How to Develop Middle School Students’ Ability of Autonomy Learning.doc

how to develop middle school students ability of autonomy learningcontentsabstract.1key words.1i. introduction.1ii. definitions of autonomy learning.22.1. autonomy has two main aspects in foreign language teaching.2iii. the research with autonomy learning of the abroad and home33.1 the development of autonomy learning in abroad.33.2 the development of autonomy learning in china.4iv. learning strategies.6v. the development of students ability of autonomous learning.9vi. conclusion.14references.15摘要：培养学习者自主性是近20年来外语教学界的热门话题。本文简要介绍了自主学习的定义，学习策略，国外和国内对于自主学习的研究，培养中学学生的自主学习能力的必要性和重要因素。以及如何在我国当前的教育环境下培养学生的自主外语学习能力。最后文章指出培养中学学生的 自主学习能力是外语教学界的长期目标。关键词：自主学习 学习策略 能力培养abstract: learning autonomy has been a buzzword in foreign language teaching in the recent twenty years. this paper aims at introducing this new teaching idea into foreign language teaching in china, including its definitions, learning strategies, the research with autonomy learning abroad and at home, the necessity of cultivating middle school students autonomy in the process of foreign language learning, and the factors that can promote students autonomy. this paper has also made a few tentative suggestions as to how to promote la in the current pedagogic context. the paper highlights in the end that the development middle school students ability of autonomy learning is our long-pedagogic goal.key words: autonomy learning learning strategies ability developingi. introductionthis paper is brief analysis of the ability of autonomy learning in language learning, especially in the middle school of china. first, definitions of autonomy learning. second, the research with autonomy learning of abroad and at home. third, learning strategies in language learning also have important practical significances in language learning and teaching. most language teachers will agree that autonomy learning of the students is one of the most important factors of success or failure in language learning. they believe that one phrase: “given methodology, anyone can learn a language”. autonomy learning is important in foreign language learning; because it can improve language learners internal and external powers. finally, it shows that learning mode in foreign language teaching tends to be student-centered and the new teaching concept autonomy, puts forward to the possibilities and necessities of carrying out autonomy in china and some general suggestions for how to develop ability of learners. so autonomy learning aims at cultivating the learners to have a strong thirst for knowledge and language learning, thus turning “teacher makes me learn” into “i want to learn.”ii. definitions of autonomy learning autonomy learning is a relatively new concept for students and teachers to in the middle school in china. although there has always been the idea of dixie (self-teaching), in china the idea is different from the concept of autonomous learning and only peripheral in chinese educational culture. we need to examine the concept of autonomous learning. the concept of “autonomous learning” originated in the 1960s when there were debates about the development of life-long learning skills and indeed thing: hole (1981:3) defines autonomy as “the ability to take charge of ones own learning”. dickinson (1987:11) stated that autonomy is a “situation in which the learner is totally responsible for all the decisions concerned with his or her learning and the implementation of those decisions”.however, “autonomy learning is a behavior and ability of independent learning, control of the study consent, mental function in ones heart of learner” (benson 1997:25) however, “the fully autonomous learner is an ideal, rather than a reality” (noonan 1997:193). there are different degrees of autonomy. most researchers use the term “self- access” to refer to the approach that assists learners to move from teacher dependence to autonomy.autonomy learning is a self-directed learning, self-organized learning and self-dominated learning. but some people think: as learners follow their cognitive level, knowledge structure, learning style and to define learning goals, choosing learning cogent and personal style self-control.2.1. autonomy has two main aspects in foreign language teaching.1) the first aspect of autonomy. the ultimate goal of most language teaching is to develop the students autonomy in their own language use. that is, to develop the ability to use the language as they need or want to. this has direct implications for the kind of tasks that students are asked to do. if students are only asked to do closed tasks they are unlikely to develop the ability to use the language with ease. open-ended tasks are much more important in this respect. 2) the second aspect of autonomy, however, concerns how the students learn. if all the decisions about learning are always taken by the teacher, the students will not have the opportunity to decide things for themselves. this means that they will not develop the ability to learn by them. in a rapidly changing world, however, these abilities are increasingly important, as people are continually required to learn new skills and absorb new information. learning how to learn should thus be a vital component in any educational course. so the concept of autonomy has been for a few years and even become a buzzword within the context of language learning. unfortunately, however, it has also been misunderstood as being no more than self-instruction. some also assume that learner autonomy in the classroom means that the teacher transfers all control to the learners and thus becomes a redundant part of the learning process. consequently. autonomy learning is often described as a new methodology. iii. the research with autonomy learning abroad and at home autonomy is a new area in language teaching research, which emphasizes the development of the learners ability to take initiative in language learning. the fact that autonomy in learning is not an inborn capacity that can be inherited from ancestors entails that it can be developed through training and practice. the purpose enhancing the learners autonomy is to help them learn to learn and ultimately to improve efficiency in learning. 