Abstract:Since Holec offered his definition of autonomy in his book Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning in 1981, the concept of Autonomous Learning has been attracting great concern in foreign language teaching. In recent two decades, related empirical studies have been done by researchers home as well as abroad and achieved various findings.

   With more and more attention paid to English learning and application, people have begun to realize the importance of cultivating the ability of independent learning. The traditional teaching mode in which teachers play the dominating roles in the class can’t meet the requirement of modern English teaching. It has discouraged students’ thinking and creativity. What’s more, it has confined the development of students’ personality and the ability of learner autonomy. Thus, the promotion of learner autonomy has become the ultimate goal of quality-oriented education. 

   This paper begins with a questionnaire survey of 288 English-majors freshmen at Zengcheng College of South China Normal University for exactly grasping the present state of students’ learner autonomy. The survey shows as follows: many students can’t be fully aware of the teacher’s teaching objectives and requirements; they have no clear schedule of English learning besides assignments of the teacher; they don’t have a relatively rich repertoire of strategy selection and implementation, especially the communication strategies; they lack initiative and are unwilling to cooperate with others in the procedure of learning; they are incapable of checking how well a plan is working in the course of a language task, of applying the newly learned knowledge into practice. This paper aims to analyze the problems existing in the process of learner autonomy and explore the possible ways to promote English majors’ learner autonomy in private colleges.

Key words: private colleges; English major; learner autonomy

摘 要:自从1981年Holec在他的著作Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning中提出自主学习的概念之后，它引起了外语教学界的广泛关注。近二十年来,国内外许多研究者都做了相关的实证研究,但所得出的结论并不统一。

　　　随着社会对英语学习和实践应用重视程度的不断加深,人们开始意识到自主学习对个人毕生发展的重要性。传统的以教师讲授灌输为主的教学模式已不能满足现代教学的需要,它极大地束缚了学生的想象力，抑制了他们的学习积极性和个性发展。因此,培养学生的自主性成为了素质教育的重要目标。

　　　本文通过问卷对华南师范大学增城学院288名大一英语专业学生的自主学习现状进行了调查。调查结果表明:许多学生未能充分了解老师的教学目标和要求；除了老师布置的学习任务,他们没有明确的学习计划；对学习策略的选择及使用(尤其是交际策略),他们了解得并不全面；他们缺乏学习的主动性,不愿意与他人合作；在学习过程中,他们不能同步检测自己的计划,不能把新学的知识应用到实践中。本文旨在分析学生在自主学习中存在的问题,探索有利于提高学生自主学习能力的途径和方法。

关键词：民办学院；英语专业；自主学习