Fostering Students‘Ability of Autonomous Learning in English Class

1、Fostering students ability of autonomous learning in English class Abstract： Autonomous learning has become a hot issue in over past twenty years. Autonomous learning is of great significance in the students lifelong development. But as a mater of fact, most of our English classroom teaching are sti

2、ll transmission teaching which emphasizes on teaching English language points rather than developing the students ability to learn. This traditional teaching model can no longer adapt to the development and requirement of quality education in new situations. Autonomous learning is not only the way o

3、f effective learning but also the goal of teaching. So more and more attentionis. laid on fostering autonomous learning ability in the new curriculum standard and practice. Autonomous learning can be regarded as the important factor of promoting Chinese foreign teaching reform and is irreplacable in

4、 present foreign teaching . Key Words： autonomous learning，cooperative learning ,English teaching and learning;I. Introduction In recent years, with the globalization of the economical culture development , language learning has become more and more important to the people in the world. However, mos

5、t Chinese students are accustomed to teacher-centered passive education. From primary school to college, bound to the teacher-centered, exam-oriented education, they are always encouraged to obey teachers instructions, but discouraged to argue with teachers about what is being taught, let alone to f

6、orm their own original ideas. The passive educational pattern has caused many problems and produced a lot of side effects. First, as students tend to follow the beaten track and dare not challenge what is conventional, they gradually form the passive way of thinking. To make things worse, as they ar

7、e so dependent on others, most of them lack the ability to solve practical problems. Worst of all, such practice puts out any sparks of inspiration in their minds and renders them to have no creativity at all. Admittedly, it will do great harm in their future.In China , there is a similar proverb, I

8、f you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. To meet the challenges of the information age and keep up with the development of society, learners at school should be equipped with an ability to take charge of their own learning, and furnish

9、ed with an ability to do things, individually and independently so that when they enter the society they can take active control of their own professional and personal development. Therefore, more and more teachers have realized that it is an urgent task in the field of education to foster the auton

10、omous learning ability.II.Definitions and necessities of fostering students ability of autonomous learning2.1.The definitions of autonomy There are various descriptions of the definition of autonomous learning. One of the earliest and most frequently cited definitions of autonomy is given by Holec (

11、1981：3) in the foundation document for the Council of Europe. It can be seen as the ability to take charge of ones own learning (Holec),a situation in which the learner is solely resposible for all decisions(Dickinson).But Benson&Vollerthought ,Teachers have a crucial role to play in launching learn

12、ers into autonomous learning and in lending them a regular helping hand to stay afloat. One of the definitions of autonomy in Collins and development Cobuild English The ability to make your own decisions about what to do influenced by someone else told what to do. Thus the learner can becomea produ

13、cer of his society by becoming part of and contributing to the society that is formed by users of the Internet. Sheerin(1997： 56) describes a general belief among educators (e.g. Nunan： 1997,Littlewood： 1981, Ur： 1988)that learning is more effective when learners are active in the learning process,

14、assuming responsibility for their learning and participating in the decisions.2.2 Necessities of fostering ability of autonomous learning A number of strands seem to be converging at the current time to promote the value of independent language learning. They can be summarised as follows：1) Current

15、language learning theories focus on the social aspect of learning and place teachers in a facilitating role;2) Learner-centered pedagogics see knowledge acquisition as a process (not just as an end in it self) and stress the importance of key learning skills and strategies;3) It is one solution to l

16、arge classes and reduced teacher contact time;4) The flexibility of independent learning methodologies coincides with a political agenda to promote lifelong learning and widen access to non-traditional learners;5) Technological advancements一the multimedia computer, high-speed net works and interacti

17、ve digital TV一provide a rich learning and teaching environment;6) Financial constraints have led to the management viewpoint that technological and self- access solutions are f in ancially advantageous.III. The methods of fostering ability of autonomous learning In a language classroom that focuses

18、on meaningful interaction, there is certainly room for dealing with autonomy. Ehrman (1998：102) states that it has become increasingly evident that the purpose of classroom learning is not only to convey content information. In this teaching a concern for deeper aims for reaching certain also educat

19、e learners language goals purpose of classroom learning is not only context, he speaks of bringing to language，for pursuing new life goals not just. As teachers teach the language, they can to live more satisfying lives and of society. Attention to autonomy can improve language teaching and learning