3.1 the development of autonomy learning abroad.from the early 1950s, autonomy learning becomes an important research topic. in the 90s of 20 century foreign countries made deeper and wider research on autonomy learning, and made great progress on basic problems; especially on the essence of autonomy learning, the relationship between autonomy learning and marks, and the get of autonomy learning ability. in essence, the independent study should be motivated by intrinsic or self-stimulation, learning methods are planned or have reached the automated through practice, for study is regular and effective; aware of the students to learn independently and the results of self-control and make the learning process. they also take the initiative to create an atmosphere that is conducive to learning the material and social environment. winne and butler believe that autonomous learning model is a cognitive model. independent study focuses on the inner motivation mechanism. zimmerman and schunk social cognitive side believes that the acquisition is a self learning ability to learn skills outside of their capabilities into the process; managers should have a range of stages, such as the observation stage, imitating stage, self-control stage, autonomy stage. information processing side winne (1997) further noted that students could access their learning ability through various channels. first, accepted autonomy learning, students at different age can acquire and use the autonomy strategy. second, the classroom lacks autonomy; students can get ability of autonomy learning through observing study of other people.(1) one independent study on the substance. (2) independent study on the intrinsic mechanisms. (3) independent study on the relationship with performance (4) on the ability to study independently. it introduced over the recent 10 years the research and development of basic problems about autonomy learning abroad. as can be seen, three issues that caused bewildered in the 80s of 20 century were, what is their learning and how to learn, autonomous learning and motivation and cognitive relationship yuan, independent learning skills could be taught has already been responded to. undoubtedly, these developments subsequent to the independent research study have laid a solid foundation. from research trends, research on autonomous learning from the faction strife in the 1980s, has begun to shift to the home of zhu integrated autonomous learning theory, the researchers focused on absorbing reasonable elements from various groups autonomy learning to place into their own research framework. but on the other hand, it can be seen on the autonomy of the research study is still at a preliminary stage, some basic issues, such as independent study with the academic relations, effective independent learning intervention models, the development of independent learning abilities are yet to be further explored.1990s after studying abroad for independent research on issues broader, in-depth, especially in the study of real autonomy, mechanism, independent learning and learning achievement relations, and self-learning ability, such as access to basic issues have made significant progress.3.2 the development of autonomy learning in china.in comparison with foreign countries, china has more autonomy in foreign language learning. it is divided into three stages:1) putting forward stage.2) preliminary experience stage.3) systematic research stage.especially about 1979 our country has more than 11 teaching experiments, which direct students to autonomy learning. in 1990, our research of autonomy learning has deep and comes an aspect that theory and practice, education, psychology and have a unprecedented flourishing period. despite self-study of the independent research studies have achieved fruitful results, but on the autonomy learning many fundamental issues. such as capacity development and independent training, teachers measure students autonomy learning ability through students learning, but it hasnt properly addressed. for example, we used means of questionnaires; this dissertation seems to prove that the capability of autonomy learning in china is lower than european. chinese students are modest, lack confident, meanwhile the respect towards teachers made students frightened. to protect dignity, teacher cannot fully communicate with students, cannot get to know about the requirement of students as european teachers do. and it tries to investigate chinese students strengths and weaknesses concerning autonomy learning compared with west european students. in this way, appropriate advice is given on how to improve chinese students learners autonomy, and thereby to improve teaching and learning efficiency. chinese students have not enough communication with teacher. they reorganize them habit of taking chance and explore. to be a teacher, teaching method cant rigidly adhere to outline of text. you can build democratic relationship between teacher and student, and adjust the atmosphere of classroom by discussing question. you guide direct supervise to let alone how to improve students ability of autonomy learning. not only observe the students study development but also record each students progress and do research o their change of study behavior. although our country have obtain rich achievement on researching the aspect of autonomy learning, but the respected position of the teacher, may cause