Developing Learner Autonomy to Promote Senior Students’ Reading Ability運用自主學習理論促進中學生英語閱讀能力的培養(yǎng)（碩士論文）

1、運用自主學習理論促進中學生英語閱讀能力的培養(yǎng)developing learner autonomy to promote senior students reading abilityabstract: learner autonomy has been a catchword in the world of foreign language teaching and learning in the recent twenty years, especially in western context. this indicates that concern with teaching and

2、learning has shifted from the teachers teaching to the students learning. in china, education ministry has set the main goal of english teaching and learning as “developing the students autonomous english learning” in the new english course standard for the basic education stage. thus the english te

3、achers responsibility should concentrate on cultivating students ability of learning autonomy, and helping students become conscious of how to learn effectively. with teachers help, students can form appropriate learning habits, grasp adequate learning abilities by themselves and lay solid base for

4、their lifelong learning. however, the status quo of teaching and learning in china is “time-consuming with low effectiveness producing”, which results from lack of competent teachers, and relevant efficient teaching context. many teachers teach as what was taught. new ideas arent brought forth when

5、teachers try their best to teach students under a non-productive teaching conception and in their own self-centered style. not only students and their parents but also the teachers themselves overemphasize the results of examinations but neglect actual development in english ability on the part of s

6、tudents. in middle school, english teaching still focus on teachers teaching rather than students learning. it ignores the students individual differences and thus produces only passive learners, and ineffective teaching and learning. to better this situation, the best way available is to focus on s

7、tudents learning since the students themselves can in any case carry out all learning. this means that students should be the major concern in classroom teaching and learning and the focus of english teaching should shift from the teachers to themselves. autonomy refers to the ability to take charge

8、 of ones own learning. littlewood (1999) comments, “if we define autonomy in educational term as involving students capacity to use their learning independently of teachers, then autonomy would appear to be an incontrovertible goal for learners everywhere, since it is obvious that no students will h

9、ave their teachers to accompany them through life”. so language learning is a lifelong endeavor. therefore our students autonomy should be seen as an essential goal of english teaching. cognitive psychology deals with the study of the nature and learning of systems of knowledge, particularly those p

10、rocesses involved in thought, perception, comprehension, memory, and learning. the constructivists view involves two principles: (1) the learner, not passively receives from the environment, but actively constructs knowledge; (2) coming to know is a process of adaptation based on and constantly modi

11、fied by a learners experience of the world. according to the above theories, we have much to gain from the understanding of learning principles. as english teachers, we should promote learner autonomy, which means transferring responsibility for aspects of the language learning process (such as sett

12、ing goals, selecting learning strategies, and evaluating process) from the teacher to the learner. unfortunately, insightful as these considerations on learning are, few words are mentioned with regard to the ways to develop students listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, which are prescri

13、bed specially in the new english course standard. nor do they mention any method with which to develop these skills of students in class and after class, which is what broad english teachers and students need badly in reality. this study investigates reading situations for senior middle school stude

14、nts in an autonomous learning context in order to use autonomous theories to promote students reading ability. this paper was done mainly in quantitative approach to test the relationship between the academic achievement and autonomous reading. meanwhile a qualitative approach was also used, i.e., t

15、hrough literature review and questionnaire to discuss and describe the research situation of learners autonomous reading, discuss the significance of autonomous reading and the way of promoting learner autonomy in middle school english learning. the subjects included 2 classes of senior one of the n

16、o.1 middle school in fugu county, shaanxi province. the total number of the students is 112. 56 students (30 boys, 26 girls) in class6 were the experimental group (eg); 56 students (30 boys, 26 girls) in class7 were the control group. the students are averaged 17 years old. they had completed three

17、years of english learning in junior middle school. their english levels varied a lot. some of the students were very good at english, but some were very poor in english. the instruments used in this study involved a pre-test and a post-test on reading. after 4-month training of autonomous learning,

