Explore Awareness Of Autonomous Learning In The College English Learning

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in autonomous learning within several fields of research in China. And how to help students develop autonomous learning is a tendency for the coming years of educational circle and foreign language teaching. McDevitt (1997) raised the idea that the end product of education is an independent learner and that cultivating a learner's independence or autonomy should be regarded as the ultimate goal that teachers or educators try to pursue. However, researchers have found that Chinese learners show low ability in charging their own learning process, their autonomous learning ability must be improved immediately. Owing to the huge gap between the needs and the facts, it is necessary to find a proper way to cut the distance.The thesis first gives a brief review of the development of autonomous learning, then sums up the related theories and works on autonomous learning, and then reflects on the main facts that influence the effects of autonomous learning, and finally conclude the basic concept of what autonomous learning is, all of which are the theoretical foundation of the following activities. Via questionnaire, class observation, and interview, the author finds out (1) college students'level of autonomous learning is not high. (2) it doesn't show that the higher score the student gets in academic learning, the stronger ability he has in autonomous learning. (3) there is no significant differences among different genders, but female students show their superiority in language learning. (4) the data points out we should develop learners autonomous learning abilities first. An ancient proverb says,"give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and he eats for a lifetime". According to the data analysis, I change my previous plan. I try to design activities to awaken the learners'autonomous awareness, and to teach them how to learn autonomously. Then a series of after-class activities is conducted to train the learners'autonomous learning abilities and improve their language learning. Students'feedback shows the design is successful.