A Review of the Effectiveness of Web-based Course with College English Learners' Autonomous Learning

The paper is a literature review, aiming to examine the effectiveness of web-based college English learning which mainly focuses on learners' autonomous learning. Previous studies indicate that the web-based learning can improve learners' autonomous learning, as well as some problems found in their findings. Therefore, this paper first gives a summary and critique of research studies on the web-based autonomous learning and some factors influencing learners' autonomous learning ability;then, areas that deserve further study are also indicated.

A Study on the Correlations Between Chinese EFL Learners' Autonomous Learning and Their Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning and learner autonomy have become heated topics in English teaching.Many researchers both at home and abroad have carried out the study on this field,and they proved that learner autonomy and cooperative learning are rel evant,cooperative learning can promote English majors’learning autonomy in terms of listening,reading,speaking,however,no obvious findings in vocabulary and writing.This study is conducted to prove the feasibilities and effectiveness of cooperative learning applied to foster first-year non-English majors’learning autonomy from the aspect of vocabulary and structure.The re sults of this study showed that cooperative learning was much more effective than traditional teaching approaches in fostering some positive affective factors.According to this research,cooperative learning can also improve learners’vocabulary and struc ture significantly.

Toward Trustworthy Decision-Making for Autonomous Vehicles:A Robust Reinforcement Learning Approach with Safety Guarantees

While autonomous vehicles are vital components of intelligent transportation systems,ensuring the trustworthiness of decision-making remains a substantial challenge in realizing autonomous driving.Therefore,we present a novel robust reinforcement learning approach with safety guarantees to attain trustworthy decision-making for autonomous vehicles.The proposed technique ensures decision trustworthiness in terms of policy robustness and collision safety.Specifically,an adversary model is learned online to simulate the worst-case uncertainty by approximating the optimal adversarial perturbations on the observed states and environmental dynamics.In addition,an adversarial robust actor-critic algorithm is developed to enable the agent to learn robust policies against perturbations in observations and dynamics.Moreover,we devise a safety mask to guarantee the collision safety of the autonomous driving agent during both the training and testing processes using an interpretable knowledge model known as the Responsibility-Sensitive Safety Model.Finally,the proposed approach is evaluated through both simulations and experiments.These results indicate that the autonomous driving agent can make trustworthy decisions and drastically reduce the number of collisions through robust safety policies.

Results of the virtual simulation teaching method on autonomous learning competencies of undergraduate nursing students

Background:With the continuous development of information technology,most universities use mobile teaching platforms for classroom teaching.With the help of the national virtual simulation experimental teaching project sharing platform,students can enhance self-directed learning through the virtual simulation operations of the project.Purpose:To explore the application of virtual simulation experiment in teaching the fundamentals of nursing practice based on the Platform of the National Virtual Simulation Experiment Teaching Project during the COVID-19 pandemic analyze the impact of this teaching method on the autonomous learning ability of undergraduate nursing students.Methods:Convenience sampling was used to select 121 nursing undergraduates from Y University’s School of Nursing;the online teaching of fundamentals of nursing practice was conducted to the students.After taking the course,questionnaires were distributed to the undergraduate nursing students to collect their perceptions regarding the use of the virtual simulation experiment platform and autonomous learning competencies.Results:Most students expressed their preference for the virtual simulation teaching platform,and their satisfaction with the project evaluation was high 83.05%.They hoped to promote the application in future experimental teaching.Undergraduate nursing students believed that the virtual simulation teaching platform was conducive to cultivating clinical thinking ability,could stimulate learning interest,enhanced autonomous learning competencies.Conclusion:During the pandemic,the virtual simulation teaching platform for a lecture on in nursing education has achieved good results in both the aspects of teaching and student learning.Teachers efficiently used their training time and reduced their teaching burden.Moreover,the laboratory cost was also reduced.For undergraduate nursing students,the system was conducive to cultivating clinical thinking ability,stimulating their interest in learning,enhancing their learning and comprehension abilities and learning initiative.

Promoting language Learners＇ Autonomy in Cooperative Learning

Learner Autonomy （LA） is the desirable goal of the education. To date, many Learner Autonomy training programs have been carried out in foreign language teaching. Cooperative Learning （CL） is a language teaching and learning strategy which gets learners actively and cooperatively involved in learning a foreign language in groups. Both of them have been respectively advocated from pedagogical point of view and from the perspective of philosophy. However, being autonomous does not necessarily mean learning alone. Language learners should learn cooperatively and autonomously. It is the author＇s contention that CL is a good method to promote LA. CL has positive effects on both students＇ readiness and their ability to be more autonomous. CL enhances self-esteem and self-confidence, increases high motivation, encourages learners＇ responsibility for learning, enhances self-management skills, increases support for language learners to move from interdependence to independence. The paper stresses in the end that promoting LA is the teacher＇s long-term pedagogic goal.

