A Study On Gender Differences Of English Autonomous Learning In Senior High Schools

In recent years, with the implementation of New English Curriculum Standards throughout the country, English teaching has already transformed from teachers’ teaching to students’ learning. It demands that English teachers not only teach students knowledge but also teach them how to learn. At the same time, influenced by the lifelong learning concept, autonomous learning has received more and more people’s attention. It also has caused the extensive concern of the researchers and the teachers gradually. Autonomous learning is a kind of personal learning activity which does not rely on others. It is a complicated learning form which is affected by family environment, social and cultural factors, school education, and physiological and psychological factors. Meanwhile, it is also affected by personal factors. As to personal factors, gender differences are one of the important parts. Due to the impact of these factors, male and female students exhibit different characteristics in English autonomous learning. These differences are considered to be the objective existence. However, English teachers have not paid high attention to it for a long time. In actual teaching, because of the limited time and the complexity of the autonomous learning, English teachers carry out the policy of non-gender-specific differences in the mode of education in order to finish the task of each semester. Thus it causes quite different English scores between male and female students. The whole level of English is quite low. It seriously affects the quality of the English teaching. Therefore, it is necessary to study the differences of English autonomous learning between male and female students and explore new educational model to improve the overall standard of English teaching.The concept of autonomous learning is first proposed by Henri Holec, he explained the autonomous learning as “the ability to control one’s own learning”. Because of physical and psychological influence, male and female students exhibit different characteristics in autonomous learning. In order to find out the concrete differences, this paper adopts the method of questionnaire and interview to study them from ten aspects. Based on the analysis of the results, the author provides some measures towards the genderdifferences. The major findings of the study are: male and female students show some concrete differences in many aspects in autonomous learning, so teachers should adopt different teaching modes to improve the quality of English teaching.The thesis is made up of five chapters:The first chapter describes the current situation as well as the existing problems in English teaching. After analyzing the problems existing in English teaching, the author puts forward the purpose and significance of the study.The second chapter is the literature review. Firstly the author introduces some contents of autonomous learning, including the definition of self-learning, the characteristic of autonomous learning and the factors of autonomous learning. Then the author introduces the gender differences, including the current study situation on autonomous learning both at home and abroad, the current study situation on gender differences and language learning both at home and abroad, and the theoretical basis of gender differences in autonomous learning concretely.The third chapter is the study design. This thesis uses questionnaires and interviews approach to study. One hundred and eighteen students from two natural classes of grade two in Huangshan Middle School in Zouping city were chosen as the subjects of the experiment. The paper mainly uses questionnaires and interviews and other research tools to study gender differences in English autonomous learning.The fourth chapter is data analysis. By collecting and analyzing the data of gender differences in autonomous learning, the author concludes the concrete aspects of gender differences in autonomous learning and sums up the reasons. According to the differences and the reasons, the author puts forward some specific teaching strategies in order to improve the quality of English teaching.The last chapter is conclusion and suggestion, in which the author puts forward the major findings and the limitations of the study, and also suggestions for further research.