英语专业毕业论文-A Study of Fostering Learner Autonomy in High School English Teaching

英语专业毕业论文-A Study of Fostering Learner Autonomy in High School English Teaching A Study of Fostering Learner Autonomy in High School English Teaching Wangjun Under the Supervision of Guoyun Contents Abstract (English) ............................................................................................................ i Abstract (Chinese) .......................................................................................................... ii 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................1 2. Literature Review.........................................................................................................2 2.1 Humanistic Approaches ......................................................................................2 2.2 Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory of Learning ..........................................3 2.3 Constructivism.....................................................................................................4 2.4 Individual Differences of Students ......................................................................4 2.5 Teacher’s Role in Fostering Learner Autonomy ................................................5 3. Definition and Related Considerations about Learner Autonomy .............................6 3.1 Definition of Learner Autonomy .........................................................................6 3.2 Characteristics of Autonomous Learner.............................................................7 4. Feasible Approaches to Foster Learner Autonomy .....................................................8 4.1 In-Curriculum Approaches .................................................................................8 4.2 Out-of-Curriculum Approaches ........................................................................ 13 5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 14 References ...................................................................................................................... 15 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ 16 2 Abstract With the reform of education in China, the so-called quality-oriented education is always a buzzword. The New English Curriculum Standard for High School states that to foster students‟ learner autonomy is an essential part of the quality-oriented education. In real teaching practice, what should be done to foster students‟ learner autonomy and realize the quality-oriented education? Meanwhile, because of the examination selecting system, the teaching of English in most high schools in China remains to be examination-oriented. What interests the author of this thesis includes: whether it is feasible to foster learner autonomy among high school English learners; if so, how the enhanced autonomous ability affects their performance in English exams and the exact means to foster learner autonomy in high school English teaching. To my part, it is feasible to foster learner autonomy through in-curriculum approaches and out-of-curriculum approaches in high school with a large number of study. Moreover, the fostering of learner autonomy doesn‟t conflict with the current examination talent selection system in China, as the enhancement of learner autonomy may benefit the students on their performance in standard exams. Key words: learner autonomy; quality-oriented education; high school English teaching i 摘 要 随着中国的教育改革，素质教育始终是一个热门的话题。《基础教育阶段新英语课程标准》明确指出，培养学生的自主学习能力是素质教育的一个重要的方面。那么，在实际的教学实践过程中，究竟该如何培养学生的自主学习能力以达到素质教育的目的,同时，由于考试选拔制度的存在，大多的中学英语教学仍然以应考为导向。本文主要探讨了:在中学英语教育阶段，培养学生的自主学习能力是否可行;学生自主学习能力的提高对其在考试中的表现的影响;以及中学阶段，培养学生的自主学习能力有哪些具体有效的措施。 通过大量研究，本文作者认为在中学阶段通过课内和课外两个方面的综合手段来培养学生的自主学习能力是可行的;此外，学生的自主学习能力的培养和现行的考试选拔制度并不矛盾，因为学生自主学习能力的提高对英语标准化考试成绩具有一定的促进作用。 关键词:自主学习; 素质教育; 中学英语教学 ii 1. Introduction As is said by Ye Shengtao, a well-known Chinese educationalist, “The purpose of teaching is not to teach.” However, Chinese traditional education system is teacher centered, which keeps students from developing their own learning ability. With rapid development of science and technology, the accessibility of information and explosion of knowledge, the goals of education are much broader than simply the achievement of knowledge and skills in certain areas. Therefore, it is necessary for students to develop learner autonomy, which involves decision-making, taking responsibility in their own learning, and gaining experience that enables them to pursue their lifelong education. In the field of education in western countries, researchers turned to focus on “how to learn” instead of “how to teach” long before. Henri Holec, known as the father of learner autonomy, was the first to introduce the term into the field of second language pedagogy. Humanism, Cognitive Theory and Constructivism are the main learning theories that learner autonomy is based on. Various approaches have been suggested by western researchers to develop learner autonomy. While, little evidence shows that they are applicable in Chinese school education. Domestically, Chinese researchers began to show interest in the concept of learner autonomy in the 90s. However, most