18、the students achievements have been improved greatly. finally, a list of educational implications is introduced to help students improve their reading abilities in the foreign language classroom context. these implications are an integration of the findings of the literature review and of the result

19、s of the present study. key words: learner autonomy autonomous english reading classroom teaching middle school english study 摘要 近二十年來，自主學習一直是外語教學界的熱門話題，在西方教育界教學的中心已經(jīng)由關(guān)注教師的“教”轉(zhuǎn)移到了學生的“學”。中國教育部在新頒布的基礎(chǔ)教育階段新英語課程標準中把“培養(yǎng)中學生自主學習英語的能力”作為英語教學的主要目標，因此教師更多的責任就是培養(yǎng)學生的學習自主性，教會他們?nèi)绾芜M行有效學習，并逐步養(yǎng)成良好的學習習慣，掌握有效的學習策略，形成獨

20、立學習的能力，為終身學習奠定良好的基礎(chǔ)?？墒?，“費時低效”被視為是我國外語教學的真實寫照。造成這一結(jié)果的原因有很多，但“理論研究嚴重滯后是我國整體外語水平難以提高的重要原因之一”(束定芳，2004:2)，我國基礎(chǔ)外語教學在很大程度上仍停留在教師憑自己的經(jīng)驗來實施教學需求的層次上，缺少建立在實證科學研究基礎(chǔ)上的外語教學理論。學生、家長和教師都把重點放在終結(jié)性評價上，忽視了對學生的形成性評價。在中學大多數(shù)教師仍把重點放在教師的“教”上，而不是學生的“學”上，這種單調(diào)的教學風格滿足不了學生個體不同的認知，導(dǎo)致了學生不能主動地進行學習，教學效果差，學習效率低。有鑒于此，西方研究者提出教師應(yīng)“以學習者為

21、中心”，把培養(yǎng)學習者的學習責任心作為教育的最終目標，讓他們學會學習，對自自己的學習負責。本文作者介紹了自主學習發(fā)展的歷程，回顧了自主學習的研究基礎(chǔ)，闡釋了自主發(fā)展的核心含義，探討了培養(yǎng)中學生英語學習自主能力的必要性，自主學習屬于教育哲學的范疇，其主要的理論基礎(chǔ)是認知心理學和建構(gòu)主義學習理論。在自主學習理論的指導(dǎo)下，許多教師和學者達成了這樣的共識：學校教育的目標就是培養(yǎng)學生獨立自主的學習能力，即不僅使學生學到知識，更重要的是使他們學會如何學習。本篇論文旨在運用自主學習理論來促進高中學生英語閱讀能力的培養(yǎng)。閱讀教學一直是英語教學的一個重要部分，閱讀過程其實就是學生積累語言知識的過程，是順利進行語言

22、交際的基礎(chǔ)，因而培養(yǎng)學習者的閱讀自主能力是提高學習者習得效度的一個重要因素。本次研究采用的是定性和定量相結(jié)合的方法，實驗前，本人利用調(diào)查問卷對陜西省府谷中學高一兩個班112 名學生做了自主閱讀情況調(diào)查，這兩班具有代表性，因為府谷中學為省重點中學，根據(jù)學生的中考成績，他們的水平相當，男女生比例相近，年齡相仿，調(diào)查結(jié)果顯示，學生的自主學習能力和閱讀情況都比較差。與此同時，作者對這兩個班都進行了實驗前測，結(jié)果證明他們的平均分和標準差沒有顯著性區(qū)別。為了盡快提高學生的英語閱讀能力，作者對高一（6）班實行自主性閱讀的教學方法；對于高一（7）班，仍使用傳統(tǒng)的教學方法，四個月后，實驗后測的結(jié)果顯示了兩個班的

