Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol 2, No 2 (2011), 408-412, Mar 2011
doi:10.4304/jltr.2.2.408-412
Promoting University English Majors' Learner Autonomy in the Chinese Context
Haiyan Wang
Abstract
According to a survey conducted among some local colleges and universities, the author found that the current English teaching in Chinese colleges and universities is mostly “teacher-centered”. The “teacher-centered” teaching mode poses problems to students, especially to their learner autonomy. The students may see knowledge as something to be transmitted by the teacher rather than discovered by themselves. They, therefore, are less autonomous, more dependent on authority figure. It reduces the student from an autonomous learner, creative and critical thinker, as they should be, to a mechanical recipient of knowledge. Not only is this result at odds with our country’s educational goal, but it will hamper students’ improvement in the long run. There is saying that learner autonomy is not suitable to the Chinese context. This paper mainly discusses one question—Is it really true that learner autonomy is not suitable to the Chinese context and gives a negtive answer to this question from theoretical element and data analysis.
Keywords
teacher-centered teaching mode; learner autonomy; Chinese context
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