PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY THROUGH CALL PROJECTS IN CHINA’S EFL CONTEXT

"Learner-centered approach" and "Self-directed learning" have been a recent research focus in SLA, but few studies have touched upon how to develop learner autonomy, particularly in a computer-assisted learning environment. The paper first illustrates the importance of promoting learner autonomy in China's EFL context and elaborates the three main factors contributing to its development. Then it focuses on how the CALL research project promotes autonomous learning through a small-scale study in Suzhou University. Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been employed to examine whether in the CALL project learners exercise control over their own learning and evaluate its outcome . The final results indicate that due to a flexible syllabus, highly motivating research topics and the network-assisted environment, learners do take responsibility for most aspects of learning and thus the CALL project proves to be a promising approach for autonomous training.