Investigation And Analysis Of Non-English Majors’ Learner Autonomy In Private Colleges

With the social and economic development, much high requirements are beingimposed for talented people. Therefore, the traditional way of teaching is confrontingstrong challenge, which gives rise to the―Learner-centered‖way of teaching. In anotherword, learner autonomy is advocated in the field of foreign language. The first one whobrought forward the concept of learner autonomy in the field of the foreign languageteaching was Holec. He defines learner autonomy as,―the ability to take charge of one‘sown learning. It means the traditional―teacher-centered‖way of teaching should changeinto the―student-centered‖way of teaching. It also means students should takeresponsibility for their learning. Then, a large body of researches on learner autonomy isconducted by scholars abroad and at home. In western countries, scholars such asBenson, Little, Dickinson and so forth define it from various perspectives. In China,quite a lot of scholars have classified and studied it like Xu Jinfen, Hua Weifen, PangWeiguo, Zhan Xiaohai, etc. They put forward some means of advancing learnerautonomy in the second language learning in the light of study habits of Chinesestudents. Although there are many researchers (e.g. Xu Jinfen, Peng Jinding, HuaWeifen,etc.) conducting empirical study on autonomous learning among English andnon-English majors‘in the college, studies related to empirical research of non-Englishmajors‘students in private college are far from enough.The thesis is based on the main theory of learner autonomy, such as, constructivism,humanism and cognitivism. Through empirical research to study the learning situationof non-English majors in private colleges and their competence of learner autonomy aswell, which is the innovation point of the thesis, the author has recognized the students‘weak points in the process of their learning, and some suggestions are put forward onhow to raise the competence of learner autonomy.The thesis contains five chapters. The first chapter is a general introduction to thestudy, including the background of the study, purpose of the study, and the organizationof the thesis. Chapter two is the previous study on learner autonomy abroad and at homeand comments on them, and the introduction of theoretical supports. Chapter three is thechapter of introduction of methodology,including research instruments and subjects aswell. chapter four is the main body of the thesis. It analyzed the data of questionnaireand interview. Chapter five concentrates on conclusion of the thesis, implications of how to promote learner autonomy, limitations and suggestions for the future study.The subjects of the study are one hundred and five non-English majors in JiangxiInternational Studies Institute. All of them are required to conduct the questionnaire.The questionnaire is composed of35items which consist of three aspects: teachers‘awareness of learner autonomy, learners‘awareness of learner autonomy and thestudents‘competence in autonomous learning. Among them, the competence of learnerautonomy covers five respects:(1) Identification of what‘s has been taught,(2)Formulating the learning objectives,(3) Selection and implementing of appropriatelearning strategies,(4) Monitoring of the use of learning strategies,(5) Monitoring andevaluating of the learning. All the collected data are analyzed by SPSS13.0. The resultsare displayed in the form of tables. Then some students and teachers are engaged in theinterview in order to have further recognition of the situation of learner autonomy. Theresults show both teachers and students has recognized the importance of learnerautonomy in foreign language learning. But the competence of learner autonomy is stillat a low level. Based on the results, some tentative suggestions on how to promotelearner autonomy are proposed.Because of the limitedness of time, the subjects of this thesis are confined to105sophomores of non-English majors in Jiangxi International Studies Institute. Thus, thisstudy is far from comprehensive. What‘s more, the author just focuses on teachers‘andstudents‘awareness of learner autonomy, and the competence of learner autonomy. Forthis reason, the author hopes that learner autonomy should be explored from otherangles in the future study, such as how to be an autonomous learner; how to improve theefficiency of English learning through autonomous learning.