of the studies focus on college students and many of the researchers failed to explain detailed and exercisable approaches to help develop leaner autonomy among language learners. With the reform of school education in China, learner autonomy has become a buzzword in recent years. “Developing students‟learner autonomy” is considered one of the main aims of high school English teaching, according to the New English Curriculum Standard for High School, issued by Chinese Ministry of Education in 2001. It shows the transition from teacher-centered to learner-centered in English teaching and emphasizes the sustaining development of students. However, in most high schools, because of the examination selecting system in China, which means students are selected by means of examinations, most of the school education is still exam-oriented instead of learner development oriented. Many language teachers are 1 at a loss when talking about the newly advocated learner development programs. Thus, most teachers don‟t want to make such attempts to develop students‟ learner autonomy. The thesis consists of five chapters. In Chapter One, the author gives a brief introduction of the necessity of fostering learner autonomy in high school English teaching in China. Chapter Two is the literature review. It elaborates the theoretical basis of learner autonomy, including Humanism, Vygotsky‟s Social Development Theory of Learning, Constructivism and some considerations about individual differences of students. Teacher‟s role in fostering learner autonomy is discussed in this chapter as well. Chapter Three discusses various definitions of leaner autonomy and some related considerations about learner autonomy, such as the characteristics and description of learner autonomy. In Chapter Four, the author illustrates if it is feasible to foster learner autonomy and suggests some approaches to foster learner autonomy. With all the work done, the thesis comes to a conclusion in Chapter Five. The study suggests that the integrated developing program of fostering learner autonomy would be effective in improving students‟performance in high school English learning and the enhancement of students‟learner autonomy is beneficial to students‟performance in standard examinations. 2. Literature Review In this chapter, the author probes into the theoretical foundation of learner autonomy, which includes humanistic approaches, Vygotsky‟s social development theory of learning, constructivism, and the considerations about individual differences of students. 2.1 Humanistic Approaches Humanistic approaches emphasize the importance of the inner world of the learner and place the individual‟s thoughts, feelings and emotions at the forefront of all human development. It concentrates upon the development of the child‟s self-concept. According to humanistic view, good teaching is the process of inviting students to see themselves as able, valuable, and self-directing and of encouraging them to act in accordance with the self-perception. According to humanistic view, good teaching is the process of inviting students to see themselves as able, valuable, and self-directing and of encouraging them to 2 act in accordance with the self-perception. According to Erikson (1968), every individual proceeds through eight stages from birth to old age, each of which poses a particular kind of challenge or crisis. He describes the early school years as one in which the child will establish a sense of industry as basic educational skills and learning competence are developed. Competitive situations in which children are constantly being compared with each other are more likely to generate feelings of inferiority than are situations where the emphasis is upon individualized of co-operative learning. It is therefore important that those who teach a language to younger learners are aware of the need to foster a spirit of co-operation rather than competition, and of the development of this sense of industry. Thus, cooperation in autonomous learning is called for and verified. To conclude, Erikson explained several points in his theory that includes: 1) Learning and development is viewed as lifelong rather than restricted to the phase of school; 2) There are different learning stages in a person‟s life. It enables us to see that real-life learning involves challenges which often require a particular kind of help from others especially the teacher; 3) Learning is regarded as a cumulative process whereby our resolution of one set of life tasks will have a profound influence on how we deal with subsequent tasks; 4) Leaning involves the whole person, the emotions and feelings. It does not involve only knowledge transmitting. As the theoretical ground for learner autonomy, humanistic approaches imply the fact that learning should be personalized as far as possible. That is to say, learners should develop a sense of personal identity through their experience and relate it to their future goals. 