2024年5月13日发(作者：电脑没静音但是没声音)

ability and willingness to act independently and decisively. In this view, attitudes translate into practice, and motivation is a

necessary precursor of autonomy.

Finally, with the development of researches on learner autonomy, the term autonomy has come to be used in at least five

ways:

1) For situations in which learners study entirely on their own;

2) For a set of skills which can be learned and applied in self-directed learning;

3) For an inborn capacity which is suppressed by institutional education;

4) For the exercise of learners’ responsibility for their own learning;

5) For the right of learners to determine the direction of their own learning.

1.2 The importance of developing learner autonomy in English self-study

In general, importance of developing learner autonomy in EFL can be summarized as follows:

1) It matches our educational goal. The final product of education is an independent learners and cultivating a learner’s

independence of autonomy should be regarded as the end goal that teachers or educators try to pursue. And it also meets

life-long learning and creative education.

2) It helps students to make improvements beyond knowledge. The present epoch is one with an explosion of knowledge

and information. So it is impossible for one to adapt to this changing society with the knowledge acquired at school. If learner

autonomy is developed, then students become skillful in learning how to learn. And they will be able to master new

knowledge, new technology, face new challenges and task.

3) It can adapt to students’individual differences. Different students have different preferred ways of learning. However, every

teacher has his or her own relatively stable teaching method and teaching style. Therefore, it is particularly hard for teachers

to satisfy the need of each student in traditional language teaching. In autonomous learning, students participate learning by

their own volition, make their own decisions on learning goals, learning pace and progression and learning strategies,

and self-evaluate their learning outcomes.

4) It facilitates personal growth. Once students become autonomous, they have acquired a life-long learning skill and a habit

of independent thinking, which will benefit them long after leaving schools. Moreover, it supports individualism but does not

exclude collaborative learning. Therefore, in autonomous learning, students learn to how to get along with others. This is

also important to them.

5) It can lead to better, more effective learning. Learner sets the agenda, learning should be more focused and more

purposeful, and thus more effective both immediately and in the longer term.

2. The factors influenced learner autonomy

Learner autonomy is not an article of faith, a product ready made for use or merely a personal quality or trait. Rather, it should

be clarified that autonomous learning is achieved on certain conditions: motivation, attitudes, learning strategies and

cognitive styles etc. Therefore, it is very necessary for teachers to pay much attention to these factors for the aim of

developing students’ autonomy English learning.

2.1 Motivation

Most scholars seem to agree that one of the key factors that influences the rate and success of the second or foreign

language learning. And it provides the primary impetus to initiate learning the foreign language and later the driving force to

sustain the long and often tedious learning process. A number of reviews and discussions provide evidence that motivation

and learner autonomy go hand in hand. Therefore, no matter from which angle we consider the relationship, we must

recognize the important role that motivation plays in learner autonomy.

2.1.1 Intrinsic motivation

2.1.1.1 Definitions of intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation means the kind of motivation caused by the interest, pleasure, satisfaction or curiosity directed to the

activity. Intrinsic motivation is generally considered as that produces more benefits than extrinsic motivation. Because the

intrinsically motivated learners undertake a task from their genuine will but not from some external pressure, they perform the

action harder and deeper and sustain their efforts longer than the extrinsically motivated learners do.

2.1.1.2 The factors influencing intrinsic motivation

There are various internal and external factors influencing students’intrinsic motivation. However, it is affected to a great

extent by what happens in the classroom,

and by students’personal factors and mood at that time as well. Therefore, we consider factors affecting intrinsic motivation

under the heading of interest, learning environment, English teachers’ teaching method and material.

2.1.2 Extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation, on the hand, derives from an anticipation of rewards such as praise, awards, prizes, evaluation, and fear

for punishment. Although extrinsic motivation is also beneficial sometimes, there are some negative aspects of it. They state

that learners will lose motivation and reason to do something when rewards are no longer available, and that giving external

rewards to them previously with intrinsic motivation can harm the good effect of it.

2.2 Attitude

Language learning is not merely a cognitive task. And success of a learning activity is, to some extent, contingent upon

learner’ stance towards the word and the learning activity in particular, their sense of self, and their desire to learn.

The term “attitude” has been defined in many ways. Common to psychological theories on attitudes is the notion that attitudes

actually have three components: affect, cognition, and behavior. Affect concerns feelings, moods, and emotions toward the

attitudinal object. For example, some learners may agree with the idea that they should take more responsibility for their

learning, while others may prefer to depend on the teacher. Cognition refers to what a person knows about the attitudinal

object. In language learning, it refers to “attitudes learners hold about their role in the learning process and their capability as

learners”. And the third attitudinal component, behavior has to do with intentions or actions related to the attitudinal object.

Learners who hold positive attitudes toward learner autonomy may be more likely to take the responsibility than those who

hold negative attitudes. It is these affective reactive reactions, cognitions, and behaviors comprise the overall attitude toward

the language and culture.

In general, attitudes have a profound influence on learning behavior. And the attitudes may either contribute to or impede the

development of their potential for autonomy. Positive attitude towards learner autonomy can be expected to enhance learning

and negative attitudes to impede learning. So for teachers, identifying learners’attitudes and modifying negative attitudes

should be the important step in autonomous learning.

2.3 Learning strategy

Language learning strategies were generally defined as specific actions,

behaviors, steps or techniques that learners employed to comprehend, store, remember new information, and to use the

second language. Unanimous opinions that most researches have been reached are as follows:

1) Strategies refer to both general approaches and specific actions or techniques used to learn a second language;

2) Strategies allow learners to become more self-directed;

3) Strategies are problem oriented;

4) Strategies are flexible;

5) Strategies are influenced by a variety of factors;

6) Strategies support learning both directly and indirectly;

7) Strategies can be taught or trained.

