A Study On The Cultivating Senior High Students’ Autonomous Learning Ability In English Reading

With the social development and educational reform, English has become moreand more important in China. It is widely acknowledged that reading is both significantand beneficial to the learning of English and personal growth. Reading ability plays animportant role in language learning and reading competence is essential for otherlanguage abilities and academic success.Nowadays, the New English curriculum for senior students asks for servingstudents’ all-round development. Students should be provided with opportunities togrow in self-discipline, perseverance and self-confidence, to develop as autonomousand lifelong learners, and to develop as individuals. So the New curriculum points aclear way for the new model of English teaching. The traditional teaching English needto be adjusted. All these contribute a lot to promote students’ autonomous learningability, especially in reading. In modern English teaching concept, students’ autonomouslearning competence is the key to improve English level. Their autonomous learningcompetence would influence their English learning later. If we cultivate students’autonomous learning ability from the beginning of senior high school, they will get thecapacity to take charge of their own learning and become learner autonomy, which isthe main aim of autonomous learning.The paper is divided into six chapters. The first is a general introduction about thesituations of English reading teaching in china and points the reasons and necessities todevelop senior students’ autonomous ability in reading teaching.In the second section, the writer states the theoretical research and the background of the autonomous learning. Three perspective views related to autonomous learning arepresented in the section. They are Metacognitive view, Constructive view, andHumanistic view. And all these theories give a sufficient theoretical base for the studyon autonomous learning. Then relevant studies on learning autonomy at home andabroad by researchers are presented. Definitions and features of autonomous learningare included. Although all researchers gives the different views of learning autonomyaccording to different situations and time, they all reach a consensus that learningresponsibility should be shifted from teachers to students. All definitions indicate thatlearners must be autonomous thinkers and should take charge of the whole learningprocess．At last, the writer introduces the characters of autonomous learners.In the third section, it writes about the concerning factors on autonomous learningin reading.The factors are subdivided into two categories, one is internal factor and theother is external factor. Internal factors are originated from students themselves,including students’ motivation, self-regulation and learning strategies. And teachers’role in autonomous leaning and Teaching reading models are both the external impactson autonomous learning in teaching reading.In the next part, the study is conducted among senior one student from ShuDeexperimental school (East). Based on the previous study on autonomous learning inreading, the4-month study is done in two classes (Experimental Group and ControlGroup) to see the changes and different performances of the students in two classes.Through the study, the writer wants to know1) Can the study be conductive to improvestudents reading ability?2) What is the general situation of autonomous learning andattitudes of students towards autonomous learning in reading?3) Are there anydifferences between two classes after the study?4) What are the factors influencingstudents’ autonomous reading performances in real teaching environment?5) How canreading strategies work on students’ performances and in which way can we cultivatestudents’ autonomous learning ability in reading?Then are the results of data analysis, including results and analysis of twoquestionnaires, results and analysis of pre-test and post-test, in order to compare the twoexperimental classes accurately.The last part is the conclusion which makes a brief summary, implications andlimitations, and gives some specific suggestions on teaching strategies to developautonomous learning in teaching reading. Before the study, senior students’ awareness and performance in autonomouslearning in reading are at a low level according to the first questionnaire and pre-test.Few Students in EG and CG classes have a good understanding of autonomous learning,and they don’t know the reading strategies and aren’t aware of the importance ofreading plan and reading resources. Trough the study, the EG class which takes theautonomous reading makes a great difference and makes progress in readingcompetence, and they have a positive attitude towards autonomous learning while theCG class which follows the teacher-centered mode falls behind in reading ability andstill shows the unawareness of autonomous learning according to the secondquestionnaire and post-test. So autonomous learning has a great effect on students’performance in reading. For students, in the application of autonomous learning, theyrealize self-motivation, self-efficiency, self-regulation and reading strategies areimportant to promote autonomous learning ability in reading. And for teachers, theyshould adjust their roles in autonomous learning and guide students to achieve thelearner autonomy. Teachers should try to make students actively involved in classroomlearning, enhance students’ motivation, help the students have a clear awareness aboutsome learning strategies and do some strategy training to foster learner autonomy.