A Study Of Primary School Pupils’ Previewing Strategies For English Classes Under The Guidance Of Autonomous Learning Theory

Autonomous learning is a hot issue in the field of modern education and research. Ascompared with the traditional receptive teaching model, the autonomous model can betterreflect the students’ initiative in the process of acquiring and exploring knowledge, and it isa more humane approach and a relatively new and modern way of learning.This paper gives a brief summary of the research on autonomous learning theory athome and abroad. It investigated and studied primary school pupils’ previewing strategiesfor English classes under the guidance of autonomous learning theory. It sorted out theresearch background, purpose and significance of this study, discussed the subjectsinvolved in and goals of autonomous learning. The study was conducted within theframework of humanism and constructivism.In this paper, the author investigated and studied the previewing habits of two groupsof primary school pupils and the present situation of autonomous learning in theresearcher’s school. She chose the students from two fifth-grade classes at theExperimental Primary School of Hongze County, Jiangsu Province as research subjects,designed a questionnaire about previewing habits and autonomous learning strategies, andconducted an experiment in one of the classes to develop their ability of autonomouslearning for one term. As a result of the experiment, the author is able to find out whichpreviewing strategies for English classes are effective and in what way autonomouslearning can enhance pupils’ interest in learning English. The conclusions of the studyindicate that proper previewing strategies in terms of autonomous learning play a key rolein improving pupils’ overall achievement in English. The paper suggests that in the processof guiding primary school pupils in previewing their English lessons independently,teachers should build a common ideological foundation with the belief that it is better toteach them to fish than to give them fish, and help them cultivate a more stable habit of previewing before class. Finally,this paper illustrates the contributions and limitations ofthe study.