A Contrastive Study Of English Teachers’ Perceptions In The Concept Of Learner Autonomy Between High School And Vocational School

This study discusses the concept of learner autonomy from the perspective of teacher.It is based on the obvious differences in the training objectives and the students between high school education and vocational education,so as to adopt the method of contrastive study between 30 high school English teachers and 30 vocational school English teachers.This paper mainly investigates and discusses the following three research questions:1)What is the current situation of these two types of English teachers’ perceptions of learner autonomy?2)What are the differences and similarities between the two types of English teachers’ perceptions?3)According to the differences and similarities between these two types of English teachers’ perceptions,what constructive suggestions are given to improve teaching and to cultivate the students’ autonomous learning ability?The study adopted quantitative and qualitative research methods,referring to the questionnaire and the follow-up interview form Autonomous Language Learning: The Teachers’ perspectives(Victoria Chan,2003).The study focuses on the teachers’ awareness of the concept of learner autonomy,teachers’ perceptions of their responsibilities,teachers’ perceptions of their students’ decision-making abilities,and teacher-recommended learning activities,which were conducted in many high schools and vocational schools in Guangzhou,Guangdong province.The data of questionnaire were calculated and analyzed by SPSS20.0.Descriptive statistical analysis was used to solve the first research question,and independent sample T-test was adopted to analyze whether there are differences between the two types of English teachers in autonomous learning theories.Finally,according to the first and second research questions,some constructive suggestions are put forward to improve the teaching,so as to cultivate the students’ autonomous learning ability.In addition,five teachers were randomly selected from each of the two types of English teachers for a follow-up interview survey,and the interview results were used as a supplement to the quantitative study.The main results of this study are as follows:1)The teaching concept of learner autonomy has been unanimously recognized by high school and vocational school English teachers,and both their understanding of learner autonomy is relatively clear.The teacher thinks that most of the teaching-related decisions in the classroom and teaching are mainly the responsibility of the teacher,and that the students’ decision-making ability is generally low,but they will design the activities inside and outside the classroom according to the needs and interests of the students.2)There are both differences and similarities between the two types of teachers in their perceptions of teachers’ responsibilities in English teaching.3)There are also differences in the evaluation of students’ decision-making ability between the two types of teachers.4)There are both differences and similarities between the two types of teachers in teacher-recommended learning activities.This study discussed the above results in detail and put forward some constructive suggestions to help teachers to improve their teaching,so as to cultivate students’ autonomous learning ability.