2.2 Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory of Learning Vygotsky believes that children‟s mental ability, language and social development are enhanced by learning that occurs through social interactions. He puts forward his theory of the Zone of Proximal Development to refer to the layer of skill or knowledge that is just beyond that with which the learner is currently capable of coping. And Vygotsky describes it as “the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent 3 problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers”(Vygotsky,1978). Vygotsky‟s theory requires the teacher and students to collaborate with each other in teaching and learning process. That is to say, instead of a teacher dictating her meaning to students for future recitation, a teacher should collaborate with her students in order to create meaning in ways that students can make their own (Hausfather,1996). 2.3 Constructivism Constructivism is a branch of cognitive psychology, which brings the learner‟s personal meaning into the cognitive world of his or her own. The basic premise is that an individual learner must actively build knowledge and skills (Bruner,1990). Constructivism holds that learning is a process that learners construct their knowledge initiatively instead of accepting knowledge passively and advocates learner-centeredness. As to the teacher‟s role, constructivists consider that the teaching-learning process is not a process that the teacher transmits knowledge and skills to learners but a process that learner construct their knowledge initiatively driven by their internal motivation. 2.4 Individual Differences of Students 2.4.1 Motivation Motivation is a major factor in Second Language Acquisition. It means “some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something” (Harmer, 2001:51). Researchers divide students‟motivation in various ways. Here are some major classifications of the concept. Gardner and Lambert (1972) has described two types of learning motivation, that is, instrumental motivation and integrative motivation. Instrumental means leaning the language as an instrument to achieve practical goals, and integrative motivation refers to leaning the language out of interest in or desire to identify with the target culture. Holec (1981) divides motivation into two parts, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. The former one refers to the situation that students undertake an activity for its own sake, for the enjoyment it provides, the feelings of accomplishment it evokes. Extrinsic motivation refers to the situation that students perform in order to obtain some reward or avoid some punishment external to the activity itself, like grades, stickers, teacher approval, parent 4 reprimand or praise. 2.4.2 Self-esteem Closely related to motivation, self-esteem refers to the evaluation the learner makes of himself with regard to the target language or learning in general. Hausfather defines self-esteem as: “a personal judgment of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes that the individual holds towards himself,…and indicates the extent to which the individual believes in himself to be capable, significant and worthy”(Hausfather, 1996). 2.4.3 Learning Strategies Learning strategies are tools to improve one‟s language competence. O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) referred to learning strategies as „the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information‟. Cognitive strategies are thought processes used directly in learning which enable learners to deal with the information presented in tasks and materials by working on it in different ways (Hedge,2002). Metacognitive strategies involve planning for learning, thinking about learning and how to make it effective, self-monitoring during learning, and evaluation of how successful learning has been after working on language in some way. Socio-affective strategies refers to those which provide learners with opportunities for practice. They concern how learners engage in social interactions more effectively, work with peers to solve problems, seek encouragement and deal with affective problems such as anxiety, inhibition, self-esteem, motivation and learning styles. 2.4.4 Learning Style Learning style denotes the typical ways in which a person takes in and processes information, makes decisions, and forms values. Learning style affects how a person learns, acts in a group, participates in activities, relates to others, solves problems, teaches and works. Considering the learning style of different students, teachers should design the instruction methods to connect with all learning styles and introduce a wide variety of experiential elements into the English teaching, such as sound, music, visuals, movement, experience, and even talking. 2.5 Teacher’s Role in Fostering Learner Autonomy A variety of terms are used to describe teacher‟s role in developing learner autonomy, 5 including facilitator, helper, counselor, adviser, knower and resource. Voller (1997) reduces all these related term into three: facilitator, in which the teacher is seen as providing support for learning; counselor, where the emphasis is placed on one-to-one interaction; and resource, in which the teacher is seen as a source of knowledge and expertise. Voller (1997) also identifies the functions and qualities associated with these roles under the heading of technical and psycho-social support. 