A Study Of College Students’ English Autonomous Learning Based On An Online Portfolio Website

With rapid development of the society,cultivating college students’ English autonomous learning ability in the network environment is one key of college English teaching reform.Cultivating autonomous learning ability has become most countries’educational goal in an era of globalization and knowledge-explosion.Autonomous learning is an ability which is different from self-study without guidance of the teachers.Learners take more responsibility in the learning process and participate in the management of their learning process.College English Teaching Curriculum Requirements of Education Ministry in 2007 proposes that one of the main teaching goals is to cultivate students’ English autonomous learning ability.Besides,it requires that teachers and higher education department should create conditions to cultivate students’ autonomous learning ability,and to assure the improvement of students’comprehensive ability.Since the online portfolio can provide a good learning platform for autonomous learning,this study focuses on college students’ English autonomous learning based on the online portfolio website.This study tries to answer the following two questions:1)What are college students’ perceptions of the online portfolio website(forliofor.me)for doing English autonomous learning?2)From what aspects can the online portfolio website(forliofor.me)promote college students’ English autonomous learning?What are the factors affecting college students’ English autonomous learning on the online portfolio website?The research methodologies include a questionnaire and an interview.The English autonomous learning situation of 114 college students of Hunan University on the online portfolio website are investigated through the questionnaire.10 college students are interviewed online,and the interview results are transcribed in detail.The research findings show that:1)most of the college students think the online portfolio website is helpful to their English autonomous learning.All the participants state that they will continue to use the online portfolio website to do English autonomous learning in the future.2)These aspects such as study record,teacher assessment can more effectively promote students’ personal English autonomous learning,and the module of study exchange can promote students’ English autonomous learning within groups.However,the study has its limitations.The first one is that the participants are from the same university,so the research results can not be generalized.Another limitation is that the study time is limited while the research of English autonomous learning should be a long time process.