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Abstract Autonomous Learning was put forward by Bruner in the 1960s of the 20th century, and then many scholars did researches on it and showed great many of their standpoints and ways of expression. In the field of education, autonomous learning will play an important role in students study. This study investigates and analyzes the condition of autonomous learning of the translation majors in Zengcheng Colleges with the help of questionnaires. And then excel is used to evaluate the condition of autonomous learning. Through the questionnaire investigation, we found many students tend to learn by rote, only some students can do it in their study subconsciously. The abilities of autonomous learning have to be improved. We hope that this study will shed some insights on themselves and activate autonomous learning on our school even all kinds of fields. Key Words: Autonomous learning; self-efficacy; intrinsic value; self-regulation摘 要自主学习自从六十年代20世纪被Brunner提出后，国内外的许多学者对此做了许多相关的调查和研究，并且得出各自的观点和表达方式。在教育领域，自主学习性会起到很大作用。此论文以华南师范大学增城学院翻译专业学生当前的自主学习情况做了调查，然后通过Excel进行数据分析处理当前的自主学习情况。通过问卷的分析，我们了解到增城学院的翻译专业的学生自主学习情况不太乐观，其中的自我效能感、内在价值信任感、策略的应用和自我调控能力都有待提高。有些人能够潜意识下建立自主学习系统，而有些人则比较散漫没有明确的目标。我们希望通过这样的调查和分析，为学生的自主学习提供有意义的见解，让更多学生懂得更多关注自身，然后规律、有方法地的学习。关键词：自主学习；自我效能；内在价值信任度；自我调控ContentsABSTRACTI摘要II1. INTRODUCTION11.1 Significance of the study11.2 Aims and objectives11.3 Organization of the thesis22. LITERATURE REVIEW32.1 Autonomous learning32.1.1 Definition of autonomous learning32.1.2 The application of autonomous learning to English learning32.1.3 The affecting factors of autonomous learning32.2. Domestic and foreign studies on autonomous learning42.2.1 Foreign studies on autonomous learning42.2.2 Domestic studies on autonomous learning43. METHODOLOGY63.1 Research questions63.2 Subjects63.3 Research methods64. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE74.1 The self-efficacy74.2 The intrinsic value74.3 The test anxiety84.4 The cognitive strategies84.5 The self-regulation95. CONCLUSION105.1 Major findings105.2 Suggestions10REFERENCES11APPENDIX A12PART A12APPENDIX B13PART B13ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS161. Introduction1.1 Significance of the studySince the 1950s of 20th century, autonomous learning became an important topic in the field of educational psychology. Every faction put out different researches and ideas on it from all kind of view. The concept of autonomous learning was quoted into Henri Holecs project in the 1980s of the last century (Benson, 2005), and it was highly-spoken by all kinds of fields at home and abroad. Many services have been taken upon this concept, so as the same as in our country. In recent years, revolutions have been taken as the new courses struck, ways of teaching changed from teacher-centered to student-centered. All kinds of studies proved that students can do a great job while teachers focus more on students themselves rather than teaching itself (Zhan xiaohai，2004).Nowadays, autonomous learning is of greater importance in our studies. As the saying of many scholars, teachers are the irreplaceable guiders, but autonomous learning can be taught anyway and then students can hold themselves from then on. Autonomous learning conformed to the improvement of foreign language education, and it is really necessary that student need it. As Boud (1988) said, as a method, autonomous learning makes it possible for students to response in class and makes them clear about their responsibilities in study.Many studies showed that autonomous learning is a result of study which leads students to learning themselves after they learnt how to learn from their teachers, and students can easily hold themselves with it. Moreover, while students have showed the autonomous learning, the process of it can give it more power and help for them to seek greater progresses.For this reason, we decided to carry out a study to investigate autonomous learning ability of translation majors in our school in an attempt to help them finding out their difficulties in study and to give them some advice on the effective strategies.1.2 Aims and objectivesThis study aims to find out the autonomous learning ability of translation majors. Generally, this study has the following three objectives: (1) to investigate the existing situation of autonomous learning in translation majors, (2) to draw useful enlightenment of autonomous learning for the major of translation.This study attempts to answer the following three questions: (1) what is the existing situation of autonomous learning among translation major students? (2) what are the useful effects of autonomous learning? (3) what effective implications of autonomous learning can be drawn for translation majors? During the procedure of the study, firstly, we made the questionnaires to investigate the existing situation of the use of autonomous learning among translation major students; then we strategied to arouse the students conscious awareness to use it in their studies. Before and after the experiment, the subjects were given questionnaire A and B, which were used to evaluate the condition of autonomous learning used in study. 1.3 Organization of the thesisThis thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter one serves as an overall introduction to the rationale and aims of the study. Chapter two is an overview of the theories and studies related to autonomous learning strategies. Chapter three describes the research methodology, including research questions, subjects, design, instruments, data collection and so forth. In Chapter four the results of the investigation and experiment will be presented and discussed objectively in detail. Finally, Chapter five is devoted to the conclusion in which we will show the major findings and implications of the study.2. Literature Review2.1 Autonomous learning2.1.1 Definition of autonomous learningThe concept of autonomous learning was put forward firstly by Henri Holec (1981) in last century 1980s, and then there are many scholars at home and abroad take seriously of it and show all kinds of points of view. We can call it Learner Autonomy, Autonomous learning, Self-access and so on.According to P. Benson (2005), autonomy is about people taking more control over their lives individually and collectively