Developing Junior Middle School Students' Learner Autonomy By Means Of Learning Journals

Learner autonomy is not only an important subject in the modern education research but also a learning style strongly advocated in the world. Learner autonomy is commonly described as active, self-directed and independent learning. At the same time, learner autonomy is an important guarantee of learners' sustainable development. The previous research has revealed that the students'learner autonomy, can be developed with the help of teachers. So the author hypothesizes if English teachers in junior middle school will be able to develop learners' autonomy by guiding and getting them keeping learning journal.The present study begins with the definition of learner autonomy, the characteristics and theoretical basis for learner autonomy. Then it reports an experiment with groups (experimental and control one) of subjects in the same teaching curriculum. The results of the experiment show that most students in the experimental group, after half an year's training, have enhanced learner autonomy awareness and their abilities to use learner autonomy have also been improved to different extent. Therefore, it is hoped that the study on developing learners'autonomy will be of practical significance and help learners to improve their learning autonomy.