作者：张鑫帅
　　【Abstract】With the tight cooperation between country and country， a common language is becoming more and more importance. Due to historical factor， English is the most popular language in the world， so it is important for people to master English well. In 1980s， the term of autonomous learning has been proposed by Henry Holec. In university， students have more time belong to themselves. In other word， autonomous learning is more important than class learning， which is different from the situation in senior high school.
　　【Key words】Autonomous Learning； Importance English
　　1. Theoretical basis
　　Since 1950s， language become an independent profession. Language is not just a simple process. Many other professional knowledge participates in learning， such as psychology， logic and so on. Henry Holec （1981） was the first person who introduced the term of autonomous learning into English learning. In Holec’s book， Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning， he analyzed practice， term and meanings of autonomous learning. He defined autonomous as a kind of ability of taking responsibility for learners themselves. The term of autonomous learning has been defined by other scholars. For example， Numan （1995） considered autonomous learning as an ability of setting targets and learning independently.
　　2. Importance of autonomous learning ability
　　Different from other English-speaking countries， most of people around Chinese students in university speak Chinese. In other word， Chinese students in universities don’t have the environment of learning second language， so they have to learn English by themselves. In addition， teachers in universities only play the roles of guiders. They don’t focus on the education of students all the time. Practice is one important stage of English learning in universities. It is impossible for English teachers to communicate with each student， because the energy and time of an English teacher is limited.
　　English is mainly made up by three components：words， grammar and pronounce. Each component has large content， especially English words. New English words occur all the time. Memory curve reveals that a person must repeat one thing several times one day，， if he or she want to remember the thing. Without autonomous learning ability， a student in universities can’t repeat English every day by himself or herself. As a result， he or she may waste a lot time in learning English and get nothing.
　　As a saying goes， you may lose one thing easily， if you get the thing easily. A student listens to his or her teacher all the time and forget to repeat the knowledge after classes， he or she may forget the knowledge sooner or later. However， the knowledge got by himself or herself can root in his or her mind deeply. Such a phenomenon has been proved by scientists. A touch process can make cynapse stronger， which means that people can’t forget one thing easily.