over their learning in classrooms and outside them and autonomy in language learning about people taking more control over the purposes for which they learn languages and the ways in which they learn. Energetic learners said that autonomous learning is a kind of ability, which student can use it to control themselves (Bergen, 1990). Then Thomson (1996) made it as learning process when students learn by themselves without teachers and other instruments in a stipulated environment.2.1.2 The application of autonomous learning to English learningAutonomous learning is a process, with which students can make good use of the resources or make up their aims by themselves of under guiding of the teachers. During the time, they can choose the right method to learn and become active in their studies. As for teachers, autonomous learning can be used easier for student to do well in their study in the stipulated environment. While autonomous learning is formed, students will be activated, and then better plants will be made, all works will be monitored and valuated. As better environment is formed, they can make a big progress in their studies by themselves.As we all know, the traditional teaching method is the teacher-centered style, students take in knowledge passively. In fact they seldom have the chance to show their ideas. Under this kind of environment, student was limited and cannot do any thing without teachers. If we follow the concept of autonomous learning, things will change (Yang jie, 2006). Many studies approved that autonomous learning do help in our study indeed.2.1.3 The affecting factors of autonomous learning There are many factors that can affect autonomous learning, including internal and external reasons. Everyone reacts depends on all elements, such as places, times, environments and all things. The internal reason including: (1) Motivation, the desire and activate to learn: if they have the desire to learn, then generally, they always do well in this course. (2)Emotion, it causes nervous that affect learners cognitive, which will make them out of attention. (3) Cognitive structure, it is the fixed content that learners can use it while it is fits to what they ready to learn.The external reasons including: (1)the pressure of testing, what you do good or bad will reflect from the score you get in you exam paper.(2)teaching method, the one to decide who is the center in study among students and teachers.(3)books, whether it is interesting is unknown for student that in different taste.2.2. Domestic and foreign studies on autonomous learning Autonomous learning is included in philosophy of education, and it developed through 1960s in the 20 century. It is Brunner (1966) who put forward the concept Learner Autonomy；Scholars came up with many ideas and ways of expression. D. P. Ausuble (1978) indicated that autonomous learning including study mechanically and to study meaningful. To study mechanically means the one who could not study actively, but cramming up all the way; inversely, to the one who study meaningfully will firstly comprehend and find out the relationship to help understanding.2.2.1 Foreign studies on autonomous learningFrom then on, in the field of FLW, the concept of autonomous learning was quoted firstly by Henri Holec, the irreplaceable people who wrote Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning in 1981. Autonomous learning studies went further by the end of 1980s. He said that autonomous learning is that learner can control themselves all the way and they can make up targets, then choosing the right method to realize what they have made. Some scholars regarded autonomous learning as a kind of activity of study that learner learn alone or follow the plant by groups, they made it as an ideal condition that always change, but some times it will be balanced between self-developed and relying on others. Little (1991) sum up these ideas, he thought that learner autonomy should include objective, criticize and independent, another saying, they should learn to take it selectively. After that, researcher proved that autonomous learning is affected by how much the learner believe themselves, and then how to change and improve themselves become the energy to learn. Benson (2005) defined autonomous learning as the ability to control their study. He said that different people will face different conditions (Liu honggang, 2005). Extremely self-access is a kind of perfect state, but the level of self-access is related to the learners realization and activities, which means that learners can be influenced by the outer environment and themselves.2.2.2 Domestic studies on autonomous learningIn our country, the concept of autonomous learning and many studies appeared in 1970s on 20 century, such as Lee gennan in Nanqi high school of Nantong, he followed the teaching method that including three elements: self-study, discuss and guide; Xu changchen put forward the student oriented teaching method in the basic of learning alone, and so on.These are the cases that people put the autonomous learning into reaching fields. After 1980s, many researchers published their books, including Liu xuehao (1986) and Li shifa (1987). Thanks to the foreign study, our country began to make progresses in autonomous learning. Pang jinding (2002), he defined it that learning should including 5 parts:(1) know the objective and demand; (2) make up ones plans and objectives; (3)use right study methods; (4)monitor yourself; (5)evaluate your study. In 2004, Qi hongbo made a questionnaire to investigate whether there are differences between southern and northern country, and he verified that students in our country are not worst than student abroad, it gave us a big lesson that autonomous learning can really do a lot of help. Moreover, Yang jie (2004) made a research and found that the ability to use autonomous learning good o not can influence the efficiency in study.3. Methodology3.1 Research questionsBe specific, this research addresses the following three research questions: (!) what is the existing situation of the use of autonomous learning strategies among college translation major students? (2) what are the training effects of autonomous learning? (3) what useful implications of autonomous learning can be drawn from the research outcomes for English learners?3.2 