Self-learning of foreign language students in the credit system held at the university of social sciences and humanities: problems and solutions

Abstract

As the result of the research work on self-learning of foreign language students in the credit system held at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, this article has firstly searched for problems facing the students in studying by themselves, secondly determined a number of things the students are supposed to do with patience and finally raised some suggestions to the teaching staff, the departments of foreign languages and the university in order to improve the students’ ability to conduct their self-learning, bettering their expected learning outcomes. The result indicates that despite their growing awareness of how significant self-learning is, the students neither have enough time nor maintain the time consciously planned for self-learning. Negatively affecting the students’ self-learning are their five subjective factors: lack of adequate time for self-learning, failure in search for appropriate methods of learning, lack of basic knowledge on given subjects, lack of self-belief to conduct their learning successfully, and lack of motivation as well as determination to study by themselves; among the five objective factors hindering the effects of self-learning are the students’ inability to get access to academic resources, their instructors’ lack of attention to share experience in and provide guidance on self-learning, the students’ long time spent on class meetings, lack of space, especially on campus, quiet enough for self-learning, and lack of equipment specialised for foreign language learning. It has been highlighed that only if (1) the students proceed their self-learning however difficult it is, (2) the teaching staff play their dual role in organsing and controlling the students’ self-learning, and (3) the foreign language departments as well as the university actively support teaching and learning activities can the students’ self-learning turn out to be fruitful