There are many problems in the traditional English education, such as the inadequate communication between teachers and students and lack of study interest and initiative. Teachers always play a leading role in the teaching process and students have few chances to develop their self-learning ability. The classroom atmosphere becomes dull and depressing due to the lack of interaction between teachers and students.

The teaching contents and teaching methods that the high-efficient class requires are very different from the old ones. It changes the long-time stereotyped teaching model and makes students broaden their ways of acquiring knowledge and improve their independence and positivity. Therefore, it is very necessary for junior high school students to develop autonomous learning ability, which can cultivate students’ learning enthusiasm and improve their learning efficiency. 

2. Literature Review

The autonomous learning, as its name suggests, means that students are the subject of the learning activity. They achieve their learning targets by independently analyzing, researching, practicing, doubting and creating things. 

The famous educators like Rousseau, Dewey and Diesterweg are all the advocates of the autonomous learning. Dewey argued that too much reliance on the child could be equally detrimental to the learning process. “We must take our stand with the child and our departure from him. It is he and not the subject-matter which determines both quality and quantity of learning” (Dewey, 1902: 56). According to Dewey, the potential flaw in this line of thinking is that it minimizes the importance of the content as well as the role of the teacher. Based on the idea of “man exists according to its nature”, Rogers put forward the nondirective teaching thought, a new understanding of teaching from the perspective of life philosophy (Rogers, 1996: 50). He insisted that teaching students learning strategies should be given priority in the teaching aim. The new educational concepts of Dewey and “students-oriented” of Rogers are representative, which are deepened in modern west. 文献综述

Compared with foreign countries, the research of autonomous learning starts later in China and there are many aspects that need to be perfected. As a famous educator in our country, Tao Xingzhi has said that what a good teacher should do is not imparting knowledge or teaching students, but teaching students how to learn. “Teaching is for the sake of no needing teaching” is the core of Ye Shengtao’s reading teaching approach. All the ideas of these great educators show the importance of autonomous learning. There is one thought that in fact the autonomous learning ability is self-monitoring capability (Pang Weiguo, 2003: 17). He holds the opinion that the development of the autonomous learning ability is the primary goal of school teaching and language instruction.