A STUDY ON THE LEARNER AUTONOMY IN LEARNING ENGLISH TO CHINESE EFL STUDENTS IN SHANDONG INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY VOCATIONAL COLLEGE

Abstract

In the context of learner autonomy, this study adopts mixed qualitative and quantitative research to investigate the EFL students’ autonomy in learning English at Shandong Institute of Science and Technology Vocational College, with the two research questions: (1) What is the current status of the autonomy in English language learning among Chinese EFL students in higher vocational institutions? (2)What are the main factors that affect the learner autonomy in learning English of EFL students in Chinese higher vocational institutions? With the stratified sampling method, one-hundred twenty-five sophomore students were randomlyselected from five majors to complete the close-ended questionnaire and 15 students among them were selected to participate in the focus-group interview. With a recovery rate of 92.8%,  125 pieces of the questionnaire were distributed and 116 pieces were valid. The data analysis tool adopts SPSS and thematic analysis. This study finds that the current EFL students have a relatively low level of autonomy in learning English and from the four dimensions of learner autonomy, the sociocultural dimension (M=2.87) is the lowest, compared to other three dimensions: political-philosophical (M=2.96), technical (M=2.99), psychological (M=3.21). The data from the focus group interviews presents the finding that students lack guidance from teachers to engage in autonomous learning. The personal correlation coefficient reflects that English teachers’ role is the largest factor in affecting students’ level of autonomy learning in English. Such findings recommend that English teachers in higher vocational institutions should notice their importance in the cultivation of learner autonomy in their students and adopt student-centred teaching based on learner autonomy.