Research on Learners＇ Attitudes towards Computer-assisted Autonomous Learning

Sun Renjie

Abstract: Learner autonomy has become a hot topic in the resent ELT reform. More and more educators and researchers have been exploring the effective way to cultivate learner autonomy. Learners' attitude towards computer-assisted autonomous learning is the essence in this paper. By analyzing the performance of two subject groups, the conclusion is that: CALL is a new model of College English Teaching to promote learner autonomy. Correspondingly the English teachers are confronted with many new challenges.

Key words: learner autonomy CALL autonomous learning attitude

摘要：大学生自主学习已经成为近年来大学英语教学改革的一个热门话题，越来越多的教育专家和研究人员积极地探索培养大学生自主学习能力的方法和途径。本文旨在探索计算机辅助语言学习环境下学习者的态度，通过实验组以及传统教学组的学习者表现，文章得出结论：计算机辅助语言教学是促进大学生自主学习能力的有效手段，同时，外语教师也面临着英语教学改革的挑战。

关键词：自主学习能力；计算机辅助语言教学；自主学习；态度

1 Introduction

During the past several years, integrating multimedia technology into CET has become one of the hot topics among the English teaching reform in China. And lots of experiments have been made on integrating multimedia technology into CET and some of the experiments and researches have shown their unprecedented advantages of multimedia technology in CET over the traditional teaching mode and approaches.

2 Subjects

In Henan University of Urban Construction, four classes of sophomores major in computer and science engineering were chosen. Altogether there were 112 students participating in the survey. With the help of computer-based multimedia, 56 students were taught traditionally, which were considered as Group 1. The other 56 students, which did English autonomous learning once a week at a fixed time, and they were considered as Group 2. They all have studied English for two years.

The internal validity refers to subject variability and size of subject population. Since the purpose of this research was to investigate the situation of autonomous learning in the context of computer-based multimedia technology at Henan University of Urban Construction, the subjects chosen are non-English major students who are in grade two.

It is known that the College English teaching lasts two years, so it is right and reasonable to choose the sophomores as the subjects. When the research was conducted, they had already finished their two-year learning, which enables the researcher to make comparisons between the new teaching model and the traditional one.

3 Results and Discussion

Data collection instruments in this study include: questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaire using a Likert scale used in this study consists of the following questions: attitudes about autonomous learning with the help of computer-based multimedia. The questionnaire was translated into Chinese rather than English. This reduces the possibilities of misunderstanding and makes it possible to collect more accurate data. Reponses to questions ranged from 5 to 1 on a five-item Likert scale as follows: 5 stood for 'strongly agree', 4 for 'agree', and 3 for 'no views', 2 for 'disagree', and 1 for 'strongly disagree'

Each was expressed as percentage of respective population.

Figure 3.4.1Percentage of Item F1

(5-strongly agree 4-agree 3-no views 2-disagree 1-strongly disagree)

The above items concerned the students' attitudes towards computer-based multimedia autonomous learning. 28.57% of the subjects in Group 1 believed that they could learn English successfully through computer-based multimedia autonomous learning, and the same percentage of this group show preference to the new teaching model.53.57% of the subjects in Group 2 liked the autonomous learning with the help of computer-based multimedia. Although Group 1 did English autonomous learning once a week for two years, not all the students adapted to this kind of learning. A student said in the interview, "At first, I really enjoy the autonomous learning in the multimedia class, and I feel improve a lot after the class. "

As for Item F3, 57.15% of Group l expected teacher could help them with their English by Internet, Email, QQ etc. the number in Group 2 was 71.43%. 46.43% of the subjects in Group l agreed that they could get English studying material from Internet, which is less than that of Group 2. The results of two items suggested that the students in Group 2 took more positive attitude about the CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning). As Hoffman (1996) suggested, the networked computer lab greatly expanded the opportunities to use and interact in the target language.

4 Conclusions

The situation of autonomous learning under the model of computer-based multimedia learning environment has been discussed. To the end, the questionnaire about autonomous learning from 112 sophomores was investigated in Henan University of Urban Construction. In this section, a brief summary of this research will made by illuminating its major findings and then make some suggestions for further research.

Through the literature review and the study conducted by the writer among students, the writer concludes that it is necessary and feasible to use multi-media computer technology to aid foreign language teaching and learning. The major findings are as follows: First, most learners in the study agreed that the responsibility for learning resided in the learner, but the results obtained from this study about learners' attitude were not encouraging. Second, with the help of multimedia, the subject of group 2 showed better performance. Third, foreign language teachers are confronted with many new challenges, the teachers should assume the responsibility of paying attention to learners' individual factors.

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作者简介：

孙仁杰（1979-），男，河南省叶县人，就职于河南城建学院外语系，研究方向：外语教学理论与实践、计算机辅助外语教学。