A Relationship Study On Non-English Majors’ Learner Beliefs And Learner Autonomy

In recent years, there has been a shift of focus in the research of foreign language teaching from the traditional teacher-centered class to the student-centered class at home and abroad. Scholars begin to conduct researches from the perspective of learners, with a large amount of researches carried out. Learner autonomy has been a hot topic in foreign language education. It is a kind of ability, an important theme in this field, not only helpful in increasing students’learning efficiency at school but also in developing students lifelong learning ability.In the course of studying how to develop learners’ learner autonomy, scholars found that the development of learner autonomy requires learners to hold positive beliefs about learner autonomy. If learners hold negative beliefs, it would be difficult for them to take active and responsible attitude toward learning and impossible to be autonomous learners. Thus it is necessary for teachers to understand students’ learner beliefs and correct their negative beliefs before fostering students’autonomous learning ability.Based on the literature review, a relationship study is carried out to investigate the general situation of learner beliefs and learner autonomy of non-English majors at the beginning of college, and analyze the differences between higher group and lower group and at last analyze the relationship between learner beliefs and learner autonomy. Three research questions are addressed in the present study:Question1:What is the general situation of non-English majors’ learner beliefs and learner autonomy respectively when entering the university?Question2:What are the differences between higher score group and lower score group in learner beliefs and learner autonomy?Question3:What is the relationship between learner beliefs and learner autonomy?Based on the research issues, the present study adopts both quantitative and qualitative method, with the instrument of questionnaire and interview. A total of100freshmen from non-English departments in Southwest Petroleum University are investigated through two questionnaires of learner beliefs and learner autonomy respectively at the beginning of university. The Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS16.0) is used to run all the statistical analysis in the present study which involves descriptive analysis, T-Sample test, pearson correlation analysis and partial correlation analysis.The study produces significant findings in relation to the research questions: The freshmen had a relatively positive understanding of English learning and have relative autonomous learning ability when entering the university; however, they have a poor knowledge of learning strategies and teaching purposes during class. The difference between higher score group and lower score group is not significant. At last, the pearson analysis shows that learner beliefs and learner autonomy are positively correlated, particularly in three aspects:the correlation between learner beliefs and monitoring and evaluating the use of learning strategies, learner beliefs and monitoring the use of learning strategy, and learner beliefs and the choice of environment.The study enables us to understand the freshmen’s understanding of different aspects of English learning, which helps change and adjust teachers’ teaching practice; on the other hand, it is helpful for teachers to prepare learners for being autonomous learners, to improve their autonomous learning ability and provides advice on increasing teaching quality and improving teaching activities.