Developing Senior High School Students' Learning Autonomy By Vocabulary Learning Strategies Training

In the recent 25 years, with the continuous reform of education, developing students'learning autonomy has been atracting more and more attention. Research on learning autonomy at home and abroad mainly focuses on the definition of learning autonomy and the characteristics of autonomous learners. Empirical researches of learning autonomy are limited ans mainly concetrate on college students English teaching and learning. Vocabulary learning is one of the three cores of English learning. During the past 30 years, the research on vocabulary learning is deeoened gradually. But the main focus is on the effectiveness of vocabulary learning. This paper attempts to develop students'lerning autonomy by vocabulary learning strategies training, thereby improve students'achievement in English learning.This research first presents a general review about learning autonomy, learning strategies, and vocabulary learning strategies. Next, it deals with the theoretical basis of the study: the humanistic learning theory and constructive learning theory. Then, the author carryies out the experiment on two key grade one classes, class 1 and class 2 in Pan Shan County Senior High School. Before the start of the experiment, the author compares the acdemic scores of the entrance examination of the two classes and makes class 1 whose general acdemic score is higher as the controlled class and makes class 2 as the experimental class. First, the author hands out the questionnaires to investigate students'application of vocabulary learning strategies. Through the analysis of the questionaire, it is found that students know little about vocabulary learning strategies; they mainly learn vocabulary by mechanical repetition. Therefore, the author begins the traing with the less frequently used vocabulary learning strategies in the experimental class. The training consists of three steps: the first step is to demonstrate vocabulary learning strategies; the second step is to promote students'ability to select and use the vocabulary learning strategies; the third step is to develop students'learning autonomy. After four months'experimentation, the experimental class makes significant improvement in the final examination with a general acdemic score slightly higher than the controlled class. Through the comparison of the final examination as well as the interviews, it canbe concluded that vocabulary learning strategies training is conductive to the cultivating of learning autonomy; the development of lernig autonomy can effectively improve students'English learnig.