（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）大学英语教师在培养学习者自主中的角色研究.pdf

华 中 科 技 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 v 摘 要 随着素质教育的提倡以及以人为本和终身教育理念的兴起学习者在学习过 程中的主体作用得到越来越多的重视学习者自主能力的培养也受到极大的关注 现代教育也是要以培养终身制学习所需的自主学习能力为最终目标教师在培养学 生自主性过程中起着举足轻重的作用教师角色的定位和发挥直接影响学生自主学 习能力及综合素质的培养和提高国内外学者在此方面有相关讨论认为大学英语 教师在自主学习环境模式下应重新定位自己的角色以便推进学生自主性学习的有 效开展但是他们没有从学习者的角度来探讨教师在培养学习者自主中的作用而 以往有研究显示在相同的学习环境中学习者的观点与专家教师的往往不一致 此外在主张以学生为中心的今天从学生视角进行的研究很有价值因此本研 究有必要从学生视角调查大学英语教师在培养学生自主学习能力中的作用并提出 了三个研究问题 1)学生是如何看待大学英语教师在培养学生自主能力中的角色2) 英语教师实际的行为是否与学生的期望一致3)不同层次的学生关于教师在培养学 生自主性中的作用的观念是否有差异本研究通过问卷调查的形式逐一寻找这些问 题答案 受试者为华中科技大学 3 个不同层次的 300 名非英语专业二年级本科生 即 高英语水平 l3 学生中等英语水平 l2 学生和低英语水平 l1 学生每个层次随意 选取 100 名受试者填写的问卷由四部分组成包括受试者信息以选择题形式出 现的学生信念和教师实际行为部分以及开放型问题部分该研究结果表明学生关 于大学英语教师在培养学习者自主中的作用上的观念和以往学者在这方面的讨论具 有一致性学生认为教师在培养他们的英语自主学习能力中担任重要的角色如讲 授英语学习策略通过各种方式监督和评估学生英语学习发展学生的积极情感因 素并克服消极因素营造适宜的英语学习环境等研究中还发现教师的某些实际 行为与学生的期望不一致如师生间缺少交流教师在学生制定学习计划时帮助不 够教师讲授和练习英语学习策略的机会不多教师监督和评估学生学习的工作不 足教师未能充分培养学生的积极情感因素等除此之外研究结果还表明 l2 和 l3 学生比起 l1 学生更认为自己能脱离教师的正常课堂教学自主学好英语同时发 现 l3 学生比 l2 学生更喜欢教师鼓励参与课堂各种语言交际活动 关键词学习者自主 英语自主学习能力 教师角色 学生视角 学生期望 华 中 科 技 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 iii abstract with great advocation of quality-oriented education, gradual rise in learner-centered language teaching and lifelong education, more stress has been put on learners central role in learning process and more attention has been given to developing learners autonomous learning ability. education also should be aimed at cultivating learner autonomy for the benefit of learning for life. teachers play an important role in fostering learner autonomy, which has a direct effect on developing autonomous learning ability as well as comprehensive quality among learners. numerous experts and teachers at home and abroad have discussed this point, believing that english teachers should redefine their role in order to better facilitate students english autonomous learning. however, there is no empirical study on teachers role in promoting learner autonomy from a learner perspective. many previous studies also show that there is always mismatch between learners perceptions and experts or teachers in terms of the same set of learning context. moreover, the shift to student-centeredness in language teaching guarantees that the study from the students angle is of great value. so it is necessary for this study to investigate students beliefs about college english teachers role in developing learner autonomy by putting forward three research questions: 1) what are students beliefs about teachers role in developing learner autonomy? 2) does teachers actual behavior match students expectations? 3) are there any differences between students of different levels in their beliefs about teachers role in developing learner autonomy? the answers were explored through the questionnaire. the subjects of this study are 300 non-english major sophomores in three different levels (namely, level 3 students with higher english proficiency; level 2 with intermediate english proficiency; level 1 with lower english proficiency) from huangzhong university of science and technology, with 100 subjects from each level. the questionnaire completed by the subjects consists of four parts: basic information about the subjects, students beliefs and teachers actual behavior sections in the form of closed-ended items, and open-ended questions section. the results of the study indicate that as for teachers role in developing learner autonomy, students perceptions are in conformity with those of experts and teachers. from students perspectives, in 华 中 科 技 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 iv developing learner autonomy, teachers are considered to have a major role in teaching students english learning strategies monitoring and evaluating students english learning process in various ways, developing students positive affection and overcoming negative counterpartand creating the appropriate english learning environment. it has also been found that some of teachers actual behavior doesnt match students expectationswhich can be expressed by a lack of communication between teachers and students, inadequate guidance from teachers in making english learning plans, deficient instruction from teachers about english learning strategies and scarce chances to practice them, insufficient work for teachers in monitoring and evaluating students learning process as well as unsatisfactory application of affective factors to students english learning by teachers. additionally, l2 and l3 students are found to be more likely to believe that they can autonomously learn english well without teachers instruction than l1 ones. l3 students more favor their english teachers to encourage them to take part in class communicative activities to practice english than l2 ones. key words: learner autonomy english autonomous learning ability teachers role students perspectives students expectations 独创性声明 本人声明所呈交的学位论文是我个人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研 究成果尽我所知除文中已经标明引用的内容外本论文不包含任何其他个人或 集体已经发表或撰写过的研究成果对本文的研究做出贡献的个人和集体均已在 文中以明确方式标明本人完全意识到本声明的法律结果由本人承担 学位论文作者签名 日期 年 月 日 学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解学校有关保留使用学位论文的规定即学校有权 保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和电子版允许论文被查阅和借阅 本人授权华中科技大学可以将本学位论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检 索可以采用影印缩印或扫描等复制手段保存和汇编本学位论文 保密 在_年解密后适用本授权书 不保密 请在以上方框内打 学位论文作者签名 指导教师签名 日期 年 月 日 日期 年 月 本论文属于 华 中 科 技 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 1 introduction in the last two decades, the concept of autonomy has become a buzz-wordto use little (1991)s expressionin the context of language learning. with great advocation of quality-oriented education and gradual rise in learner-centered language teaching and lifelong education, more and more attention has been given to the learners autonomous learning ability and fulfillment of their potential over the learning process. education should also be aimed at developing learner autonomy for the