An Empirical Study On Improving Learners’ Autonomous Learning Ability Based On The Guided-learning Plan In Senior High School

In China, from the beginning of the 1990 s, autonomous learning has attracted the attention of many experts and scholars. The Ministry of Education published the National English Curriculum Standards(NECS) for Ordinary High School in 2001, and it clearly puts forward the objective that “we should optimize the learning styles of students and develop their autonomous learning ability and co-operation ability”, at the same time more and more scholars and experts advocate the idea of autonomous learning. Autonomous learning can not only let students make progress in learning, but also be of great benefit to their life-long learning and further development.The Guided-learning Plan is a plan used for guiding students to learn, which is based on the Humanistic Learning Theory, Constructivism Theory and Zone of Proximal Development Theory. In the process of learning, students can experience independent thinking and cooperation to solve the problems. It reflects students’ principal status and teachers’ guiding role and helps to improve students’ solving problems ability and autonomous learning ability,which is in accordance with the requirements of the NECS.Combining the above concepts, the author conducted an empirical study in Panjin No.2Middle School in order to verify that applying the Guided-learning Plan is an effective way to enhance students’ autonomous learning ability in senior high school. In order to confirm the hypothesis, the author carried out the experiment from the four specific aspects: students’ motivation, autonomous awareness, learning strategies, and students’ performance in the English test. The author conducted the research in two parallel classes and applied the Guided-learning Plan in the experimental class and the traditional teaching method in the controlled class. The experiment lasted for one semester. The author carried out the research using the combination of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis including questionnaires, interviews and two kinds of tests. After the experiment, the collected data was analyzed by the SPSS 19.0 statistics software.The results of the research show that there are clear differences in the post-test between the experimental class and the controlled class, and the English score for students in the experimental class is higher than that in the controlled class, which indicates that Guided-learning Plan can improve students’ performance in the English test. In addition, the results of the questionnaire and interview show that students’ motivation, autonomous awareness and learning strategies are improved after the research. Therefore, we can draw the conclusion that the Guided-learning Plan is an effective and feasible way to improve students’ autonomous learning ability. The research may enrich the empirical studies on theGuided-learning Plan teaching and provide experience for the studies on improving learners’ autonomous learning ability.