All learners have certain preferred learning strategies and employ them more or less consciously. Learning strategy is firmly

believed to be the key to promoting learner autonomy and when students are inhibited to use their preferred strategy, it is

impossible for them to learn the English efficiently. We can find that learning autonomy is the most important individual factor

relating to learner autonomy and helping students understand the importance of strategies and train them to use some

strategies suited for them is an effective way to enhance their learner autonomy.

2.4 Cognitive style

Cognitive style refers to the ways that individuals organize, analyze and recall new information and experience.

Cognitive style has been identified as field dependence vs. field independence. Persons who are more predominantly field

independent tend to be generally more independent, competitive, and self-confident while field dependent persons tend to be

more socialized, tend to derive their self-identity from persons around them, and are usually more empathic and perceptive of

the feelings and thoughts of others.

The factors briefly touched on the above are necessary but not sufficient conditions for the development of learner autonomy,

and many more factors such as needs, language awareness, teachers, social and cultural influences have to be taken into

consideration. Therefore, it is of consequence to note that autonomy is a process, not a product.

3. The roles in learner autonomy in EFL

Learner autonomy is characterized by its initiative, independence, effectiveness and relativity. This involves a change both in

teachers’ roles and learners’ roles, and even in the roles of educational institutions. The traditional teachers’roles: the

instructor and container of knowledge, and learner’ role: the passive “empty vessels”waiting to be filled with knowledge by

the teachers will change dramatically.

3.1 Roles of autonomous learners

What are the characteristics of autonomous learner? Do they always do their homework and follow the teachers’

instructions? There are the typical characteristics of traditional good students, and as to autonomous learners.

In the relevant literature autonomous learners are defined as those who

-understand the purpose of their learning plan;

-explicitly accept responsibility for their learning;

-share in the setting of learning goals;

-take initiatives in planning and executing learning activities;

-regularly review learning and evaluate its effectiveness.

From the definitions we can conclude that an autonomous learner first should be willing to take responsibility for their own

learning, then he/she should be conscious of or aware of the learning process involved and learning strategies needed,

finally he should have the ability to carry out his learning activities and the ability to monitor and evaluate his learning results

and effectiveness.

3.2 Teachers’ roles

The ever-increasing necessity for teaching students how to become independent and autonomous learners has brought new

perspectives to the teaching profession and changed traditional ideas about language teachers’ roles.

Teachers are traditionally viewed as authority figures, identified with roles like parent, instructor, director, manager, leader,

controller, or even doctor who must “cure”the ignorance of the students. But things change now. Teachers assume new

functions as a consultant, advisor, coordinator, helper, communicator, guide, facilitator, and organizer. The change in the

roles strengthens the teachers’roles making them varied and more creative. Their status is no longer based on hierarchical

authority, but on equality and importance of their relationship with learners. Learner autonomy involves the teacher to

become less of an instructor and more of a facilitator, to discourage students from relying on the teacher as the main source

of knowledge, to encourage students’ capacity to learn for themselves, to encourage students to make decisions about what

they learn, to encourage students’awareness of their own learning styles, and to encourage students’ to develop their own

learning strategies.

It is evident that when learners become more and more autonomous, the teachers will not become redundant or even have

nothing to do, as some people will imagine.

The requirement of the teacher will become more demanding, with not only the contents of teaching to get familiar with but

also the skills and knowledge of fostering learner autonomy to master.

3.3 Roles of materials

The design of good autonomous learning materials is very tricky and can be very different from designing a good traditional

face-to-face instructional lesson. One issue that we might face is that teachers have often spent many years coming to grips

with classroom teaching and the skills of materials design and adaptation associated with this context. They will initially

expect these skills to be immediately transferable into the independent learning environment. If this is not the case, teachers

may come to feel threatened. However, autonomous learning materials are not just textbooks cut up and covered with see-

through plastic. We need to be careful not just in the choice of the particular material, but in how it is presented as well.

People don’t learn much just by reading the fine words of experts. People learn by having a go themselves. They learn by

doing. They learn by getting things right. They learn even more by getting things wrong, and getting feedback on what was

wrong.

The creation of material that reflects an autonomous learning philosophy is not an easy task, and it involves a great deal of

time and effort for the teachers, not only in selecting and adapting the content of the materials but in the way to present them.

Therefore, teachers’ adaptation of materials and way of using them is of vital importance and of great value. And what

teachers do with the material is more important than what material is.

3.4 Roles of institutions

We have already discussed the roles of autonomous learners, teachers, and materials, but what roles should schools or

educational system play in fostering learner autonomy? Lots of scholars think that the school should strive to ensure that

each student takes responsibility for his or her own learning and for the result of his or her studies, can assess the result of

his or her studies and his or her need to develop in relation to the demands in the syllabuses. In order to achieve this, reforms

need to be made by the schools and higher educational institutions, including educational policies, teaching syllabuses, and

most important, the way of evaluating learning results, and to put it more simply, way of examination.

The education policy and guidance of the educational institutions are not only necessary, but also indispensable for learner

autonomy. Nevertheless, in terms of

carrying them out and putting those into practice, more powers and freedom should be given to learners as well as teachers.

sion

To sum up, there are many factors influencing learner autonomy during the study process. What’ more, the learner

themselves, teacher, materials, institutions all will play different roles in autonomous learning. It is really necessary to train

and develop the ability of self-study for students.