3. Definition and Related Considerations about Learner Autonomy 3.1 Definition of Learner Autonomy Nowadays, just as Wenden (1991:11) said, “few teachers will disagree with the importance of helping language learners become more autonomous as learners”. While as to the definition of learner autonomy, linguists and educationalists haven‟t reached a consensus and there are ongoing debates about it. The concept of learner autonomy stemmed from debates about the development of life-long learning skills and the development of independent thinkers both of which originated in the 1960s. It wasn‟t until the 1980s that, Holec (1981:3), known as the father of learner autonomy, introduced the term into the field of second language pedagogy, and he gave the definition of learner autonomy as “the capacity or ability to take charge of one‟s learning”, which involves: Determining one‟s own learning objectives, determining the necessary means for attaining those objectives, while determining the means for assessing what has been learnt and acquired (Holec,1981:25). Dickinson (1987:11), one of the successors of Holec, believed autonomy is the situation in which the learner is totally responsible for all of the decisions concerned with his or her learning and the implementation of those decisions. According to Little, learner autonomy is “essentially a matter of the learner‟s psychological relation to the process and content of learning. Little believes that learner autonomy presupposes a positive attitude to the purpose, content and process of learning and thus developing positive attitudes towards this is crucial to the success of the development of learner autonomy and is an essential, long term aim of any learner training program. In other words, Little emphasizes the importance of the psychological or internal capacities of the learner. 6 Since 1990s, educationalists came to shift their focus to the social aspects of developing autonomy. Some educationalists showed a renewed interest in Vygotsky‟s works. Vygotsky‟s socio-cultural theory suggests that development depends on interaction with people and the tools that the culture provides to help form their own view of the world. 3.2 Characteristics of Autonomous Learner After the discussion about the concept of learner autonomy, it is necessary to identify the characteristics of an autonomous learner since the learner is the focus of the thesis. According to Leslie Dickinson, autonomy is seen as an attitude toward language learning, which may not necessarily have many external, observable features. But in terms of that attitude, he thinks of autonomous learners as people who are characterized in a number of ways. He has listed four points (Dickinson, 1993). Firstly, they are able to identify what‟s been taught. More importantly, they see the importance of doing that, of being concerned about what they are trying to do. So, they are aware of the teacher‟s objectives. Secondly, they are able to formulate their own learning objectives, not necessarily in competition with the teacher. But more often in collaboration with the teacher, or as something which is in addition to what the teacher is doing. Thirdly, they can and do select and implement appropriate learning strategies, often consciously. Fourthly, they are able to identify strategies that are not working for them that are not appropriate, and use others. There is another instructive conclusion made by Wenden (1991), who believes autonomous learners have learned how to learn, and they have acquired the learning strategies, the knowledge about learning, and the attitudes that enable them to use these skills and knowledge confidently, flexibly, appropriately of a teacher. Within the context of education, there seems to be six main attributes characterizing autonomous learners. 1. autonomous learners have insight into their learning styles and strategies; 2. take an active approach to the learning task at hand; 3. are willing to take risks, i.e. , to communicate in the target language at all costs; 4. attend to form as well as to content, that is, place importance on accuracy as well as appropriacy; 7 5. develop the target language into a separate reference system and are willing to revise and reject hypotheses and rules that do not apply; 6. have a tolerant and outgoing approach to the target language. 4. Feasible Approaches to Foster Learner Autonomy The integrated learner development program was divided into two parts: the in-curriculum approach, which focuses on the classroom activities, and the out-of-curriculum approach, which concerns about the activities after class. For the sake of cultivating learner autonomy, Peng Jinding (2002) initiated such teaching methods as assigning learners to exchange homework for correction, participate in extracurricular interest group activities, and write textbooks and make plans together with the teacher. Hua Weifen (2001) described the theoretical basis and practical needs for setting up a self-access center, its functions, types and some considerations over establishing language learning centers on high school in China. Among the theory-based studies are the ones performed by He Lianzhen (2003). To enable learners to meet occupational requirements, she narrowed the syllabus down to what was truly applicable, created a more effective learning environment, practiced learner autonomy as a remedy, and raised occupational consciousness. 