（课程与教学论专业论文）高中学生英语自主学习能力培养的实证研究.pdf

i 高中学生英语自主学习能力培养的实证研究高中学生英语自主学习能力培养的实证研究 2004 级教育硕士研究生：戴海燕 导师：徐继旺 教授 学科专业：课程与教学论 研究方向：英语教学论 内容摘要 中华人民共和国教育部制定的英语课程新标准中把培养中学生自主学习英语的能 力作为英语教学的主要目标，呼吁教师和教育管理部门创造条件培养学生学习的自主性。 外语自主学习是培养学生外语学习自主性的重要方法。然而，传统的高中英语教学模式和 方法所导致的目前我国高中阶段的英语教学整体效率较低的现象己经成为高中英语教学 的最大障碍。把“自主学习”引进高中英语课堂教学很有必要而且很有意义。本论文首先是 对高中生抽样调查，提出在我国高中校园环境中培养高中学生英语学习自主性的必要性和 方法。作者认为，培养学生自主性的关键是要激发学生英语学习动机和进行系统的英语学 习策略训练，并主张通过把英语学习策略训练与高中英语课堂教学内容相结合来促进学生 外语自主学习能力和提高英语教学效果。 论文回顾了国内外有关外语自主学习的研究现状，讨论了在我国高中英语教学中培养 学生学习自主能力的重要意义，并介绍了本研究中使用的研究方法，论述了自主学习的心 理学和教育学的理论基础，并且分析了影响高中生自主学习的因素。 在论述有关自主学习的理论的基础上，作者对同心中学和所就职的阳江市第一中学部 分高中学生进行了有关英语自主学习能力现状的问卷调查。根据调查结果，作者分析了本 校高中学生在英语学习自主性方面存在的优势和不足。调查发现，本校的高中学生有着明 确的学习英语的目的，了解英语学习的重要性，有强烈的愿望学好英语这门课，渴望拓宽 学习英语的渠道，并且开始尝试使用英语学习策略来改善自己的英语学习。但是，传统的 教学模式和教学方法压抑了学生学习英语的兴趣，大部分学生认知策略和元认知策略欠 缺，学习缺乏有效的计划和管理。 针对学生的现状，作者提出了以激发学生英语学习动机和有针对性的英语学习策略训 练为基础的高中英语自主学习课堂教学模式，并用实验的方法加以验证。实验结果表明， 高中英语自主学习课堂教学模式能够在一定程度上促进学生的外语自主学习能力的发展， 并且能够提高大部分学生的英语学习成绩。 最后，作者分析和讨论了目前把外语自主学习引进高中英语课堂教学所面临的三个主 要问题，即课程设置问题、教材问题和评价体系问题。如果没有与外语自主学习相适应的 ii 课程设置、相配套的教材以及合理的评价体系，那么，在高中阶段进行英语自主学习教学 就非常困难。这三个问题关系到高中英语自主学习教学的成败，是作者未来将要探讨和研 究的领域。 关键词关键词:自主学习;认知观；建构主义;人本主义;自主学习教学模式 iii an experimental study of fostering the ability of senior high school students autonomous english learning 2004 med: dai haiyan supervisor: professor xu jiwang specialty: curriculum cognitive view; constructivism; humanism; autonomous teaching model 38 论文独创性声明论文独创性声明 本人郑重声明：所提交的学位论文是本人在导师的指导下进行的研 究工作及取得的成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不含其他 个人或其他机构已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。对本文的研究作出重要 贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。本人承担本声明的法 律责任。 研究生签名： 日期： 论文使用授权声明论文使用授权声明 本人完全了解广西师范大学有关保留、使用学位论文的规定。广 西师范大学、中国科学技术信息研究所、清华大学论文合作部，有权保 留本人所送交学位论文的复印件和电子文档，可以采用影印、缩印或其 他复制手段保存论文。本人电子文档的内容和纸质论文的内容相一致。 除在保密期内的保密论文外，允许论文被查阅和借阅，可以公布（包括 刊登）论文的全部或部分内容。论文的公布（包括刊登）授权广西师范 大学学位办办理。 研究生签名： 日期： 导 师签名： 日期： 1 chapter i introduction in this chapter, we first of all introduce the background of this study，which is composed of four parts: the research on learner autonomy (la) in the west; the previous research and development of learner autonomy in china; the necessity of learner autonomy; the significance of learner autonomy, and then the study of learner autonomy in this thesis. 1.1 background of the present study 1.1.1the research on learner autonomy in the west autonomous learning, which is based on human basic psychology and cognitive psychology, was posed in 1960s. since 1980s, it has been a focus and subject which has been widely concerned and studied. about ten monographs have been published (holec 1981;bound 1988; brookgrundy 1988; little 1991; wenden 1991; dam 1995; bensonvallor 1997; cotteral crabbe 1999). domestic and foreign scholars have studied autonomous learning from different directions. their studies emphasize the judgment of learning ability of autonomous language （holec 1981; little 1991） ，the theoretical foundation on how to bring up the ability to learn autonomously, and the analysis on the strategy implementing and the setup of the courses, and the establishment of the self-access centre. educationalists in the west have been advocating the development of learner autonomy as an educational goal since the early sixties. especially since the 1980s, autonomy in language learning has been a buzzword of widespread focus in western context and an increasing number of studies have been undertaken from the students perspective. the gist of learner autonomy is that a learner develops the “ability to take charge of his or her own learning” (holec 1981:3). the concept of autonomy has evolved over time, but it was in the 1970s when henri holec (1981) introduced the term to the field of second language pedagogy as a conceptual tool to discuss alternatives to the established language teaching tradition in the context of adult language learning. the concept of autonomy has since found a place in mainstream education. north american researchers have taken up the idea and integrated it in the tradition of research about the good language learner. some researchers like dickinson (1987) and marshall (cited in zhang hong,2000) even consider promoting learner autonomy as the ultimate goal of education. thus the concern with english teaching and learning has shifted from the teachers teaching to the students learning. 