Fostering students’ English Learning Autonomy.doc

Fostering students’ English Learning Autonomy Introduction The ultimate goal of English teaching in China is to develop learners’ communicative competence and good learning strategies, so as to become autonomous language learners and users. Theoretically speaking, any kind of teaching is subjected to the eventual goal of education—to promote students’ learning autonomy. Learner autonomy refers to the capability to determine the learning objectives, select methods, monitor the procedure and evaluate the results. From the early 1970s, our English teaching has increasingly emphasized the importance of autonomous learning. Since the 1980s, learner autonomy has gained momentum in the education field. Today more and more students are required to become autonomous learners to fit the change pace of society. However, many teachers have not adjusted their roles and have not laid stress on promoting autonomous learning Chapter 1 Teacher’s role 1.1 Definition of Role The term “role” is a familiar one and its French circumflex has been worn away by frequent use. It can be defined generally as a part that people play in the performance of social life. A role, put in precise sociological terms by Banton, is “a set of norms and expectation applied to incumbents of a particular position”. The incumbents this paper is concerned with are those who take up position in the English language class: English teachers. 　 The concept “role” has become very popular in English language teaching (ELT) and is a term in common usage to denote the functions that teachers and learners perform during the course of lesson. In the social setting of the classroom, teachers’ and learners’ expectations about what are appropriate functions in various learning tasks will determine the role that each performs. 1.2 Teacher’s Role in the Traditional English Language Teaching In the 1960s and 1970s in particular there was much reflection in educational writing in western cultures on traditional teacher-d