A Study Of The Correlation Between Learner Autonomy And After-class English Reading In Senior High School

Traditional English education attached great importance to how to teach English, but with the deep research of the second language acquisition, people gradually realized that learner has an effect on the final result of English learning. So the focus of English learning is shifted from the teacher to the language learner. Modern English theory emphasizes the decisive role of learner in the process of English learning, namely, emphasizing the importance of learner autonomy. The professors of foreign language teaching have reached a consensus on cultivating learner autonomy. Although a number of researches have been conducted, the term"learner autonomy"has been differently. However, researchers all recognize the importance of placing responsibility for learning onto the learners, who also think that autonomous learners should take initiatives in goal setting, take an active role in the learning process and have the motivation for their own learning, choose learning strategies, monitor their learning and evaluate its effectiveness.This thesis intends to investigate the present situation of learner autonomy in senior high school students'extra-curriculum reading and find out the problem of students'learner autonomy in extra-curriculum English reading, fostering learner autonomy, observing the relationship between learner autonomy and the level of students'extra-curriculum reading. This study attempts to answer the following research questions:(1) What's the present situation of senior high school students'learner autonomy in extra-curriculum English reading?(2) How to foster students'learner autonomy in extra-curriculum English reading?(3) What's the influence of the students'learner autonomy on the level of extra-curriculum reading?To answer these questions, I selected two groups of students from No. 2 Middle school of Licheng—with 41 students in each of them. Two methods are employed in this research: questionnaire and test. The questionnaire aims to investigate the present situation of learner autonomy in extra-curriculum reading and find out some effective strategies to foster learner autonomy. The test is supposed to explore the relationship between students'learner autonomy and the level of extra-curriculum reading. The statistics is analyzed by SPSS17.0.The results of the research indicates that the ability of students'autonomous learning in extra-curriculum reading is generally at a low level, students lack of motivation to extra-curriculum reading and they need teachers'assistance in choosing appropriate reading materials and instructions on reading strategies in class. Teachers also need to teach students how to set goals, how to do self-monitoring and how to evaluate themselves. The study reveals that the students in the experimental group have made greater progress in reading comprehension achievement than those in control group, which indicate that there is a close relationship between students'learner autonomy and students'extra-curriculum reading achievement.Finally, the author points out the pedagogical countermeasures of cultivating learner autonomy in extra-curriculum reading: enhancing students'motivation; changing the traditional way of teaching; instructing students'reading strategies.This study is based on the theory of construction, which employs questionnaire and test in order to investigate students'present situation of learner autonomy. This study also analyzes the influence of students'learner autonomy on extra-reading achievement and gives some suggestions to the English teaching.