A Case Study Of English Autonomous Learning In Senior High School

This study aims to investigate the current status of a group of students’ Englishautonomous learning in a senior high school as well as influential factors. For this purpose,an autonomous learning questionnaire, classroom observation and typical students’interviews are employed for data collection. Based on the data analysis, the researcherarrives at the following findings:Firstly, the questionnaire results indicate a comparatively low-level of autonomouslearning of this group of senior three students (with the scoring average of58%and105.2for the whole class). Of the seven categories, the learning environment and the learningtime are two areas the students scored the highest, with the average of65%and64%respectively. The observation data analysis confirms this finding that the students to someextent have abilities to manage their own time and take advantage of learning resources.The data analysis also shows that their responses to the learning methods rank the lowest(with the scoring average of54%). This result is supported by the data from theobservation and interviews that these students lack effective, scientific and properstrategies of autonomous learning.Secondly, the students’ answers in the interviews suggest that the internal causesfunction more evidently than the external ones. Among the three internal causes,goal-setting stands out as the most influential. Only one of the eight intervieweesmentioned they would make detailed plans for their studies. This finding echoes thequestionnaire result that those who set specific, short-term learning goals with a properdifficulty level have better autonomous learning status. Of the two external causes, theteacher-centered teaching methods are commented as having more influence than family reasons on students’ autonomous learning. The highest complaining voice from thestudents is that they have little chance to air their views or arrange their own learning sincetheir teacher decide almost everything for them.Based on the above findings, this thesis ends with some implications for improvingthe English teaching and fostering senior high school students’ autonomous learning.