4.1 In-Curriculum Approaches 4.1.1 Motivating Students As is mentioned in Chapter Three, students‟attitude and motivation towards the target language directly affects the efficiency of autonomous language learning. Many factors may influence the learning process, including the relative language level among fellow students; the interest in the learning materials and classroom activities; the relationship between teacher and student; the self-confidence of learning the language. To motivate students, the author tried approaches as follows: 1. To chose proper learning materials Textbooks are the learning guides for students. They offer a grammatical and functional framework which provides for the common needs of a group of learners; they allow students to prepare in advance; they provide quality of presentation, and they do not 8 necessarily prevent a creative spinning-off in the classroom into all kinds of other activities. 2. To create an emotional safe environment An essential condition for a positive classroom environment is for the student to feel emotionally safe enough to take risks for learning (Broghy,1987). As an English teacher in high school, the author notices that students with better command of English are more willing to talk in class. Thus teachers are responsible for creating an emotionally safe environment for the students, which encourages students to show their mistakes and lack of knowledge in the learning process. More encouragement is given to the students on any of their achievements. To set up a friendly relationship with the students, the author treated them equally, and listened to their ideas about learning. 3. To enhance persuasive communication in classroom activities In as much as the success of learning and the extent to which learners tap into their potential resources in order to overcome difficulties and achieve autonomy are determined by such factors as learners‟motivation, their desire to learn, and the beliefs they hold about themselves as learners, it is manifest that changing some negative beliefs and attitudes is bound to facilitate learning. A persuasive communication is a discussion presenting information and arguments to change a learner‟s evaluation of a topic, situation, task, and so on. These arguments could be either explicit or implicit, especially when the topic is deemed of importance. If, for instance, a deeply ingrained fear or belief precludes the learner from engaging in the learning process, persuasive communication purports to help bring these facts to light and identify the causes that underlie them. It should be noted, though, that no arguments to influence students‟views are given. 4. A cohesive learner group characterised by appropriate group norms As was hinted at above, fragmented groups, characterised by lack of cooperativeness, can easily become ineffective, thus putting paid to the individual members‟commitment to learn. There are several factors that promote group cohesiveness, such as the time spent together and shared group history, learning about each other, interaction, intergroup competition, common threat, active presence of the leader. As for group norms, they should 9 be discussed and adopted by members, in order to be constructive and long-lasting. If a norm mandated by a teacher fails to be accepted as proper by the majority of the class members, it will not become a group norm. 5. To create fun and interest in classroom activities To enhance students‟interest in English, a good variety of classroom activities are organized to make the English classroom more attractive. Here are some of the activities adopted in the class of pre-junior students. A. Imitation Competition Imitation competitions are used to improve students‟pronunciation and intonation of English. Students in pre-junior classes are often interested in imitating the voice and tones of different speakers on the tape. After the presentation of a new text, students were required to listen to the text sentence by sentence, and repeat what they had just heard. Additional repetition after the tape was assigned as homework. The imitation competitions were usually held on the next day. And students were excited to show their imitation in front of the class. B. Role-play Role-play games enable students to practice the language in a “real” situation. Generally speaking, students in high school are always keen on role-play activities. According to different learning materials, role-play activities are organized in different ways. In some cases, students were asked to put themselves into somebody else‟s shoes. Besides, students were sometimes asked to put a narrative passage into a dialogue and act it out. Such activity gives students opportunities to use the limited language knowledge freely. C. Guessing Game Guessing game is a good way to present new materials and to help students of young ages to review the newly learned words and expressions. It increased the curiosity of students and enhanced their learning motivation. D. Brain Storming Brain storming is a good way to get students engaged, to get a lot of ideas, and to break down barriers of communication. Students can exchange and gather information in a 10 free-flowing, energetic and creative way. In the process of brain storming, students are active to give ideas on the problem and learn from each other. 