1.1.2 the research and development of learner autonomy in china 2 in recent years, autonomous learning has been a hot topic in the field of domestic education. according to the papers the author collected, we can find that autonomous learning focused on the education of university students and adults. they mainly introduced and analyzed the foreign studies, and some of them studied how to foster the ability of the domestic university students to learn autonomously and the necessity to establish the selfaccess centre (zhou xinqi 1998; zheng min 2000; fan jieping 2004,etc. ). but the studies on middle school students autonomous learning are not so common. he xiaodong (2005) introduced the ways of how to bring up the ability to learn english autonomously through choosing the reading items by the students themselves. bao jinfen (2005) has studied on the cases of the autonomous learning activities of the junior school students. besides, deng lilong (2005) explained how to promote the ability of autonomous learning through the way named “reversing translation”. many of the papers were based on the theoretical elaboration, while the experimental studies were very few. at present, the studies on english education in middle schools concentrate on the key middle schools in big cities such as beijing, shanghai and so on. for example, professor shu dingfang in shanghai international studies university has spent one and a half year on the experiments of the reform of foreign language teaching in middle schools. 1.2 necessity of learner autonomy the new english curriculum criteria issued by ministry of education in the september of 2000 puts forward “developing the student autonomous learning in english learning” as the main goal of english teaching and learning. this goal requires teachers to explore and make good use of various resources reasonably so as to create the prerequisites for learner autonomy in english study. this fully shows that in china, english teaching and learning at the basic stage has shifted its stress to the training of learnig strategies on the part of middle school students in order to “develop the studentsautonomous english learning abilities and creative awareness.” in the present classroom teaching, even though teachers give students opportunities to learn english independently, students are not willing to do so because they are used to being spoon-fed by their teachers who cram them with knowlege just for examination. for many students, they are used to the teacher-centered teaching pattern. they have little or no responsibility for their own learning. as a result, most of the students become dependent on teachers and have little incentive to undertake learning inside and outside the classroom. they seem not to be equipped for the learning skills that are necessary to succeed in english learning. therefore, it is necessary and crucial to help students develop the abilities to learn autonomously. 1.3 significance of the study 3 although great changes in english teaching have taken place in the recent twenty years in china and these changes and development have made teachers and students change their traditional ideas and have new recognition, yet the relationship between teachers and students is unbalanced. classroom teaching is still dominated and controlled by teachers and learners usually passively accept whatever teachers say and do for them. facing the pressure of college entrance examination, teachers often consider how to teach students better than how to teach them to learn, focusing on teaching forms of the target language, rather than teaching students how to learn the language. students tend to consider their teachers as the sole guiders for their english learning. they think it is the teachers job to tell them what they have to do and what they have to learn. they view knowledge as something to be transmitted by the teacher rather than to be discovered by themselves. when expected to change this traditional role, students frequently show anxiety as they used to be passive learners, accepting teachers authority without question or challenge. former researches on autonomous learning have largely focused on western learners who are perceived as being more receptive to training in autonomous learning routines and strategies. thus autonomy in language learning is sometimes presented as a western concept unsuited to a non-western context, such as china, which has different educational traditions. as a