difficulty for chinese students, both emotionally and intellectually when encouraged to work autonomously. independent learning can be seen as disemboweling the teacher and encouraging the learner to defy previous learning experiences, thus challenging the view of the teacher as an unquestionable source of authority that is deeply rooted within chinese culture. we believe that not every learner will, or should choose to, be autonomous in their learning. therefore, the learning training that a self-access center provides should reflect this and provide as great a degree of flexibility as possible.however, the quality of education in our country has been independent for several years, but the general pattern is the existing knowledge of teaching: teacher-centered. the practical consequence is worried in the process of teaching and learning. research shows that the learning ability of our students on the relatively weak level of overall development, the development of autonomy learning is uneven. so recognizing the academic achievements of independent development and learning ability in the relationship between the role of education for our students to learn the current status of education reform and improvement are promoting significance, but in recent years, my self-study of the autonomy learning research is rising, autonomy learning environments for network education in the field of education research forward and become a hot issue.to be a teacher, you must help students so that they can obtain the way of autonomy learning ability; to foster learners interest in english learning and thus to motivate their learning; to encourage learners to take the responsibility of learning; and to raise learners awareness of learning strategies and to train them in effective use of learning strategies.iv. learning strategieswith the teaching of language being more and more communication-oriented, the traditional classroom teaching is facing a big challenge and is being replaced by the “learner-centered” one. this means that learner will assume greater responsibility for his or her own learning. that is to say, learner autonomy has to be enhanced to meet the mead of the new classroom-teaching mode. the following introduces briefly some of the recent theoretical literature on foreign language autonomy learning , and several strategies and suggestion to foster autonomy learning.learning strategies have become the necessary factors in improving the students learning efficiency. however, there are so many students and teachers who cant realize the importance of it, but in the recently years many researchers discovered and concluded that the learners who followed ones own favorite learning strategy could improve his learning efficiency and encourage his learning autonomy.in the development of the research on the learning strategies, there are few people to investigate chinese students, and there are even fewer people to investigate the relationship between the individual diversity and the english learning strategy preferences. however, in china, there are so many english learners. so researching on the individual diversity and the english learning strategy preferences has a very profound meaning.different social environment, family background and experiences influence the students learning strategies. each student is a completely different individual. they have their own special personality, needs and interests either in the cognitive aspect, affective aspect and social aspect or in the learning strategies, knowledge and characteristic quality. the students differ from each other greatly. therefore, english learners should learn foreign languages starting from their own actual conditions analyze profoundly their own individuals and choose the best learning strategies. on the other hand, the teachers should teach considering the students actual conditions, analyze carefully the students individual diversity and do research on the students individual diversity, which could help improve the quality of teaching in classes and help the students overall development.through this research, i try to achieve three main purposes:1) let the english learners know more knowledge about learning strategies from all sides, attract the english teachers and the english learners attention to the importance of the english learning strategy preferences and encourage the students to try to find out their own learning strategies that adapt to themselves according to their individual diversity.2) improve my own research levels from both the theoretic aspects and the practical aspects.3) offer some approaches of fostering the students learning strategies for english teachers. learning strategies can facilitate autonomous learning by giving students more ways, cultivating positive attitudes and guiding reflection that the special in strutting strategies can all contribute to autonomy learning .for example: writing strategy: example is a very effective means to clarify a thought, to support statements or to help persuade. besides, example also adds interest and vividness to an essay. indeed, it is hard to write a good paper of any kind without using example. nevertheless, not all examples can serve your purpose equally well. you have to select then carefully. make sure that all the examples are relevant ad persuasive; choose typical examples. language learning strategy instruction is a teaching approach that aims to raise learner awareness of learning strategies and provide learners with systematic practice, reinforcement and self-monitoring of their strategy use while attending to language learning activities. the underlying assumption of strategy instruction is, if learners explore how, when and why to use language learning strategies, and evaluate and monitor their own learning (cohen, 1998：69), then they can take a more ac