High School Students’ Autonomy in English Learning: The Study of Previewing

Abstract

Previewing plays a crucial role in English learning. This paper reports a study on previewing English classes by senior high school students. A research has been done on the differences between the Group of Successful Learners (GSL) and the Group of Unsuccessful Learners (GUL) while they are previewing. The methods of questionnaire, observation and interview are employed in the study. The results indicate that the senior high school students exercised learner autonomy by setting objectives, selecting materials and approaches for their previewing and monitoring and evaluating their previewing. Although both the Group of Successful Learners and the Group of Unsuccessful Learners in the study attached great importance to previewing and exercised autonomy in previewing, differences existed between successful and unsuccessful English learners, with the former group taking more effective control of autonomous learning activity than the latter. Based on the analysis of the findings, some suggestions concerning English previewing are put forward.