The Influence of the Learning Environment on Learner Autonomy： A Comparative Study of Polish and Yemeni EFL Undergraduate Learners

The goal of autonomous language learning is to create an atmosphere where learners take charge of their own learning. Creating this atmosphere encounters various challenges which are partially context-specific. Influenced by the learning environment, learnners of different educational contexts vary in their degree of autonomy. The present study examines the impact of the learning environment on learner autonomy at higher education. The study focuses on the differences between Polish and Yemeni EFL （English as a Foreign Language） learners with respect to their autonomy in language learning. A questionnaire was distributed to a total of 140 （59 Polish and 81 Yemeni） undergraduate learners. The questionnaire was coded into seven categories： beliefs and attitudes, planning, management, self-regulation, sources and materials, in-class responsibility, and out-of-class responsibility. Data were analysed quantitatively via SPSS （Statistical Product and Service Solutions）. Independent Sample t-Test is used to investigate the differences between Polish and Yemein learners and Pearson Correlation is used to perform correlational analysis among the seven categories. The results show significant differences between Polish and Yemeni learners in some of the categories as well as a significant correlation among other categories

College English autonomous teaching and learning research and practice

This paper intends to promote a college English autonomous teaching and learning approach by introducing the whole process of its implementation and feedback from the learners. The theoretical and practical framework of this approach is： with multiple autonomous learning research and practice models as its core, with process syllabus as its guidance, with task-based teaching as its essential principle, with group cooperation and reciprocal learning as its means, with extracurricular activities, online learning and self-access center as its learning environment, with formative assessment system as its guarantee and with cultivation of learners＇ comprehensive English practical skills and autonomy as its goal. Through this approach, we provide the learners with a favorable learning environment where they can learn by themselves and learn by reflection and practice so that they can learn how to learn and how to behave and how to survive.

Using TED to Enhance Student Autonomous Learning

Based on the literature review about autonomous learning,the study put forward four steps for using TED to enhance student autonomous learning,which are preparation,activity design,presentation and evaluation. By doing so,both teachers and students can achieve their teaching and learning objectives.

Autonomous Learning and Improving Communicative Competence

Nowadays, English as a world language becomes more and more important. Consequently, English learning becomes more and more popular. As we know, an important object for English learners is to improve their communicative competence. So autonomous learning is a good way to improve communicative competence. In this paper, two terms, autonomous learning and communicative competence, and their relationship will be introduced from the perspective of English learning. Autonomous learning is self-managed learning, which is contrary to passive learning and mechanical learning, according to intrinsic property of language learning. Communicative competence is a concept introduced by Dell Hymes and is discussed and refined by many other linguists. According to Hymes, communicative competence is the ability not only to apply the grammatical rules of language in order to form grammatically correct sentences but also to know when and where to use these sentences and to whom. Communicative competence includes 4 aspects: Possibility, feasibility, appropriateness and performance. Improving communicative competence is the result of autonomous learning, autonomous learning is the motivation of improving communicative competence. English, of course, is a bridge connecting China to the world, and fostering students'communicative competence through autonomous learning is the vital element of improving English learning in China.

Incorporation of Learning Strategies into Web-based Autonomous Listening

The thesis introduces a comparative study of students'autonomous listening practice in a web-based autonomous learning center and the traditional teacher-dominated listening practice in a traditional language lab.The purpose of the study is to find how students'listening strategies differ in these two approaches and thereby to find which one better facilitates students'listening proficiency.

A Survey into Teachers＇ Roles in Web-based College English Autonomous Learning

The paper, with the backdrop of web-based autonomous learning put forward by the recent college English teaching reform, aims to explore teachers＇ roles in this learning process in students＇ perception through the means of questionnaires and interviews. It further analyzes the possible reasons why students perceive their teachers＇ roles in such a way, in the hope of providing some implications for web-based college English autonomous learning.

On fostering the autonomous learning ability in college English teaching

Autonomous learning is one of the objectives of multi-media college English teaching. On basis of the test of students＇ autonomous learning ability and the analysis of the results, this paper attempts to explore the feasibility of fostering the autonomous learning ability in college English teaching.

On Affective Strategies use in College Students' Autonomous English Learning

Autonomous study emphasizes the learner's initiative,enthusiasm and creativity.In all fields of education,there is growing emphasis on "learner-centered" teaching methods and the ability of learner autonomy.Many experts and scholars have found that learning strategies plays an important role in English language learning,but the importance of affective strategy use in English learning is often ignored by people.Therefore,this paper focuses on the frequencies of affective strategies use in English learning and their relationships so as to enable college students to use positive affective strategies effectively to improve their autonomous learning ability.

