An Experimental Study of Learner Autonomy in Language Learning 英语专业毕业论文.docVIP

An Experimental Study of Learner Autonomy in Language Learning Abstract Autonomous learning has greatly developed both on theory and practice ever since its appearance in 1960s. It has become a hot issue in educational field over the past forty years and it is important to cultivate learners’ ability of self-directed inquiry. The ultimate goal of quality-oriented education is to promote learner autonomy. But its promotion through systematic learner development is a relatively recent phenomenon, let alone the one proposed by Scharle and Szabo (2000). After some modification, the program intends to make the students be aware of the importance of responsible attitude and independent learning ability. The purpose is to develop the students’ learning performance, give guidance on their learning strategies, and develop their interest in language learning. Two non-English major classes participated in the experiment. The learner development program lasted for one semester. During the course, the SILL questionnaire and language proficiency test were used and both the methods of interview and classroom observation were employed. Besides, students were asked to write regular journals to keep track of their learning experience. Comparisons were made in the following three aspects: the language performance in the test; a change of learning strategies; stimulation of interest. The results show that using the content of regular school classroom teaching as a meaningful context for the development of responsibility can not only enhance the learning effect, but also save time for the optional strategy training. According to the scores in the post-test are concerned, the experimental group had a high mean score than the control group. The two sets of questionnaire results show that the experimental group benefited from the program by using more learning strategies. Besides, most of the students in the experimental group reported a higher interes