Investigating College Students' English Online Learning Autonomy During The COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic,online education across the country raises high requirements for college students' learning autonomy.In view of the fact that there lack sufficient researches on the comparison of students' English learning autonomy in online and face-to-face learning environments,it is necessary to explore the relevant issue in order to help students improve their English online learning autonomy during COVID-19.Based on humanistic theory,constructivism and cognitive learning theory,this research aims to investigate and compare college students' English learning autonomy before and during COVID-19 in face-to-face and online learning environments.Specifically,it compares the first(September,2019 to January,2020)and second(February to July,2020)semesters of2019-2020 academic year.The data were collected with an e-questionnaire from four perspectives,including overall situation,gender,grade and major.The subjects are 562 college students of 12 universities from all the 11 prefecture-level cities in Hebei Province.The findings of this study are as follows:(1)In both environments,students' overall English learning autonomy is at high level.But students' ability in online environment is higher than that in face-to-face environment in all five dimensions.(2)In both environments,significant gender difference can be found in understanding teachers' teaching objectives and requirements.Significant difference also exists while students study online to use learning strategies effectively.Besides,male's ability to monitor and evaluate English learning process and female's ability to use learning strategies effectively are higher in face-to-face environment than those in online environment.(3)Concerning grade differences,in both environments,freshmen's overall English learning autonomy is higher than sophomores' but sophomores perform better in monitoring the use of learning strategies.In online environment,sophomores' ability to formulate learning objectives and plans is better than freshmen.They also use learning strategies more effectively than freshmen in face-to-face environment.As for students' performance in different learning environments,freshmen have higher ability in all five dimensions in online environment whereas sophomores' ability to use learningstrategies effectively is higher in face-to-face environment.(4)Regarding major differences,in both environments,there exists significant difference in formulating learning objectives and plans between arts and science students.However,in online environment,for arts and science students,statistically significant differences can be found when they understand teachers' teaching objectives and requirements and monitor the use of learning strategies.For science and medicine students,significant difference exists in understanding teachers' teaching objectives and requirements.Furthermore,there are four strategies used more frequently face-to-face than online,namely,arts students' effective use of learning strategies,science students' understanding of teachers' teaching objectives and requirements and monitoring of the use of learning strategies and fine arts students' monitoring of the use of learning strategies.Based on the above research findings,this study proposes some suggestions to improve students' English learning autonomy in online environment.