20、 ,but the classroom can, in turn, contribute in a very significant way to educating learners affectively. (王亚丽,2005)Fostering learner autonomy from the classroom can produce positive results in the development of both autonomy and language learning.3.1 The methods of cooperative learning in class Li

21、ttle wood defines cooperative learning as a group-oriented form of reactive autonomy. The definition of cooperative learning clearly indicates that it is centered on students working together and is based on group work. It promotes learner interdependence by encouraging students to learn from each o

22、ther, not just from the teacher. This section shall deal with the application of the cooperative learning into classroom-based teaching. Based on the researchers and educators suggestions and the practice, specific ways and activities will be illustrated in order to show how to develop learner auton

23、omy through cooperative learning. The advantages of cooperative learning over the learning in traditional classroom, we may list the following benefits of the cooperative learning：a. Academic achievement can increase.b. Students can enhance their social skillsc. There can be more individuation of in

24、struction.d. Student participation can increase.e. Anxiety can decrease.f. Motivation and positive atitude toward class can increase.g. Self-esteem and self-direction can increase.3.1.1 Preparing students for cooperative learning Since most of the students in China are accustomed to traditional clas

25、sroom with teacher responsible for most part of the teaching procedure, they would become anxious if they do not understand the rationale for cooperative learning, a new kind of classroom experience. Therefore, if a teacher wants the students to react positively to their first experiences in coopera

26、tive learning, he/she must explain clearly why they are doing this kind of things different from what they did in their past learning. With the knowledge that cooperative learning, the new learning method to them, has so many advantages and has been proven effective by many researchers in this field

27、, students confidence in cooperative learning will boost. Few people in the field of second/foreign language teaching will deny that cooperative learning provides the opportunity for students to maximize their own and each others learning .Helping students to see the benefit of cooperative learning

28、can serve as the mental preparation for accepting this new learning and teaching method positively.3.1.2 Group Organization Group work is the basic application of cooperative learning in the classroom teaching. Three factors should be considered when forming the groups. They are the size, personal c

29、haracteristics of the group members, and the time the group lasts. As for the size of the group, almost all the experienced teacher know that the smaller the group, the more each member talks and the less chance there is that someone will be left out. Also, smaller groups require fewer group managem

30、ent skills and can usually come to decisions faster. Through experts suggestions, I find that in classes of under 40 students, a group of 4 is very suitable, while in classes of over 40, a group of 6 students is advisable because students can either work in pairs, or two/ three sets of these pairs i

31、nteract as a foursome/six some When the groups are formed, each student in the group has his/her own fixed number from 1 to 4/6. In getting the students to present their group work, the teacher can call a number from one to four/ six, and the person with that number presents the work for the group.

32、In this way, the teacher can avoid the problem that some students with lower proficiency tend to keep quiet when they are doing the group work. When forming the groups, an other factor that should be considered is personal characteristics of the group members, including language proficiency, gender,

33、 and diligence of the members. Cohen(2000) points out that teachers must create groups that are equitable so that all students participate fully and use multiple-ability strategies if cooperative learning is to work. In order to make the groups he terogeneous,I used the combination of teachers selec

34、tion and students owns election. Based on their two results (score of English in the Entrance Examination and the score of the first English test they took right before College English Learning begins), I put the learners names into two proficiency clusters from high to low and then selected randoml

35、y from within eachband and made sure that groups would involve two girl learners with different proficiencies. Then, I asked the two girls to invite two more classmates to form theirown group, and their groups should include at least one boy. Hence, each group consists 4 /6 members of different prof

36、iciency and gender. Meanwhile, the students are, to some extent, taking charge of their own group organization, in this way, students would feel responsible for their future learning. After the formation of the group, the duration of the groups should be taken into consideration. Once the group is f

37、ormed, it should stay for a fairly long period of time, because keeping groups together for fairly long periods gives them a chance to become comfortable with one another, allows them to form a group identity and bond, and gives them the opportunity to learn how to overcome difficulties they meet. I

38、n my own teaching practice, I told the students to keep their respective group for a whole term. Even if some members wanted to change the groups during the term, I would not permit them. Rather, I tried to encourage those students to learn how to get along well, and to work hard to achieve their co

39、mmon goal, most important of all, to create a team spirit. With well-organized groups, the cooperative learning can be applied into classroom teaching effectively. The next section deals with the activities used to apply cooperative learning into classroom teaching3.1.3 Implementing cooperative lear