4.1.2 Learning Strategies Training To increase students‟knowledge of useful ways to learn and develop the learning strategies they need, some learning strategies training programs through a task-based approach would be put forward. The process was arranged as follows: 1. The teacher sets the language task based on the learning materials; 2. Students take part in activities to fulfill the task under the guidance of the teacher. As a facilitator, the teacher may help students with necessary vocabulary and grammar. At the same time, the teacher observes how much the students use learning strategies; 3. When the activity is done, students are required to look back to the progress and explain how they complete the task; 4. The teacher directs the students to think about and discuss what learning strategies they have applied during the activity; 5. The teacher introduces more possible learning strategies that can be adopted. Students are free to make choices about the strategies they prefer. 6. Set some similar learning tasks and train students to put these learning strategies into practice; 7. Assessment on the use of learning strategies can be given in forms of self- assessment, peer assessment and teacher assessment; 8. Discuss how the strategies can be transferred to other tasks. 4.1.3 Cooperative Learning Many researchers have studied various cooperative learning methods. Several of them presented as follows: 1. Think-pair-share In this activity, a question is posed or an issue is presented by the teacher, and students are given some time to think and reflect, take notes or engage in free writing before turning to their partner and sharing what they have just thought and written about. After sharing in pairs, the members of the pair share their ideas with the larger group. With a think-pair-share, students have several opportunities to develop their ideas, rehearse their 11 language and receive feedbacks on both language and content before having to commit to speaking in front of the entire class. 2. Jigsaw This is a cooperative activity in which everyone becomes an “expert” about a topic or sub-topic, and shares his or her learning within a group setting so that eventually all members learn the content. Since each student was supposed to be a presenter later in his group, there was no way for any of the student to evade. And the presentation was done within each group instead of one by one in front of the whole class, time was saved and the task could be carried out more efficiently. Furthermore, the activity offers many opportunities for language acquisition, practice and reinforcement of learned patterns and expressions. 3. Debate Debate is a means of encouraging critical thinking, personal expression, and tolerance of other‟s opinions. During the process of debating, students are engaged in a variety of cognitive and linguistic ways. It is also highly effective in developing argumentation skills for persuasive speech and writing. 4.1.4 Self-assessment and Reflection To reflect on learner‟s language learning, self-assessment is very effective. Learners can clearly gain insights into their own learning such as language abilities, learning styles, use of learning strategies and accomplishment etc. Through reflection, learners will have a better understanding and assessment of their knowledge and abilities and thus they can self-direct their language learning. Here are some ways of self-reflection: 1. Self-reports According to Wenden (1991), a good way of collecting information on how students go about a learning task and helping them become aware of their own strategies is to assign a task and have them report what they are thinking while they are performing it. This self-report is called introspective, as learners are asked to introspect on their learning. Another type of self-report is what has been dubbed as retrospective self-report, since learners are asked to think back or retrospect on their learning. A structured questionnaire seeks the same information but in a different way: by dint of explicit 12 questions and statements, and then asking learners to agree or disagree, write true or false, and so forth. It could be argued that self-reports can be a means of raising awareness of learners‟strategies and the need for constant evaluation of techniques, goals, and outcomes. 