The Importance Of Autonomous Learning For Senior High School Students' English Learning

Autonomous learning has become a hot issue in educational field over the past two decades and it is important to cultivate learners' ability to self-direct their learning and learn independently or successfully later in society. The ultimate goal of quality-oriented education is to promote learner autonomy. But how to promote learner autonomy is still a question. What is being advocated in the thesis is the development of learner autonomy through learning training.Most of our English classroom teaching is still 'transmission' teaching which emphasizes on teaching English language points rather than developing the students' ability to learn. This traditional teaching model can no longer adapt to the development and requirement of quality education in new situations. The key point of education is to foster learners' learning and thinking ability rather than knowledge transmission; teachers should be instructors and friends of learners; learners can be and should be self-controlled. The ultimate goal of education is to cultivate autonomous learners, that is, life-long learners who can learn actively independent of teachers. So for teachers how to 'teach one to fish' rather than 'give one fish' is the focus. The thesis analyses why senior high school students lack of learning autonomy and the significance of learning autonomy in senior high school students' English learning and suggests some solutions to foster learner autonomy. From teaching theories and practice, the thesis explains why senior high school students need improve learning autonomy. According to senior high school teaching practice in China, taking two senior one classes as an example, through result comparison of pre-test and post-test and feedback from students, the thesis suggests promoting learning autonomy through teacher and learners' efforts and learning strategy training. There are 100 senior one students in this experiment, having the same learning background. One class is experimental class having special treatment; the other is controlled class without any special treatment. The experiment lasted one semester. Data collection was conducted mainly through interviews, classroom observations, and the scores of examinations. After training, learning autonomous awareness has greatly improved. They use strategies more frequently; they can organize their time more effectively. At the same time learning training also helps students upgrade their learning achievement.