result, attempts to investigate how learners respond to autonomous learning in middle schools, especially in chinese context, are few and far between, particularly, how to develop the autonomous english learning (ael) of the students in middle schools. chinese researchers cheng xiaotang (1999) and few others (zheng min,2000; hua weifen,2001;chen xiaoxiang zhang xiyang,2003) have ever made tentative studies on la in china, but they put la into too broad a range without any specific practical implication. based on this consideration, the author has designed an investigation of the students autonomous english learning in middle schools by means of questionnairs. she attempts to find out the existing weaknesses, analyse the underlying cause for them, and explore various advantages of la so as to test the feasibility, and provide effective approaches to english teaching and learning in middle schools. 1.4 study method in our study, we try to use the questionnaire to investigate autonomous learning on the part of senior high school students. according to liu runqing (2004), questionnaires have the following advantages. (1)questionnaires can be delivered to many people at the same time, thus they are more economical. 4 (2)because they are anonymous, the respondents will give their real thoughts to those sensitive questions. thus the data are reliable. (3)questionnaires have a standardized format and the responses are also gathered in a standardized way, so questionnaires are more objective and easier to analyze statistically. (4)because the questionnaires are delivered to the subjects at the same time, the data collected do not have a difference in time, so they are more reliable. yet liu runqing (ibid) has also mentioned the biggest disadvantage of questionnaires-the low return rates, an important aspect which should not be neglected in the implementation of the questionnaire. the instruments used in the study are mainly two self-designed questionnaires. one is called middle school student autonomous learning questionnaire (see appendix i). this questionnaire consists of two parts-one part contains personal details, that is, school name, grade, sex, age and the other part contains 30 statements concerning english-autonomous learning of the students in middle schools. another questionnaire to the english teachers is designed for the purpose of our getting information about their understanding of learner autonomous learning (see appendix ii) . furthermore, we also make a reference to previous literatures to discuss how to carry out autonomous learning training in senior high schools. 5 chapter ii theories of learner autonomy in this chapter, we first of all introduce the definition of autonomy and then come to the theoretical basis of autonomous language learning, which is composed of three parts. 2.1 definition of autonomy since the emergence of the term “autonomy”, linguists and educationalists have failed to reach a consensus on the definition, and the definition of autonomy has experienced considerable versions so far. for example, in david littles terms, learner autonomy is essentially a matter of the learners psychological relation to the process and content of learning . a capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision-making, and independent action (little , 1991: 4). it is not something done to learners; therefore, it is far from being another teaching method (ibid). meanwhile, leni dam (1995, cited in gathereole, 1990: 16), drawing upon holec (1981), defines autonomy in terms of the learners willingness and capacity to control or oversee his or her own learning. more specifically, she, like holec, holds that someone qualifies as an autonomous learner when he independently chooses aims and purposes and sets goals, chooses materials, methods and tasks, exercises choice and purpose in organizing and carrying out the chosen tasks; and chooses criteria for evaluation. most definitions agree on some aspect of responsibility for learning being assumed by the learner, but there are notable shifts in emphasis, such as allwrights (1990) “optimal state of equilibrium” and hunt, gow (2)it does not mean that intervention or initiative on the part of a teacher is banned; (3)it is not something teachers do to learners; (4)it is not a single easily identifiable behaviour; (5)it is not a steady state achieved by learners once and for all. in the author view, learner