2. Diaries and Evaluation Sheets Perhaps one of the principal goals of education is to alter learners‟beliefs about themselves by showing them that they put active failures or shortcomings can be ascribed to a lack of effective strategies rather than to a lack of potential. After all, according to Vygotsky (1978), learning is an internalised form of a formerly social activity, and “a learner can realize his potential interactively through the guidance of supportive other persons such as parents, teachers, and peers ” (Wenden, 1991). Learning diary is a tool for evaluating and implementing personal learning. The purpose is to keep record and reflect on what has been learned, which is very important to learner autonomy, students can also benefit from putting pen to paper and writing on their expectations of a course at the beginning of the term, and then filling in evaluation sheets, or reporting on the outcomes of a course, at the end of the term. These activities are bound to help learners put things into perspective and manage their learning more effectively. In this way, learners may plan, monitor and evaluate their learning, identify any problems that they run into and find possible solutions. 3. Learner Profile A learner profile is a collection of information relating to an individual learner. Its purpose is to provide a picture of the learner‟s current development and future potential in terms which relate to self-access learning. The profile will describe the learner‟s needs, record the learner‟s goals and study plans: document actions taken to fulfill the study plans, and record learning outcomes. The main purpose of it is to establish the needs and wants of the learners and to monitor the progress made by learners. 4.2 Out-of-Curriculum Approaches Besides the in-curriculum activities, there are a wide variety of out-of-curriculum activities in high school that may help to improve students‟learner autonomy. The participants of the out-of-curriculum activities vary, from pre-junior to senior two. Every year some high schools would offer several clubs, such as English corner, 13 English speech , English drama show, debate, story telling, movie dubbing, poem recital contest, singing and dancing contest, musical drama etc. It‟s a good chance for students to practice the language in “real” situations. Besides, during the program, students may come across a lot of new words and expression they haven‟t learned before, which empowers students to learn autonomously. 5. Conclusion This paper has discussed why we need to promote autonomous learning. It has also examined the several factors that may impede or enhance such learning. It further suggests ways on how teachers should do in order to make autonomous learning more successful. Broady et al (1996) reckons that there are many paths to acquiring second language skills and part of the language teacher‟s expertise lies in successfully negotiating the most appropriate approach. Two points we might stress are: first, we need to hold reasonable attitudes towards autonomous learning; second, we need to work out a programme with the learner and regularly monitor and evaluate the student‟s learning result, without which, it would be unimaginable to achieve the set goals. From the analysis above, we can see that both the in-curriculum approaches and the out-of-curriculum approaches are beneficial to students‟learner autonomy in their own ways. If the students carry out the in-curriculum approaches, which would be more motivated in English learning and the augment of intrinsic motivation overwhelmed that of the extrinsic motivation, which might lead to a higher level of learner autonomy. However, though the teacher should be try to use communicative methods to help the students to use English as a tool of communication instead of just take the examinations the result was not as satisfying as was expected. Besides, the out-of-curriculum training program would also be proved to be beneficial to students in cultivating interest in English learning and motivate students as well as the enhancement of self-esteem and self-evaluation. However, it seemed to be insufficient in helping students to adopt learning strategies. Thus, according to the above analysis, students‟autonomous learning abilities can be fostered through both in-curriculum and out-of-curriculum approaches. Since each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages, it seemed to be wise to take both approaches integratedly. 14 References [1] Bruner. Acts of Meaning[M]. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990. [2] Dickinson. Self-instruction in Language Learning[M]. 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London: Prentice-Hall, 1991. [13] 华维芬. 试论外语教师在自主学习模式中的定位[J]. 外语研究,2001(3): 76-79. [14] 何莲珍. 自主学习及其能力的培养[J]. 外语教学与研究,2003(4): 287-289. [15] 庞维国. 自主学习——学与教的原理和策略[M]. 上海:华东师范大学出版社, 2003: 30-38. [16] 彭金定. 大学英语教学中的“学习者自主”问题研究[J]. 外语界，2002(3): 15-19. 15 Acknowledgements I would like to give my sincere thanks to all those who have helped me with the thesis, and I should express my gratitude to my supervisor, Miss Guo, for his guidance, instruction, encouragement, patience, and support. I would like to view the writing of this thesis as an academic experience during which Miss Guo, with his comprehensive knowledge and great patience in correcting my draft again and again, instructed me how to read and write, and more importantly how to think. I am also indebted to all the teachers who have been instructing and encouraging me during my four year study. My sincere thanks are also given to my classmates, who shared with me the insightful opinions on this issue. Finally, I‟d like to express my love and gratitude to my family members. This work is dedicated to them. 16