40、ning into classroom-based teaching The main feature of cooperative learning is the student-centered, and it s based on group work. Many researchers and educators have presented various activities suitable for group work and reported the effective less of those activities in the second/foreign langua

41、ge teaching (Long&Porter, 1985; Doughty&Pica, 1986; Shoemaker&shoemaker, 1991; Brown, 1991). These useful activities include： games, role-play, projects, survey, debate peer teaching, interview, brainstorming, information gap, and opinion exchange, etc. Based on the studies of many experts and the a

42、uthors own teaching practice, cooperative group activities mentioned above can be carried out through the following four phases during the teaching process：Phase1 .Preparation Different types of group activities have different characteristics. In the preparation phase, a teacher must select an appro

43、priate type of activity according to the content of the lesson he/she is going to teach. When the type of activity is selected, the teacher should explain to the students the characteristics and the significance of the task and teach students how to perform this activity if the task is new to the st

44、udents. Additionally, the teacher should establish a time frame so that the students know the amount of time to complete the task. Therefore, in this preparation phase, the teacher must make sure that introduction and lead-in to the task itself are adequate.Phase2 ,Monitoring In this phase, the stud

45、ents get into their group and carry out their task on their own in the fixed time, and the teacher may serve as a helper, guide, facilitator and resource-provider. The teacher should circulate among groups helping and guiding the students if its necessary, or just listening to students so that the t

46、eacher will know the groups progress and the individuals language production. Its an important phase where teacher can use the cooperative group activities to help students become interdependent.Phase3 .Presentation When the fixed time is up, the teacher brings all the groups back together as a whol

47、e class and asks some members of different groups to present their task in front of the class so as to avoid the problem that some students with lower proficiency tend to keep quiet when they are doing the group work, or the students can volunteer to do the task when most of the students are active

48、in doing the task. To make this phase more active and interesting, the teacher can give points to the group whose member/members has/have presented the task and tell the class that the points they earn will be counted in their final result of the term. This presentation phase provides students with

49、the chance to show their own opinions and to use the target language.Phase4 .E valuation When certain group members are presenting their task in front of the class, the teacher ob serves and evaluates their performance carefully, and then encourages the whole class to discuss and try to find the dif

50、ferences and similarities in their work in the last phase. As to the errors the students have made during their presentation, the teacher can write the correct one on the blackboard and give a brief explanation in the evaluating phase instead of pointing out directly right after the students finish

51、their presentation. In evaluating the group work with the whole class, the teacher should focus on giving some control over to the students so as to let them feel that theyre responsible for their group work. 3.2 The method of using multimedia and Internet The increasing involvement of IT in languag

52、e learning and development in technology has strongly supported the growth of self-access and independent learning (Sinclair, 1999).Many researchers focus on using high technologies to develop learner autonomy( Barson et al,1993).They point out that the technology such as email, Internet, Computer-A

53、ssisted Language Learning (CALL) and Project-Oriented Computer Assisted Language Learning (PrOCALL),ete. has positive effect to encourage students to become autonomous in their foreign or second language learning. As a matter of fact , if we treat the multimedia and Internet as only a equipment to u

54、se, we still teach just like a traditional way. The multimedia and Internet has strong audio-visual shock. They rise the interest of students, help improve the listening, speaking and memory ability. So we should develop the adavantage of the computers and Internet with scientific teaching software.

55、 We use them in the teaching so that we achieve the interactions of person-computers, person-person, learners- learning contents. These can give students a better space for autonomous learning. Therefore, the definition can be described as .It is the teaching pattern of students-centered, on the bas

56、is of multimedia and directed by the theory of Constructivism under the teachers help.Using situational, cooperative, conversational and other learning factors, teachers should organize, guide, help and stimulate them to develop the initiative ,enthusiasm and creativity. They can enhance students al

57、l-around ability of English use, especially speaking and listening. The teaching pattern of multimedia and Internet can be carried out as following steps：1. Classifying the teaching object. Students can be classified as different groups, according to the fundamental or medium levels, good or common

58、language mastery ,and so on.2 .Using teaching aids. In the school equipments includes Internet ,compus network, multimedia projector classrooms etc.3. Teaching methods. At the beginning term, for freshmen, we can open some English introduction classes. The introduction classes should include ：the fe

59、atures of English studying on the Internet; understanding the goal and demand of English Internet teaching and evaluation., helping students adjust their learning conceptions and strategies, making them become active; enabling students familiar with Internet and multimedia, developing interactions with person-computers, person-person, learners-le