An Empirical Study On College English Teachers’ Teaching Autonomy In The Context Of Classroom Teaching

Recently,college English teaching reform has hastened the change of learning modes as well as teaching modes,of which autonomous teaching mode has become the research hotspot in the foreign language teaching field.Moreover,some researchers have stated that learner autonomy largely depends on teacher autonomy and the role that a teacher plays in foreign language teaching cannot be neglected.As for college English teaching,the teachers’ teaching autonomous competence affects the change of teaching modes to some extent and have an impact on the promotion of students’ autonomous ability.At the same time,the teacher teaching autonomy also plays an irreplaceable role in promoting teacher professional development.Therefore,there is an urgent need to investigate teacher autonomy,especially their autonomous teaching ability in the background of teaching reform.The study intends to explore the overall level of teachers’ teaching autonomy and its influencing factors in the context of classroom teaching.To achieve the research purposes,research questions are put forward:(1)What is the status quo of college English teachers’ teaching autonomy in the target university and does teachers’ teaching autonomous ability differ in terms of demographic variables?(2)How does teachers’ teaching autonomy affect classroom teaching?(3)What are other potential factors that affect teachers’ teaching autonomy in the context of classroom teaching?A mixed methodology combining the quantitative and qualitative study is performed in the present research.A survey questionnaire is first adopted to collect information and 55 valid samples are collected.All the participants are from one comprehensive university in Jiangsu province,in which the reform of college English teaching mode has been carried out.The data collected through the quantitative instrument questionnaire is analyzed by the software package SPSS 19.0.Besides,classroom observation is carried out among three college teachers from different modules and then the open-ended interviews are followed.The qualitative data is also analyzed in detail.The results are presented:College English teachers in the target university perceive high autonomy but the percent still stays in the middle level(mean score = 3.9750).To be specific,among the seven dimensions,participants have the highest ability to flexibly control teaching goal while their ability to manage teaching environment is relatively weak.Moreover,there are no significant differences in terms of the demographic characteristics,including gender,age,years of teaching,professional title and modules of teaching.According to the classroom observation and interview,college English teachers have their understanding of the concept of teacher autonomy and they can make the teaching design in an autonomous way which can promote learner autonomy.The finding explores the factors which influence teacher autonomy,including the internal and external factors.Teaching motivation and the professional competence are the main internal factors and external factors include the students’ enthusiasm in the class,teaching process and teachers’ assessment standard.In conclusion,this study can deepen our understanding of the status quo of college English teachers’ development and promote teachers’ professional ability in a thought-provoking way.At the same time it can fully mobilize and develop college teachers’ enthusiasm,initiative and creativity by providing some valuable suggestions.Furthermore,the study of teachers’ autonomous teaching competence can promote teachers’ subjective function and cultivate learner autonomy.