autonomy in middle schools in chinese context embraces two underlying meanings including, an attitude of willingness towards taking charge of his or her own learning willingly; and ability of perception and accepting the responsibility for their own learning. the core of la is the attitude and ability, which are both crucial to learner autonomy, for it focuses on the responsibilities shifting from teachers to students. “taking responsibility” involves learners in taking ownership (partial or total) of many processes that have traditionally belonged to the teacher. these responsibilities should contain deciding what to learn (or what not to learn), formulating learning objectives, choosing learning pace, deciding when and where to learn, choosing self-study as the learning method, selecting learning materials, self-monitoring learning process and self-evaluating learning outcomes. 2.2 the new english curriculum criteria the new english curriculum criteria (experimental manuscript) points out that in the teaching process, teachers must carefully deal with the relation between delivering knowledge and bringing up ability, and focus on promoting students independence and automatics. teachers should guide their students to raise queries, investigate, search and learn through practice, which can make it a process full of initiative and individuality under the guide of teachers. besides, the criteria also points out the definite aim to bring up students. grade 6 of the standard requires the students “to go on enforcing the motivation to learn and have stronger awareness to learn 7 autonomously. grade 7 requires that the students should have definite and persistent motivation and awareness to learn autonomously. grade 8 requires that the students should contrive, organize and carry out different kinds of language practice activities by themselves, learn how to evaluate their learning effect and make an effective strategy of english learning. grade 9 requires that the students should carry out their studying tasks independently and autonomously, open up the methods to learn autonomously and enrich the resource of learning. 2.3 psychological and cognitive theories 2.3.1 humanistic psychology in rogers opinion the essential aim to educate is to bring up the “fully developed person”(cited in zhang dajun 2004). he put forward the principle of free learning, which makes the students the center. the so-called freedom of learning means when teachers plan for the learning activities, they only supply the range of the activities and let the students freely choose and determine their directions and explore and find the results, and the teachers just assist them indirectly so as to reduce the resistance and frustration. it is only the autonomous learning that can inspire the students sanity, promote the ability to learn, thicken the interest of learning, which can make students like learning knowledge better and become more hard-working for the sense of achievement they have got. 2.3.2 cognitive psychology in the speech titled “the relation between the gradually mature learning (2)most teachers are accustomed to the traditional ways of teacher-centered teaching and dont develop learners autonomy in their teaching process though they may think it will be good to do so. many students are more or less dependent on their teachers. they may manage their own learning in an insufficient way. (3)there are still some students who learn english in a passive way in most cases. they are used to following the teachers instructions, and are not able to learn effectively independently. so we can see at present most teachers and students are not well-prepared for learners autonomy although they have awareness of it. why? according to the feedback of the questionnaires, the reasons are related to the following problems. 3.6 problems 3.6.1 disadvantages of traditional teaching system teacher-centered approaches and spoon-fed methods have been prevalent for a long time in 12 chinas efl context. teachers have been looked on as authority, knowledge-givers and error correctors, while students have tended to limit their work to what was taught in class. classes have usually been driven by “teacher-talk” and depended heavily on textbooks. classroom instruction has been based on the conception that students must acquire the essentials of knowledge. there is little or no room for students initiative quest