On Promotion of Students’Autonomy in China’s College English Classroom.docVIP

On Promotion of Students’Autonomy in China’s College English Classroom 　　Abstract 　　With exposure of weaknesses of the traditional classroom practice， it has been realized that students’ autonomy needs to be promoted. To achieve this， both teachers’and students’ awareness has to be raised in the context of China. The cultural tradition needs to be broken and the role of teachers needs to be shifted. Students’ autonomy can also be fostered through clssroom interaction in China’s College English teaching. 　　Key words： Promotion； Autonomy； College English classroom 　　INTRODUCTION 　　For many years， College English teaching in China ‘has been dominated by a teacher-centered， book-centered， grammar-translation method and an emphasis on rote memory’ （Rao， 2006）. However， with the acceleration of China’s steps of development and closer ties with the outside world， more and more weaknesses of this teaching practice have been exposed. Many students find it difficult to be understood in an interview when hunting for a job. Having been accustomed to relying on teachers’instructions， students tend to be passive in learning and do not know how to improve after graduation. To solve these problems and achieve the objectives of the syllabus， a new direction has to be adopted. Autonomy， as a goal of language teaching， has become an inevitable trend. This paper， based on a critical look at the traditional classroom practice， attempts to explore how to promote more effective teaching-learning in the context of China by introducing the concept of autonomy from sociocutural perspective. 　　Autonomy is a concept that was first introduced into language teaching by Holec. Holec （1981） defines autonomy as ‘the ability to take charge of one’s learning’and ‘an ability or a capacity that needs to be acquired’. Autonomy is regarded as a ‘pedagogical goal’ by Wenden（1987） and ‘an unavoidable methodological option’ by Narcy （1994）. In sociocultural field， Little （1999a， p.4） defines autonomy a