Autonomous Learning in Middle School English Teaching.doc

毕业论文（设计）Autonomous Learning in Middle School English Teaching1. Introduction12. The definition and importance of autonomous learning32.1 The definition of autonomous learning32.2 The importance of autonomous learning43. The relationship between the teacher and students53.1Traditional relationship between the teacher and students53.2 New relationship between the teacher and students73.2.1 Roles of teachers83.2.2Roles of students104. Attitude, motivation and learning strategy114.1Attitude114.2 Motivation124.2.1Relationship between attitude and motivation134.2.2Boost motivation and attitude in autonomous learning134.3 Learning strategy134.3.1Cognitive strategy144.3.2 Metacognitive strategy144.3.3Impact of learning strategy on autonomous learning155. Classroom activities and available resources155.1 Classroom activities165.1.1 Principles in designing activities165.1.2Suggestions for classroom activities175.2Available resources176. Conclusion19References201. Introduction As the English language learning becomes more and more important, the traditional education system is facing a big challenge. In the traditional classroom, teachers pass all the knowledge on to students from beginning to end. They ignore to help students develop their potential learning ability and foster their autonomy in English teaching. So, its time for teachers to move the center of classroom teaching from the teacher to the students.The New English Curriculum Standard advocates the new educational belief of humanism and students of life-long development. “The New English Criterion is devoted to transferring the way of the students study as well as the teachers teaching” (Fu Chudao 2001). Thats to say, teachers should take the responsibility to make every endeavor to change their roles in traditional classroom. At the same time, students abilities to take charge of their own learning has gradually recognized as an important goal in middle school English teaching.In the light of the development of English education, autonomous learning is vital to Chinese students who are studying in the new century. By cultivating their autonomy, students can show their interests, develop study skills and enhance their creativity. Therefore autonomous learning is an effective way to cultivate students learning ability in middle school. Traditional education system pays attention to students spoon-feeding, which is easy to produce “dumb English”. In other words, they can get high scores and remember all the knowledge they gained but cant put them into practice. So, under the new circumstances, it is important for teachers and students to change the old ways and to help students to make a habit of autonomous learning in middle school. Therefore, classroom teaching should become a process during which students are guided by the teachers in constructing knowledge, developing skills, being active in thinking, and demonstrating personal characters.Indeed, in order to foster students autonomy, teachers should know the characters of autonomous learning. First, autonomy is an approach to study English but not the end. Second, students should have the ability to master the knowledge. Third, teachers should aim at developing students awareness of autonomous learning and confidence in English language learning. “It is unreasonable to expect teachers to foster the growth of autonomy in their learners if they themselves do not know what it is to be an autonomous learner” (Little 2000).This paper is expected to provide information about autonomous learning in middle school English teaching.2. The definition and importance of autonomous learningAutonomous learning is not a new idea in English education. “The concept of autonomous learning stemmed from debates about the development of life-long learning skills and the development of independent thinkers both of which originated in the 1960s” (David CardnerLindsay Miller 1996: 6). In the recent years, the concept of autonomous learning has occurred and become a popular topic in Chinese English teaching. 2.1 The definition of autonomous learningThere are some definitions of autonomous learning: First, in 1981, Holec defined autonomy as “the ability to take charge of ones own learning” (1981). Second, the fundamental idea in autonomy is that of authoring ones own world without being subject to the will of others. Third, Dickinson believes that “Autonomy is a situation in which the learner is totally responsible for his or her learning and the implementation of those decisions” (1987). Fourth, Bound describes the main character of autonomy as “an approach to learning is that students take some significant responsibility for their own learning over and above responding to instruction” (1988). Fifth, autonomous learning is a capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision making and independent action. Sixth, an autonomous person was also considered as one who has an independent capacity to make and carry out the choices which govern his or her actions. So this capacity should depend on two key characters: one is ability, and the other is willingness. Ability depends on possessing both knowledge about the alternatives from which choices should be made and the essential skills for implementing choices which are most appropriate. Willingness depends on having the motivation and confidence to take responsibility for the choices. Seventh, autonomy is the ability, which learners demonstrate the ability to use a set of tactics for taking control of their learning. So far, there are many definitions on autonomy. The above list is by no means complete, either. The definitions given above all show that learners should become independent thinkers and should own the ability to take charge of their own study. “Therefore individual must be