Abstract:
 As autonomous learning is widely accepted as a desirable goal in education, how to develop learner autonomy has become the focus of EFL researches. Keeping learning diaries is viewed by western scholars as an effective means of fostering learner autonomy. This paper aims to probe into how Chinese students develop learner autonomy through keeping learning diaries in EFL context. Fifty-four Chinese undergraduate students are asked to keep learning diaries to reflect upon their EFL classroom performance. Altogether 160 learning diaries are collected. Learning diaries are analyzed for the identification of increased learner autonomy. Data from this qualitative research suggests that use of learning diaries can increase learners’ reflection, awareness and learning capacity. According to the research findings, the author proposes pedagogical implications of implementation of keeping learning diaries in EFL classroom. The paper concludes that the integration of keeping learning diaries into EFL classroom is the effective way to develop students’ language abilities and autonomous learning abilities concurrently.

Key words: learner autonomy; learning diary; reflection; awareness; capacity

摘要：
自主学习能力普遍被认为是教育的理想目标，如何培养学习者自主性已成为外语教学研究的焦点。西方学者将学习日志视作培养自主学习能力的一种有效方法。本文旨在探索学生通过撰写学习日志提高外语自主学习能力的可行性。54名中国非英语专业本科生参加了学习日志试验，共收集了160篇学习日志作为样本。研究结果表明：通过撰写学习日志，学生的自主学习能力有所提高，并在一定程度上增强了他们的反思能力、学习意识和能力。本文结合分析结果阐述了学习日志给外语教学的启示。最后，文章提出将学习日志融入到外语学习中不仅有助于提高学生的语言能力，又能培养他们的学习者自主性。

关键词：自主学习；学习日志；反思；意识；能力

1 Introduction
Over the last two decades, the research on learner autonomy has gained momentum in language acquisition field both home and abroad. Nowadays, autonomy is widely accepted as a desirable goal in education and “few teachers will disagree with the importance of helping language learners become more autonomous as learners”. Learner autonomy is often regarded as a defining characteristic of all sustained learning that attains long-term success. It is being promoted far more widely in different contexts than ever before. How to develop learner autonomy has become the focus of the research, among which the learning diary is seen as one of the means of fostering learner autonomy. The research on learning diaries in western countries has reached a relatively mature stage, where many scholars have elaborated on the roles that learning diaries play in study. However, in China, the research on learning diary is still in its initial stage. We know little about how keeping learning diaries can promote Chinese students’ learner autonomy in EFL classroom. Therefore, the present research is conducted to probe into how Chinese students develop learner autonomy through keeping learning diaries in EFL context.