A Survey On Learner Autonomy Of Foreign Language Majors

Autonomous learning ability is that learners are responsible for their ownlearning, able to independently set learning objectives, form learning methods, andmonitor learning process (Holec,1981). Cultivating students' autonomous learningability becomes one of the important targets of Construction of Excellent Course.Excellent Course System was initiated by College of Foreign Languages of XinjiangUniversity in2007; so far it has undergone four years. The present research aims tofind out whether the Construction of Excellent Course is helpful to the developmentof students' autonomous learning ability.The present research investigates the overall situation of learner autonomy inCollege of Foreign Languages through the questionnaire and interview. The purposeof the study is to find out the general state of affairs of both English major andRussian major on autonomous learning, the differences between English majors andRussian majors and between Grades in terms of their implementation of autonomouslearning and the underlying factors that affect autonomous learning.540students from College of Foreign Languages in Xinjiang Universityresponded to the questionnaire, including284students from English major and256students from Russian major. The research was based on Holec's definition of learnerautonomy and Xu Jinfen's English Majors' Autonomy Competence Questionnaire.SPSS16.0was used to carry out the data analysis.The present research yielded the following important findings: both English andRussian majors' autonomous learning ability are in a middle level; except resourcesutilization, there is no significant difference between two majors in implementinglearner autonomy; students' learner autonomy gradually increases with the increase ofgrades. Poor major foundation, lack of working monitoring system and evaluation,poor awareness of autonomous learning, teachers' teaching belief and their intervenein students as well as how successful students carry out their learning plan are themain factors that affect students' learner autonomy.The research has potentially important implications for fostering students' autonomy ability. It implies that under the process of Construction of ExcellentCourse, teachers had better raise students' awareness of learner autonomy, stimulatetheir inner drive to learn for themselves. At the same time, teachers are also expectedto change their teaching beliefs.