Subjects As many researches have been done above, autonomous learning can be very important in our study, and we know that once we form the autonomy, we can make a big progress. As in Zengcheng College, translation majors often do better than other foreign language majors in their study. So in this thesis, we chose the translation majors and try to find out whether translation majors can really do well in study or not. Questionnaires were showed to them and to see current conditions of them.3.3 Research methods In this study we first made a questionnaire A (see Appendix A), which was made by Pintrichetal, named MSLQ. It contains 6 items to investigate the basic condition of among two classes (among 80 students) translation major students. From this part we can know why they like this course and how many times they will spend in this course. And then we use questionnaire B (see Appendix B) contains 44 questions to exam the students to use the autonomous learning in their study. Before starting the experiment, we made 80 questionnaires with each containing 34 items to investigate the situation of the use of autonomous learning strategies among the traslation major, by the teacher. At the same time we can compare class A with class B.This data collected through the questionnaire written in Chinese and show to the students during their classes. They just pick up a paper and write down their answers. Questionnaires will be collected back after the students finished. After the questionnaires are collected, we entered them into computer with the help of Microsoft Excel, for it is easier to see the whole situation and then we will valuated the figures by the way of Excel. In detail, we took the questionnaire into 5 parts and discussed them. Then we took the data into excel and form up for convinent to see the whole situation.4. Results and Analysis of the QuestionnaireIn this chapter, we will give detail of the information gained from the questionnaire and we will make the questions apart to present each others related figures with the help of statistical methods.4.1 The self-efficacy There are 9 questions that belong to the part of Self-efficacy, which will show the current condition of the two class (see table 1). From the table 1, we can see that the highest average score is 4 and the lowest score is 2. Among them, question 2, 8, 9, 18 got the same highest score and it told us that students are hoping to learn better and they hope to get new but efficiency learning methods. Many of them believe that if they have the better methods, they will do better. The lowest score lies to question 16 (In this course, my learning skill is better than the others.), which showed that students have not find the suitable learning methods and they consider the others are the better. Moreover, let us see question 11 & 13; it is obvious that they have no self-confident; for they seldom believe they can do well in this course and get good scores. So from this table, we know that students are facing low self-efficacy. Table 1: The figures of self-efficacy from 9 questionsNumber of studentsLowest scoreHighest scoreAverageVarianceModeQuestion26925414Question66915323Question86925454Question96925424Question116914305Question136914323Question166915252Question186925425Question1969153034.2 The intrinsic valueFrom the table 2 we can see that all the average score are lower than 5, it means that students have not take seriously of the courses and from the high score of question 1, 7, 15, we know that they seldom like to struggle and challenge. However, from the figure of question 4, 10 & 21, they know the importance of the course and they hope to study well, but sometimes they do not really like the course, just as the lower score of question 5 (I love the things I am learning in this course.) showed.Table 2: The figures of the intrinsic value from 9 questionsNumber of studentsLowest scoreHighest scoreAverageVarianceModeQuestion16925353Question46915414Question56915324Question76925453Question106914305Question146935424Question156915255Question176925424Question2169153154.3 The test anxietyAfter seeing the table 3 below we can easily find that the average score stably stand by 3-4 point. And all the mode of the questions is 3. It told us that students sometimes will be forgettable because of the pressure of the test. Some of them will be nervous and always think of the worse result before the test begins. So it is clear, their ability to endure pressure is not inadequate, because they will be scared to face the test, which actually means failure.Table 3: Figures of the test anxiety from 4 questionsNumber of studentsLowest scoreHighest scoreAverageVarianceModeQuestion36915313Question126915313Question206925403Question2269253134.4 The cognitive strategiesLook at the table 4, under the mode row, the lowest mainly in question 30, 36 & 42. Question 30 and 42 developed that students seldom spend their times discussing after class and they are not often thinking about the relative material to the course they are learning. But from the points of question 36, we can feel ease, because they have not give up, as the courses are not interesting or not fit their plans. In general, all the average scores are not so high and not so low. It told us that students just follow the way they like in study, another saying; they have not got the best way to learn. It led them to a low situation with lower cognitive. They lack of the abilities to understand the courses and do not know how to remember the important things.Table 4: Figures of the cognitive strategies from 9 questionsNumber of studentsLowest scoreHighest scoreAverageVarianceModeQuestion236915323Question246915324Question266925424Question286915323Question296914313Question306915252Question316915423Question346914354Question366915422Question396915353Question416915314Question426915322Question4469154544.5 The self-regulationThere are the last 9 questions in this part; we can see the tables 5, 7 questions average score are at 3, it means their answers are sometimes. It gave us a reflection that students seldom ask themselves whether they have understood or not and they seldom do excises after classes. Many of them out of attention during the classes, they did not take it seriously. Look at the variance of question 38,
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