An Analysis On The Correlation Between Learner Autonomy And English Proficiency Of High School Students

Learner autonomy is a significant requirement to education and individualdevelopment in modern society, and it has become a new growing trend to foreignlanguage teaching. Besides the necessary knowledge and skills, the students’ learningability, especially the ability to learn autonomously, is also one of the key issues in moderneducation. Learner autonomy is also a fundamental element to serve the lifelong learning.Therefore, developing the students’ learner autonomy is not only a major objective forEnglish teaching but also a hot topic for educators，researchers and teachers. This thesisconcentrates on the relationship between learner autonomy ability and English proficiencyfor Grade One High School students. In this paper, learner autonomy ability is related toLearner Autonomy Profile (LAP) and English proficiency is evaluated by the performanceof High School English Entrance Examination Score.Based on the problem design, the experimental data was obtained by samplescollection and then analyzed. At the very beginning, a questionnaire survey was conductedamong180students from two high schools in Hunan province, and the experimental datawas collected from159(88%) returned valid questionnaires. Furthermore, quantitativemethod was introduced to investigate the relationship among the performance of HighSchool English Entrance Examination Score and four parts of learner autonomy profile:learner desire, learner resourcefulness and learner initiative and learner persistence.This thesis is composed of four parts. The first part includes research background,significance, purpose, and research problems, and the organization of the thesis is alsostated at the end of this part. The second part is the introduction to leaner autonomy andlearner autonomy profile. The third part is about the problem design and data collection.Through the Pearson’s correlation analysis, it was found that all constructs and componentsof learn autonomy profile scores have significant correlations with High School EnglishEntrance Examination Scores except for Communication Skills, Change Skills,Goal-Directedness, Planning, Action Orientation and Goal-Maintenance. The fourth part isanalysis and discussion, and the conclusion is drawn at the end.Based on the above research conclusion, this study not only provides a theoreticalbasis and practical guideline for high school students’ learner autonomy and academicperformance, but also provides some references and enlightenments for the cultivation oflearner autonomy, English learning and English teaching in high school.