A Study On Extracurricular Reading And Senior High Students' Learning Autonomy

With the development of science and technology, knowledge is being replaced faster and faster. Students nowadays shall be cultivated into lifelong learners to adjust themselves to the times of knowledge economy. In the past three decades,"learning autonomy"is increasingly attracting the attention of contemporary educators, who have realized that only by enabling learners to gain learning autonomy can they reach a main goal of education, that is to encourage learners to become life-long learners.Every language acquisition depends on a mass of reading. Many linguists and educators have found that a large amount of reading is beneficial to the improvement of second language proficiency. Extracurricular reading, as an extension of classroom teaching, can provide comprehensible input and enhance learners' general language competence.This paper is a quasi-experimental study of an 18-week extracurricular reading program, with the aim to know about the current situation of senior high students'learning autonomy, identify students'autonomous problems and find out whether extracurricular reading can improve senior high students'English learning autonomy.104 students of senior two in Shen Yang No.1 High School participated in this study. The questionnaire employed in this study consists of 36 statements and covers six aspects: learning motivation and attitude, setting learning goals and plans, selecting and adopting appropriate learning strategies, monitoring learning process, selecting and making use of extracurricular resources and evaluating learning outcomes. The data obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed to work out the statistic data. In order to find out the current situation of senior high students'learning autonomy in more depth and the effects of extracurricular reading on senior high students'English learning autonomy, and to improve the validity of the survey results, 20 students were selected for an interview. The same questionnaire and interview questions were used before and after extracurricular reading program.Results from the study show that senior high students'awareness and competence of autonomous learning was at a low level before the extracurricular reading program. Most students lacked awareness of autonomous learning and couldn't set learning goals and make practical learning plans. They had great problems in selecting appropriate learning strategies and extracurricular materials. And they didn't have the ability to monitor autonomous learning process and evaluate learning outcomes. After one semester of extracurricular reading program, students'awareness of autonomous learning has been obviously enhanced. Most students can fulfill learning plans quite well,monitor their learning process and evaluate their learning outcomes.