23、平均分和標準差有顯著性區(qū)別，實驗班的平均分和標準差高于對照班。這個結(jié)果說明培養(yǎng)學生自主性閱讀能力對于提高英語教學的效率和培養(yǎng)學生英語基本能力來說，是行之有效的。但是由于實驗時間短，這次實驗也有不足之處，希望在以后的研究中能有所改進。關(guān)鍵詞：自主性學習自主性英語閱讀課堂教學中學英語學習contentschapter 1 introduction1 1.1 background of the research.1 1.2 inefficiency of english reading.2 1.3 major concepts.3 1.3.1 concept of autonomous learni

24、ng.3 1.3.2 concept of reading ability.4 1.4 study plan.4 chapter 2 literature review.6 2.1 learning theories and language teaching.6 2.1.1 cognitivism6 2.1.2 constructivism7 2.1.3 autonomous learning7 2.2 relevant studies of reading.9 2.2.1 the bottom-up model9 2.2.2 the top-down model10 2.2.3 the i

25、nteractive model.11 2.3 autonomous reading12 chapter 3 research design and data collection.14 3.1 research questions.14 3.2 subjects14 3.3 instruments.14 3.4 procedure.143.5 the questionnaire.15 3.6 the experimental study.16 3.6.1 pre-test.16 3.6.2 design of cultivating senior students autonomous re

26、ading ability.16 3.6.3 promoting the students motivation for english reading.26 3.6.4 training students autonomous reading strategies27 3.6.5 post-test.28 chapter 4 results and discussion.30 4.1 results.30 4.2 discussion31 chapter 5 conclusion and recommendations.34 5.1 conclusion34 5.2 recommendati

27、ons35 5.3 limitations36 bibliography.37 appendix a.41 appendix b.43 chapter 1 introduction 1.1 background of the research for a long time, the status quo of english teaching in china has always been centered on the teachers teaching, not the students learning because of many reasons. the most signif

28、icant reason is that the lack of competent teachers and relevant efficient teaching context. many teachers teach as what was taught. new ideas arent brought forth when teachers try their best to teach students under a non-productive teaching conception and in their own self-centered style. not only

29、students and their parents but also the teachers themselves overemphasize the results of examinations but neglect actual development in english ability on the part of students. in middle school, this phenomenon is particularly serious. so the pattern is teacher-centered, which ignores students indiv

30、idual differences and thus produces only passive learners, and ineffective teaching and learning. by studies, modern linguists discover: the process of language learning is actually a complex process. so in order to make english learning efficient, learners must learn actively and autonomously. sinc

31、e the beginning of 1980s, autonomous learning has been a fascinating topic to researchers from western linguistic fields. by 1981 holec (1981:3) had defined autonomy as “the ability to take charge of ones own learning”. he developed this definition further in 1985 by talking about autonomy as a conc

32、eptual tool. dickinson (1987:11) accepts the definition of autonomy as a “situation in which the learner is totally responsible for all of the decisions concerned with his or her learning and the implementation of those decisions.” later on, there are varieties of opinions about autonomous learning,

33、 but the concern is the same. that is, the learner should be responsible for his or her own learning. other theories such as cognitivism, which deals with the study of nature and learning of systems of knowledge, asks students to think rather than simply repeat; and constructivism, which can also be

34、 applied to learning theory to how people learn. constructivists believe that knowledge is subjective. according to above theories, either for autonomous learning theory or for cognitivism and constructivism, their concern is that autonomous learning can produce efficient learning. china, education

35、ministry has set the main goal of english teaching and learning as “developing the students autonomous english learning” in the new english course standard for the basic education stage. thus the teachers responsibility should concentrate on cultivating the students learning autonomy, and helping th

36、e students become conscious of how to learn effectively. english reading teaching always takes an important place in english education as a whole because reading is an essential part of a persons ability of using english. a process of reading is in fact the process the student accumulates knowledge

37、of the english language and using english. by reading students can also communicate with others efficiently. so cultivating the students learning necessary skills and techniques to reading ability in an autonomous learning context should be a valuable attempt to promote. english reading teaching aim

38、s to build the students ability of english reading to engage in purposeful reading, to adopt a range of reading styles necessary for interacting successfully with authentic texts, and to develop critical awareness. this suggests developing the english learners awareness of the structure of written t