Research into college students＇ English autonomous learning capability and the necessity of cultivating metacognitive strategies

Through the research into college students＇ English autonomous learning ability of the non-English major students. That the cause why university students＇ English autonomous learning ability is weak is proved to be that they do not value the use of learning strategies. The use of learning strategies can promote the formation and enhancement of autonomous learning ability of the learners. Metacognitive strategy is a high-level management skill which can enable the learners to plan, regulate, monitor and evaluate actively their own learning process. Massive researches have proved whether metacognitive strategy is used successfully or not can directly affect the student learning result. So, it is necessary for teachers to cultivate and train the students to use metacogitive strategy in the university English teaching.

An Analysis of Learner Autonomy and Learning Strateg ies in CALL Environment

In recent years,computer assisted language learning(CALL) increasingly attracts language learners’ attentions with evident advantages.This paper introduces the basic concepts concerning CALL,learner autonomy and learning strategies,and tentatively proposes suggestions for developing language learners’ strategies in CALL environment based on CALL situations in China.

Cultivation of Autonomous Learning Ability and Intercultural Communication Competence in Foreign Language Teaching

Learner Autonomy has been a hot topic in foreign language learning and teaching since 1960s,especially in relation to life-long skills.As the globalization develops,intercultural communication becomes more and more significant for college students.This essay attempts to explore main approaches to cultivate and improve students' autonomous learning ability and intercultural communication competence in foreign language teaching.

Towards Lessening Learners’Aversive Emotions and Promoting Their Mental Health:Developing and Validating a Measurement of English Speaking Demotivation in the Chinese EFL Context

While a plethora of studies has been conducted to explore demotivation and its impact on mental health in second language(L2)education,scanty research focuses on demotivation in L2 speaking learning.Particularly,little research explores the measures to quantify L2 speaking demotivation.The present two-phase study attempts to develop and validate an English Speaking Demotivation Scale(ESDS).To this end,an independent sample of 207 Chinese tertiary learners of English as a Foreign Language(EFL)participated in the development phase,and another group of 188 Chinese EFL learners was recruited for the validation of the scale.Exploratory Factor Analysis(EFA)and Confirmatory Factor Analysis(CFA)were employed to determine the factor structure of the scale.The EFA results revealed a six-factor solution with Teacher-related Factors in Learning Spoken English(TFLSE),Interest and Valence in Learning Spoken English(IVLSE),Self-efficacy in Learning Spoken English(SELSE),Negative Peer Influence in Learning Spoken English(NPILSE),Undesirable Environment for Learning Spoken English(UELSE),and Negative Influence of Assessment and Learning Materials in speaking class(NIALM).In the validation phase,Confirmatory Factor Analysis(CFA)was performed to validate the internal structure of the scale.The CFA results showed that the model fits the data well.Overall,the ESDS is a robust and trustworthy psychometric tool that could be utilized to examine L2 speaking demotivation.Implications for diminishing EFL learners’demotivation,lessening their aversive emotions and promoting their mental health are also discussed.

An Empirical Study on Classroom Learning Anxiety of Secondary Vocational English Learners in Content-based Instruction

This research aims to study the relationship between content-based instruction and secondary vocational English learners.Two classes in one secondary vocational school were chosen as participants.The result shows that CBI teaching has a negative correlation with English learning anxiety and has an impact on alleviating students' anxiety.

Reinforcement Learning Based Obstacle Avoidance for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Obstacle avoidance becomes a very challenging task for an autonomous underwater vehicle(AUV)in an unknown underwater environment during exploration process.Successful control in such case may be achieved using the model-based classical control techniques like PID and MPC but it required an accurate mathematical model of AUV and may fail due to parametric uncertainties,disturbance,or plant model mismatch.On the other hand,model-free reinforcement learning(RL)algorithm can be designed using actual behavior of AUV plant in an unknown environment and the learned control may not get affected by model uncertainties like a classical control approach.Unlike model-based control model-free RL based controller does not require to manually tune controller with the changing environment.A standard RL based one-step Q-learning based control can be utilized for obstacle avoidance but it has tendency to explore all possible actions at given state which may increase number of collision.Hence a modified Q-learning based control approach is proposed to deal with these problems in unknown environment.Furthermore,function approximation is utilized using neural network(NN)to overcome the continuous states and large statespace problems which arise in RL-based controller design.The proposed modified Q-learning algorithm is validated using MATLAB simulations by comparing it with standard Q-learning algorithm for single obstacle avoidance.Also,the same algorithm is utilized to deal with multiple obstacle avoidance problems.