Chapter Two Literature review

2。1 Studies of autonomous learning abroad

    The concept of “autonomous learning” was first put forward by Holec。 Holec is the advocate and pioneer of autonomous learning。 He defines autonomy as “the ability to take charge of one's own learning” and “an ability that needs to be acquired” (1981:3)。 The definition consisted of the following points:

“__ Determining the objectives;”

“一Defining the contents and progressions;”

“一Selecting learning methods and techniques ;”

“一Monitoring the procedure of learning;”

“一Evaluating the effect of learning。”

    Dickinson(1987:11) summarizes the definition of autonomy as a “situation in which the learner is totally responsible for all of the decisions concerned with his or her learning and the implementation of those decisions”。 

    Little (1991) and Kenny (1993) are the two representative figures who think autonomy as a personal characteristic。 For Little (1991:4), he regards learner autonomy as “essentially a matter of the learner’s psychological relation to the process and content of learning。。。a capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision-making, and independent action”。 Kenny (1993:436) thinks that autonomy is “not only the freedom to learn but also the oppo来,自,优.尔:论;文*网www.chuibin.com +QQ752018766-rtunity to become a person”。 Both of them regard autonomy as the reflection of the learner’s psychological state or as something related to the learner’s personal characteristic。

    Benson (1997:29) suggests autonomy is “a recognition of the rights of learners within educational systems” and thinks teaching English as a foreign language as “a recognition of the rights of the ‘non-native speaker’ in relation to the ‘non-speaker’ within the global order of English。”

    Though different scholars have different opinions of autonomous learning, it is obvious to see that all the researchers think learning responsibility should be shifted from teachers to students。