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Volume 6 Number 2, Summer 2009, Pages 1-231   


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Chinese College English Learners' Attitudes and Behaviors in Computer-Assisted Autonomous Language Learning

    Guo Yan and Qin Xiaoqing


This paper reports a study that examined Chinese college English language learners' out-of-class computer-assisted autonomous language learning (ALL) by means of questionnaires and interviews. Data were collected from 345 students enrolled in college English courses at three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Their computer-assisted ALL behaviors and the value they attached to computers and networks for ALL were identified. Descriptive statistics showed that they held favorable attitudes towards ALL assisted by computers and networks, but they did not show a high frequency of ALL behaviors. The correlation analysis yielded significant positive relationships between attitudes and behaviors. Repeated one-way ANOVAs revealed significant differences in both attitudes and behaviors among the students of the three levels. The advanced students showed the most favorable attitudes and the highest frequency of computer-assisted ALL behaviors while the basic-level students demonstrated a medium degree of support for computer-assisted ALL and the least frequency of ALL behaviors. Interview results indicated that the students' attitudes towards computer-assisted ALL and the teachers' positive intervention in the language classes might be two important factors contributing to the differences in ALL behaviors.

Keywords: autonomous language learning (ALL), computers and networks, attitude, behavior, college English language learners