able to provide their own learning needs if they are to acquire the knowledge and skill they want” (Crabbe 1993).2.2 The importance of autonomous learningWith the development of economy, the English as a tool to communicate between people of different cultures is becoming more and more important. But in class, the English study environment offers limited opportunities for students to be exposed to English. The time for study in school cant guarantee that students can acquire the English language and use it. In the traditional teaching context, the teacher is the unquestionable authority. Their responsibilities are to pass knowledge on to students. Students are just containers which receive the knowledge passively. Both teachers and students are used to the traditional teacher-centered classroom instruction. Now, under the New English Curriculum Criterion, “With the teaching of language being more and more communication-oriented, the traditional classroom teaching will be shifted from the teacher-dominant to the learner-centered mode” (Yi Xiubo 2003: 302). This change means that students ought to be active and to realize how important autonomy is in their study. It is significant to help learners become aware of the value of independent learning, so they will make the habit of learning continuously.The most important thing behind autonomous learning in middle school is that English education should develop learners ability for independent thinking and for taking charge of their own learning. Thats to say, learners will take great responsibility for their own learning. Autonomy has to be enhanced to meet the need of the new teaching mode. When learners are accustomed to controlling and managing their own learning, teachers should change their roles and retreat from the stage with the learners having achieved great autonomy. So how to change their beliefs in autonomous learning becomes significant. Therefore, Chinese education attaches much importance to autonomous learning and it is growing in popularity. It is also widely accepted that autonomous learning should be highly valued and fostered among the students. Concerning English teaching in middle school, promoting students autonomy is very meaningful.3. The relationship between the teacher and students3.1Traditional relationship between the teacher and studentsAccording to the research, in the old teaching style, the exploration and promotion of students autonomy in class is far from satisfaction. Just a few teachers concentrate on learning strategies and the development of students autonomy. Traditionally, English learning is almost exclusively teacher-centered. Teachers are the purveyors of knowledge and they only focus on book knowledge and marks. In order to learn the language effectively, it is the teachers task to make sure what is to be learned clearly to the students before it could be fully understood. The students are considered as passive containers and only can receive what the teacher has taught and can not learn what the teacher hasnt taught. Students seem to have nothing to do with thoughts of learning language. Teacher-centeredteachingStrongTraditional teaching Link The relationship between traditional teaching and teacher-centered teachingIn this figure, the focus is on traditional teaching with strong reference to the teachers private-domain teaching. For many people, this is the conventional pattern of a classroom. The teacher keeps control of the subject matter, makes decisions about what work is needed and what the students do. In this classroom, the teacher probably dose most the talking and is by far the most active person. Take a common phenomenon for example, when a teacher asks the whole classroom a question, he or she only finds that few students are willing to respond. Most students keep silent and try avoiding the eye contact with the teacher. It may be true that most students cant find out the answer, even though they know the answer, they are reluctant to reply or give feedback. This is a serious but universal problem caused by the traditional middle school teaching.In view of these, all the teaching staff should try to give up the unfitted traditional ways to the best of their abilities, offer an autonomous language environment to students and give them more chances to control and run themselves. To be honest, traditional teaching is an inveterate methodology, so its a long way to eliminate the old educational system and give up the old teaching mold. However, teachers roles and students roles in the classroom have been changing when they have adopted learner-centered methodology. The teaching staff should be conscious of cultivating students autonomy in middle school English teaching, only in this way, can students get closer to the autonomous learning, the ultimate goal of education. 3.2 New relationship between the teacher and students The traditional education system makes it a rather challenging task to promote learner autonomy in language learning. Education authority hold that promoting autonomous learning in class is an idea and long term pedagogic goal, and they also make some advice to promote learner autonomy in the current pedagogic context, for example, eliminating the unified requirements for language skills in the syllabuses; meeting the students needs for the course; reforming on the evaluation system; fostering teachers autonomy. The New English Curriculum Standard advocates explicitly the new educational belief of humanism and students of life-long development. Autonomous learning is considered as a new pedagogy, which demands that traditional classroom teaching should be replaced by the learner-centered one. Learner autonomy means that learners must take responsibility for their own learning, developing autonomy and skills in learning how to learn. It also means that teachers