A Comparative Study Of English Autonomous Learning Ability Between Full-time And Spare-time Undergraduates

Since the1980s, autonomous learning has gradually developed into one of the hot topics in the field of education, especially since learner autonomy was raised by Henri Holec in1981, it has aroused a heated talk in the field of applied linguistics.Compared with studies in secondary schools, students in universities mainly study by themselves. The ability of self-directed learning for university students is directly related to their learning effect. As a result, it is important to investigate the autonomous learning abilities for university students. Full-time undergraduates and spare-time undergraduates are the main force in building learning society. The learning abilities of them make a direct and important impact on the development and construction of social education. Therefore, it is essential to study the learning conditions of them. English is the compulsory subject in the period of undergraduate study and it is important to study well. However, the research on the learning conditions for full-time undergraduates and spare-time undergraduates are not sufficient enough, especially on their abilities of English autonomous learning.As a result, through the means of questionnaire and in-depth interview, the study mainly makes a contrast between full-time undergraduates and spare-time undergraduates in the ability of English autonomous learning. In addition, the author makes an analysis of the reasons for the differences, trying to find out the influencing factors that make an impact on the abilities of English autonomous learning both full-time undergraduates and spare-time undergraduates. The study adopts the qualitative and quantitative research methods. The questionnaire is adopted by Zhou Zhizhong (2004) and Wu Guifen’s (2005)"Self-learning" questionnaire.600questionnaires are given out to full-time and spare-time undergraduates respectively, and279questionnaires are taken back for full-time undergraduates,255for spare-time undergraduates. The questionnaire scores according to the Likert’s five-point scale, which means:A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4, E=5. The author inputs the data into SPSS17.0Statistics, analyzing the differences of English autonomous learning abilities between full-time and spare-time undergraduates in five aspects and making an analysis of the reasons that cause the differences. At last, the conclusion is made that there is a significant difference between full-time and spare-time undergraduates in the aspect of learning motivation and attitude, there is no significant difference in the aspect of self-monitoring situation, there is no significant difference in the aspect of setting learning goals and plans, there is a significant difference in the aspect of use of extra-curricular resources and there is a significant difference in the aspect of self-evaluation and adjustment. For the total situation, there is no significant difference of English autonomous learning abilities between full-time and spare-time undergraduates.In addition, the true thoughts are understood by in-depth interviews and the influencing factors that make an impact on English autonomous learning abilities of full-time undergraduates and spare-time undergraduates are summarized after interviews.Finally, the author proposes some strategies and advice aiming at the five aspects of English autonomous learning, in order to improve students’English autonomous learning abilities in future learning.