Improving Students’ Learning Autonomy Through Inquiry-based Teaching In English Reading Course

Reading ability is a significant part in using English, but years of reading classdon’t meet the expectation, with most students lacking learning autonomy andinitiative. Inquiry-based learning and teaching are mentioned as a broad umbrella termto indicate methods of learning that are driven by a process of inquiry where learnersare engaged in their learning, formulating questions, investigating widely and thenbuilding new comprehensions, meanings and knowledge. This thesis studies theeffectiveness of inquiry-based instruction on improving students’ learning autonomy inEnglish reading courses. Based on the theoretical review of learners’ autonomy in theinquiry-based teaching and the traditional reading courses, the analyses of the data,which were collected to testify whether inquiry-based methodology integrated intoEnglish reading course would improve students’ use of reading strategies, attitudes,learning autonomy and their reading achievements, offer enormous evidences of theevident advantages of the inquiry-based instruction which is effective in the promotionof their learning autonomy and the improvement of students’ English reading. Ourexperiment data are collected though the researcher’s observation, interviews andquestionnaire. The ways of the research include: questionnaire, proficiency test,classroom observation, interview, and SPSS10.0software. This research is hopefullyto be of some assistance to the relevant further research.