transfer the control to the students. Too much control will prevent students initiative, so actually the control in the classroom should be flexible.Students are distinct and unique, who should be taken into account when they engage in learning. In autonomous study, learners and teachers are expected to play in carrying out learning tasks. It should be possible to allow learners to share their beliefs and thoughts about study, to permit them to decide what to do and how to do in learning, and to respect them to give suggestions to teaching methods. At the same time, individuals have to offer their own learning needs, if they want to become autonomous learners. The development of teaching should become a cooperative effect between teachers and learners, because learners will be involved in decision on content selection, methodology and evaluation.In order to encourage students to move from teacher-centered to learner-centered learning, teachers have to give up their beliefs as the centers in language classrooms by allowing students to experience responsibility for their learning. It will enhance students motivation to continue autonomous language learning and to move towards great autonomy in their learning. StrongLearner-centered learningAutonomous learningLink The relationship between autonomous learning and learner-centered learningIn this figure, the focus is on autonomous learning with strong reference to the students private-domain learning. In this pattern, students will become more aware of how they are learning, reflect on it, and explore useful approaches to help them more effectively.3.2.1 Roles of teachersSince learner autonomy is gaining more and more concern in English teaching, the teachers, as the major part to develop students autonomy, should adjust their roles, which are distinct from the old ones who carry out the teaching task in the traditional teaching context. So it becomes very important that teachers should be provided with opportunities to develop themselves so as to the change of the roles.Teachers roles have to change, which doesnt mean that teachers are useless in autonomous learning. On the contrary, they are an indispensable part to learner autonomy. In the modern teaching field, although teachers roles have changed, they still play a vitally important role in classroom teaching. Teachers roles can be described as manager (organizer), resource-provider, instructor (helpers), and evaluator. The view is illustrated in the following:1) The teacher as a managerTeachers are playing as managers who organize activities to give more chances to students to practice English, create stimulating environment and structure the classroom time, and challenge students to achieve their potential.2) The teacher as a resource-providerTeachers should provide a great deal of useful information for students in order to raise their awareness of learning styles and strategies, aiming at developing their autonomy.3) The teacher as an instructorTeachers become instructors who teach English learning strategies and methods, help students make English learning plans, and teach effective ways of learning English autonomously. By the guidance of teachers, students gradually study on the ways of their own.4) The teacher as an evaluatorTeachers are evaluators of learners efforts and contributions. Teachers have to provide feedback of their performance for students as well as some advice. More specific roles of teachers can be summarized: getting to know students situation and demand in learning English; encouraging communication with each other; offering various channels to monitor students learning process; focusing on students positive affective factors in English learning. TeacherManagerResource-providerInstructorEvaluatorThe roles of teachers in autonomous learningToday, teachers play a more important role in facilitating the learning process, which demands that teacher should be more qualified and also have autonomy consciousness when they are teaching3.2.2Roles of studentsThe New English Curriculum Criterion requires teachers to change their roles, and there is no exception to students. Giving teachers different roles requires students to adopt different roles. Students have now become essential members in the classroom, so teachers should take students background into account, providing a meaningful and stimulating learning environment. “Learners need to become more aware of their central role in the decision-making process. They have to learn to take an increasing amount of responsibility for their learning. They have to learn about the importance of reflection on their learning and how it can help them to redefine their goals to make them constantly relevant to their need and wants” (David CardnerLindsay Miller 2002: 13). That is, it requires students to be adaptable, creative, inventive and independent.1) Students should find their own waysStudents should be helped to find out what ways of learning English are suitable for them. For example, they should discover the best ways to remember vocabulary, the interesting ways to train language, and the effective ways to learn from others.2) Students should try to be creativeStudents should give up the boring ways and experiment with new ways of learning and using language. When students are creative, they are willing to use their knowledge of a language to discover meanings and express their ideas.3) Students should learn to collect and organize informationTeachers have to guide students to collect and organize what they have learned, through making notes and chart, grouping items and displaying them for reference.4) Students should develop the ability to cooperate with othersCooperation is an essential ability for students to learn. In cooperation with teachers and other students, it will be more successful in autonomou