On The Junior Middle School Students' Autonomous English Learning Ability Based On Constructivism

Educators have reached a consensus that education should aim to foster students' autonomy and independence in learning with the deeper development of the quality-oriented education and the fully implementation of new curriculum reform. It is not satisfied with teacher's teaching alone in the junior middle school education. According to the new curriculum's educational concept, students are no longer receptor of knowledge but explorer of autonomous learning(AL) who would like to acquire knowledge in their own ways and get the meaning of solving practical problems by using English. Self-study in and out of class is necessary, thus teachers are required to solve the contradiction between the unlimited knowledge and the limited time. As an old saying goes:"Give a man fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and he eats for a lifetime." However, currently the situation about junior middle school students'(JMSS) AL is not satisfied。Most students lack of independence and learning strategies which may affect their future development to some degree.Therefore, on the basis of the Constructivism, this thesis made a questionnaire survey on the 440 JMSS' autonomous English learning ability (AELA) in the 12th Junior Middle School in Xiangtan city. Through analyzing the survey data and result, this thesis concluded some problems about JMSS' AELA and put forward some suggestion on how to cultivate JMSS' AELA by means of constructivism theory.Constructivism holds the view that students should actively participate in and carry out the construction of knowledge rather than accept knowledge passively in the process of learning.There are six parts in this paper with the first part introduces the back shorts of traditional Basic English teaching model and the goal and task of the research, the second part introduces the AL and the literature review, the third part explaining the theories of Constructivism, the fourth part introduces the design, objects, methods and steps of the questionnaire carried out on this research, the fifth part approaching some suggestions on fostering JMSS'AELA based on Constructivism, the last part limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies.