Research On The Self-directed Learning Of English Majors In The Web-based Learning Context

In the information age of 21 st century,people with the ability for “Lifelong Learning” are highly required because of the rapid development of economy and technology.Improving students' “self-directed learning” has become one of the main purposes of the universities.Self-directed learning is the learning process in which learners plan,implement and evaluate their own learning and achieve their goals by self-taught learning or cooperative learning with others.Nowadays,the development of web-based information technology provides the students new ways to efficient learning.It makes them conduct self-directed learning much easier and more convenient.Therefore,it is worth investigating the situation of the university students' self-directed learning in the web-based context and provide some corresponding suggestions for their improvement.This study investigated the present situation of English majors' self-directed learning as well as its differences in different individual factors and variables.456 students from four different schools in a foreign-language-based university answered the questionnaire,and 8 of them were interviewed.The results are the following.(1)The students' self-directed learning ability is at a medium-high level.(2)There is no significant difference in students' gender and schools.However,it differs in grade,English learning habits,English learning resources,English proficiency and the use of web resources.In the last chapter,some suggestions are proposed for improving students' self-directed learning ability in the web-based context from the perspective of students,teachers and schools.