benefit of learning for life. just as the old chinese saying goes, give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man how to fish and he eats for a lifetime. in addition, according to the newly revised college english teaching requirements, it is clearly stated that “one of college english teaching objectives is to develop students autonomous learning ability, and that important symbols for successful teaching reform are the formation of students individualized learning methods and the development of students autonomous english learning ability” (ministry of education p. r. c. 2003: 12). being autonomous in learning is important because the most efficient learners tend to be the ones who have developed a degree of autonomy (little 1990). therefore, the present teaching tendency is expected to focus on how to motivate students towards autonomous learning. as henry holec first brought up the concept in 1981, autonomy refers to “the ability of the learner to take charge of his own learning (holec 1981: 3). this ability is not innate but to be developed and the degrees and levels of the learners learning autonomy may vary from person to person (dickinson 1992). it is recognized that developing learner autonomy is a complicated project, which necessitates good coordination of various factors in the course of teaching and learning, such as changing ideas about teachers role and learners role, redefining teachers role in autonomous learning context, taking into account learners individual differences in character, interests, needs, motivation, intelligence and use of learning strategies etc. among those, teachers as promoters of learner autonomy contribute a lot to developing learner autonomy in an attempt to eventually help learners improve their communicative competence and learn english efficiently. a lot of papers at home and abroad have attached much importance to this point (higgs 1988; nunan 1993; ho reid 1996; yang 1998; sig 1998; tan 2001; hua 2001; lei 2001; wang 2002; xiao 2002; li 2002; xu to be exact, there is no empirical study about teachers role in developing learner autonomy from the students own angle. besides, a lot of previous studies have demonstrated that there is always mismatch between learners opinions or perceptions and experts or teachers in terms of the same set of learning context (mcdonough 2002; nunan 1988; spratt 1999). meanwhile, the prevailing shift to learner-centeredness from teacher-centeredness in the classroom makes learners naturally become the main focus in the course of teaching. as it is the learners who ultimately benefit from development of their autonomous learning ability, the study reported here gives added weight to investigating teachers role in developing learner autonomy from a learner perspective. at the same time, the current study under discussion from a learner perspective, is supposed to supplement the viewpoints gained from the previous research and discussion about teachers role in autonomous learning context. obviously, the study here is of vital importance and practical value today, though a few limitations and deficiencies cannot be avoided due to limited time and energy. thus, this study aims to report teachers role in developing learner autonomy from a learner perspective, which intends to gain a general picture of students perceptions and expectations about the role acted by college english teachers in developing learner autonomy, to find out the weaknesses and problems in fostering learner autonomy on the part of the teacher, to make teachers aware of the necessity and importance to adapt themselves to new roles for the sake of promoting learner autonomy, and to enable the teachers to reflect on their actual behavior in teaching practice to enhance learner autonomy. in order to find out an overall picture about teachers role perceived by students, the study will come to the conclusion by analyzing data obtained from carefully designed questionnaire sheets which have been answered by 300 non-english major sophomores in three different levels (namely, level 3 students with higher english proficiency; level 2 with intermediate english proficiency; level 1 with lower english proficiency) from huangzhong university of science and technology (hust). the study will begin with quantitative analysis of students beliefs about teachers role in developing learner autonomy. then, teachers actual behavior in class will be found in terms of quantitative data analysis. next, it can be found that there is a comparison between teachers actual behavior and students expectations, which can be applied to prove whether teachers actual performance matches students expectations. since students involved in this study are chosen from the three different levels, there is much need for quantitative data analysis to clarify whether there are some differences between students of different levels in their 华 中 科 技 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 3 beliefs about teachers role in fostering learner autonomy in an attempt to find out diversity of teachers role perceived by the three groups of students. it therefore follows that the study is committed to exploring the three following specific research questions: 1) what are students beliefs about teachers role in developing learner autonomy? 2) does teachers actual behavior match students expectations? 