Developing Learner Autonomy Through Arousing Students' Intrinsic Motivation

Learner autonomy has been a buzzword in foreign language teaching in the recent twenty years. The College English Curriculum Requirements (for Trial Implementation) published in 2004 places great stress on developing non-English majors' ability for autonomous learning. In the last 20 years or so, a series of researches have been made in the exploration and promotion of learner autonomy. However, these studies deal principally with the theoretical background of learner autonomy, and the role played by learner variables such as attitudes, beliefs, strategies, and roles (Cotterall, 2000: 109). Little attention has been paid to the effect of intrinsic motivation on the process of autonomous learning. Moreover, little empirical exploration on how to integrate the intrinsic motivation with the development of learner autonomy has been done. Therefore, this thesis aims at exploring the effect of intrinsic motivation in learner autonomy in English language teaching.Based on the research findings on learner autonomy, a quasi-experimental study is conducted in Jiangxi Administration College where 62 non-English students from two intact classes are involved. One of the two classes is the control group; the other is the experimental group. The experiment lasts a semester. Related practice tasks are carried out in the experimental group. The research questions to be addressed in the study are the following:1) Can learners be developed into autonomous learners through arousing their intrinsic motivation?2) Whether the development of learner autonomy can benefit the students' academic achievement?The questionnaires and tests are respectively used to test subjects' motivation, learner autonomy and English proficiency before and after this study, which are analyzed by means of SPSS13.0. Descriptive analyses, Pearson correlation and independent samples T-test are applied. The results of the comparison of two questionnaires and testing scores between two groups indicate that: 1) arousing intrinsic motivation can be effective in developing learner autonomy. Students in the experimental groups have higher intrinsic motivation and autonomous ability than those in the control group. Furthermore, difference within the experimental group in most...