39、exts, and knowledge about the world. it also implies developing his or her confidence in using these to create meaning from a text. both awareness and confidence involve preparation and practice in the supportive environment of classroom and persuasion to carry on english reading outside the classro

40、om. 1.2 inefficiency of english reading as we all know, western china of the country are backward and undeveloped, where the quality of teaching is lower than that of eastern developed regions, especially the quality of english teaching. although both teachers and students devote much time and energ

41、y to english teaching and learning, their efforts in learning english are always so poorly rewarded. on one hand, the reason is that reading teaching is greatly affected by the method of grammar translation, which relies heavily on teaching grammar and practicing translation as its main teaching and

42、 learning activities, but neglects the training of executive learning strategy. moreover, this method gives little or no consideration to what students might do to promote their own learning. on the other hand, strategy instruction has been excluded from classroom teaching, including in english read

43、ing. many teachers dont tend to include learning strategy instruction as part of their classroom curriculum (durkin, 1978; pressley and woloshyn 1995). the reason for the neglect of strategy instruction is not entirely clear. perhaps teachers are not aware of the importance of strategy instruction o

44、r focus on outcomes of learning instead of instruction to their students. some teachers may feel that learning strategy is best acquired indirectly by engaging in challenging academic tasks, and that explicit instruction or about strategy use is not effective. whatever the reasons, teachers seem to

45、be missing an important opportunity to enhance students strategic-learning capabilities and academic achievement. in addition, the students are passive in reading and learning, and all they will do is to listen to the teacher and respond to the teachers questions; they have low motivation in english

46、 learning; they are largely confined to reading english textbooks and have no more time to read other materials mainly due to their much homework; they are lacking in sufficient vocabulary to understand what they read. as a result, the students reading process seems to be inefficient. in order to pr

47、omote students reading ability, the author used learner autonomy theory in english teaching. in this situation, the author of this paper intends to conduct a databased investigation before the experiment to learn about the students autonomous english reading situation. then a pre-test will be carrie

48、d out before the experiment and a post-test will be carried out after 4 months. it is expected that something unique can be found in english learning context in china, and then a list of educational implications will be provided to shed some new light on english reading teaching and research. 1.3 ma

49、jor concepts 1.3.1 concept of autonomous learning it is difficult to define like autonomy and independent learning because different writers use different terms in different areas of studies. holec views autonomy as “the ability to take charge of ones own learning in the process of learning” (1981:3

50、). that is to “make decisions on issues related to his or her learning”. these decision-making activities include determining learning goal, choosing learning materials and pace, selecting learning methods and skills, monitoring learning process (such as pace, time, place and so on), and evaluating

51、learning outcomes. littlewood defines autonomy in educational terms as “involving students capacity to use their learning independent of teachers” (1999:73). it is obvious that no students will have their teachers to accompany them throughout life; autonomy is an incontrovertible goal for learners e

52、verywhere. ryan makes a similar point, “autonomy is a process of self-determination or self-regulation”. to put it briefly, the concept of autonomous learning has associations with independence, self-fulfillment, freedom from external constraints and authorizing ones own world without being subject

53、to the will of others. 1.3.2 concept of reading ability a standard practice in the design of current reading tasks is a three-phase procedure involving pre-, while-, and post-reading stages (williams 1984). this is intended to ensure that reading is taught in the sense of helping readers develop inc

54、reasing ability to tackle texts. in contrast, a traditional reading pattern would test the reader through a procedure with or without an introduction, possibly with some pre-teaching of vocabulary, and a set of comprehension questions. under the new reading pattern, good readers read fast and accura

55、tely, because they read in groups of words rather than plodding through a text word by word. they identify phrases and develop the skills of chunking stretches of the text, which will enable them to approach texts appropriately by matching the purpose with the speed of reading. 1.4 study plan in chapter 1 the author gives the background to learner autonomy in english teaching