3) are there any differences between students of different levels in their beliefs about teachers role in developing learner autonomy? the whole thesis is presented in accordance with the general framework which is centered around the topics of why the study is undertaken, what the study is about and how the study is carried out in order to gain a rough picture of students beliefs about teachers role in promoting learner autonomy. then the main parts concerning the thesis are introduced with a brief summary as follows: part 1 provides a detailed literature review about this study. first of all, it starts with theories such as constructive psychology, humanistic psychology and cognitive psychology, which provide theoretical basis for the development of learner autonomy. then it describes a number of previous studies related to learner autonomy, which aims to make clear of the concept mentioned in this study. the following section goes further to traditional teachers role in chinese context. next comes the literature review about teachers role in autonomous learning environment conducted by a few experts or teachers in the relevant field. this part also has laid solid theoretical foundation for the design of the questionnaire needed in the thesis. part 2 focuses on the methodological issues adopted by the current study. it involves the subjects, instruments, the process of implementing the study and the procedure of data analysis. part 3 introduces the results of the study. quantitative analysis deals with each item in students beliefs section and teachers behavior section while qualitative analysis is employed to report the results about open-ended questions. part 4 is discussion part, which deals with the results in part 3. it gives corresponding answers and explanations to the three research questions put forward in the initial stage of this thesis. part 5 rounds up the study by summarizing the main findings and offering some teaching implications in order to cater for students learning needs and better suit the current teaching trend. moreover, limitations and expectations for further research are provided in the concluding part as well. 华 中 科 技 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 4 1 literature review 1.1 research in psychology great changes have taken place in the field of language learning over the last twenty years. the main change has been a shift of focus onto the language learner. research in fields such as constructive psychology, humanistic psychology and cognitive psychology has led us to a greater interest in learner autonomy. thus, before making direct introduction to learner autonomy, we will describe some aspects relevant to our discussion of the development of learner autonomy. psychology started to focus more on the individual, which was partly as a reaction against the 1950s and 1960s behaviorism that regarded learning as synonymous with a change in behavior. many psychologists felt that the individual should be given a central place in his or her own development. views in constructive psychology, humanistic psychology and cognitive psychology shed much light on the role of the individual in the personal development. 1.1.1 constructive psychology constructivism has had a great influence in stressing the individuals active involvement in his or her own development. it sees knowledge as a reorganization and restructuring of experience, which cannot be taught, because it is unique for every individual (candy 1989). learners thus actively construct their own target language. it opposes positivist views of the world that see knowledge as an accurate reflection of objective reality. knowledge, in positivist terms, can be discovered and also taught. george kelly (1955: 35) stressed “it is not the events and texts themselves that are ingrained in his memory but the object of his attentions, how he has apprehended the matter and what he has done with it.” in his theory of personal constructs, kelly tried to discover the dimensions that individuals use themselves (and not psychologists for them) to interpret or to construct themselves and their social worlds (atkinson et al. 1993: 548), believing that individuals hypothesize about and formulate their own theories about the world. in learning this active and subjective process of construction of new knowledge is central to a persons development. it entails a shift to learning activities that are more meaningful to the learner, i.e. related to his or her own personal experience and needs. awareness of the learning process is a prerequisite for successful learning. also, if materials and classrooms are considered to be entities separate from personal experience 华 中 科 技 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 5 and the immediate application of what is learned, they will not have an influence on overall personal constructs. individuals must be able to construct their own private learning spaces according to their needs and fill them with personally meaningful learning material. 1.1.2 humanistic psychology in psychology, humanism as “the study of personality focusing on the individuals subjective experience his or her personal view of the world” (atkinson et al. 1993: 544) becomes influential. it gives a central place to the unique individual. experiences and insights are more important than behavior. according to the special courseware about humanistic psychology designed by penny et al. (1996), humanistic psychology is characterized by the emphasis on individual choice and responsibility, which satisfies most peoples idea of what human being means because it values personal ideals and self-fulfillment, and also provides researchers with a flexible framework for observing human behavior because it considers a person in the context of his environment and in conjunction with his personal perceptions and feelings (penny et al. 1996). also, they have presented five basic principles of humanistic education. 1) students learning should be self-directed. students should be able to choose what they want to learn. humanistic teachers believe that students will be motivated to learn a subject if its something they need and want to know. 2) schools should produce students who want to know and know how to learn. the goal of education should be to foster students desire to learn and teach them how to learn. students should be self-motivated in their studies and desire to learn on their own. 3) the only form of meaningful evaluation is self-evaluation. humanistic educators believe that grades are irrelevant and that only self-evaluation is meaningful. grading encourages students to work for a grade and not for personal satisfact