Research On Senior High Students’ Autonomous Learning In Oral English

Learner autonomy has become a hot topic at home and abroad since1980s. HenriHolec put it as “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning”. As is known to all,oral English is one of the most important skills which are supposed to be mastered bystudents. Besides, The English Curriculum Standards for Common Senior High School(experiment draft), issued by the Ministry of Education in2003, makes requirements tostudents’ learner autonomy in oral English. Considering the current situation of oralEnglish learning in class in senior high, it is necessary to cultivate students’ ability oforal English autonomous learning. Therefore, this thesis conducts research on seniorhigh students’ learner autonomy in oral English, trying to add some useful outcome inthis field.The author conducts this research through questionnaire and interview. Theparticipants are101students in grade one and two in the Middle School Attached toSichuan Normal University. This research aims to get a clear picture of the currentsituation of oral English autonomous learning among senior high students. Additionally,this thesis intends to give suggestions on how to cultivate students’ ability of oralEnglish autonomous learning. The results of this research indicate that many studentsare interested in learning oral English. However, most learners do not haveconsciousness of setting learning goals or making learning plans. And more than half ofthe students feel anxious and nervous when speaking English in front of others.Meanwhile, among five oral English learning strategies discussed in this thesis,students’ mastery condition of affective strategy is not optimistic. Besides, students in grade one and grade two, and students at different ages do have some different opinionson oral English autonomous learning.After analyzing the data of this research, the author puts forward three pieces ofsuggestions for developing learner autonomy in oral English: how to set goals for oralEnglish autonomous learning, how to stimulate students’ motivation in oral Englishautonomous learning, and how to adopt different learning strategies in oral Englishautonomous learning. In the end, the limitations of this research are presented.