 300 middle school students in three different levels (namely, Level 3 students with higher English proficiency; Level 2 students with intermediate English proficiency; Level 1 students with lower English proficiency) from Senior Middle School Attached to Dalian Education University, with 100 subjects from each level. The questionnaire completed by the subjects consists of four parts: basic information about the subjects, students'beliefs and teachers'actual behavior sections in the form of closed-ended items, and open-ended questions section. The results of the study indicate that as for teachers'role in developing learner autonomy, students'perceptions are in conformity with those of experts and teachers. From students'perspectives, in developing learner autonomy, teachers are considered to have a major role in teaching students'English learning strategies ,monitoring and evaluating students'English learning process in various ways, developing students'positive affection , overcoming negative counterpart and creating the appropriate English learning environment. It has also been found that some of teachers'actual behavior doesn't match students'expectations which can be expressed by a lack of communication between teachers and students, inadequate guidance from teachers in making English learning plans, deficient instruction from teachers about English learning strategies and scarce chances to practice them, insufficient work for teachers in monitoring and evaluating students'learning process as well as unsatisfactory application of affective factors to students'English learning by teachers.Additionally, Level 2 and Level 3 students are found to be more likely to believe that they can autonomously learn English well without teachers'instruction than Level 1 students. Level 3 students more favor their English teachers to encourage them to take part in class communicative activities to practice English than Level 2 students.