A Survey Study On Senior High School English Teachers’ Beliefs Of Learner Autonomy In English Learning

English learner autonomy is advocated by the New Curriculum,which can help students be equipped with lifelong learning skills.Many educators have realized the importance of improving student’s abilities of English learner autonomy.However,few studies have been conducted on English learner autonomy from the perspective of senior high school English teachers’ beliefs.In order to address the gap,this paper is undertaken to investigate the belief of learner autonomy in English learning held by senior high school English teachers through questionnaires and interviews.The research questions addressed in this thesis are:1)What is the general belief of learner autonomy in English learning held by senior high school English teachers?2)Are there any differences in beliefs of learner autonomy in English learning between novice teachers(5 years’ teaching experience or below)and experienced teachers(more than 10 years’ teaching experience)?If yes,what are the differences?In this study,both quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted.The questionnaire used in the quantitative research is adapted from the one designed by Xiang and Wu(2016)with the whole internal reliability reaching.810.The questionnaires are handed out to 105 English teachers in 4 senior high schools in Nantong on October 15th,2019 and finally 90 are found valid.Then,SPSS 21.0 is used to deal with the data in the quantitative research.The qualitative research mainly involves a semi-structured interview with 8 English teachers selected from those whose questionnaires are confirmed valid.The interview is carried out in Chinese and the whole process is tape-recorded.Afterwards,the results are transcribed into English and the transcriptions of the interview are carefully analyzed.After the overall analysis of the information collected from the quantitative and qualitative research,this study yields the following findings:Firstly,the results show that most teachers agree with the four categories in Belief of learner autonomy in English learning,with the mean scores of three categories being all above 3.00 and only one category being below 3.00.Among the four categories,the category of Belief about teachers’ role in English learner autonomy(Mean=4.31)ranks the first,followed by Belief about ways of developing English learner autonomy(Mean=3.43)and Belief about definitions of English learner autonomy(Mean=3.28).Belief about students’ abilities of English learner autonomy(Mean=2.91)comes the last.In addition,within the category of Belief about teachers’ role in English learner autonomy;most teachers strongly agree that English learner autonomy is in need of teachers’ help.In the category of Belief about ways of developing English learner autonomy,"stimulating students’ learning motivation","enhancing students’ confidence","individual support" are considered to be the most beneficial ways to develop English learner autonomy.In the category of Belief about definitions of English learner autonomy,most teachers prefer to define "English learner autonomy" as a "capacity","student’s right" and a "teaching method".In the category of Belief about students’ abilities of English learner autonomy,most teachers think poorly of students’ abilities to learn autonomously but they believe that students still have the ability to learn independently and cooperatively.Secondly,there exist some differences between novice teachers and experienced teachers in Belief of learner autonomy in English learning.Generally speaking,significant differences between the two groups mainly lie in two categories,namely Belief about definitions of English learner autonomy(p=.014<.05)and Belief about teachers’ role in English learner autonomy(p=.039<.05).In the category of Belief about definitions of English learner autonomy,experienced teachers(Mean=3.43)get a higher mean score than novice teachers(Mean=3.16),indicating that experienced teachers hold a more positive attitude toward the statements in this category.In the category of Belief about teachers’ role in English learner autonomy,experienced teachers(Mean=4.38)get a higher mean score than novice teachers(Mean=4.13),suggesting that experienced teachers agree with the idea that teachers play an important role in English learner autonomy.In the category of Belief about students’ abilities of English learner autonomy,there is no significant difference between the two groups(p=.374>.05)in general but the difference is significant in its specific item:My students know their strengths and weaknesses in English(p=.011<.05).The mean score of experienced teachers is above 3.00,reflecting that most experienced teachers believe that their students know their strengths and weaknesses in English while most novice teachers hold the opposite opinion(Mean=2.69).In the category of Belief about ways of developing English learner autonomy,there is also no significant difference between the two groups(p=.363>.05)in general but the difference is significant in its specific item:Individual support is more beneficial to developing English learner autonomy(p=.049<.05).Experienced teachers(Mean=4.11)get a higher mean score than novice teachers(Mean=3.83),which suggests that experienced teachers hold the opinion that individual support is more beneficial to developing English learner autonomy.According to the findings,some pedagogical implications are put forward in this paper.First,teachers ought to know the meaning of learner autonomy in English learning and be aware of their importance during the learning process.The teacher is not limited to being a knowledge supplier but also being a facilitator and a counselor.Some positive learning strategies should be offered to students for improving their abilities of English learner autonomy.Second,experienced teachers and novice teachers should learn from each other by exchanging ideas and sharing experience to explore good ways to promote English learner autonomy.Third,teachers need to have more opportunities to receive pre-service and in-service training in order to appreciate the value of English learner autonomy and encourage their students to be autonomous.