An Investigation Into The Present Situation And Training Of Junior Middle School English Students

The new curriculum goals of junior English teaching is to develop the learning strategies clearly and definitely. In this stage ,the new curriculum goals request the students to use the fourdamental learning strategies-cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, communication strategies, resources strategies. This thesis has investigated the first type — cognitive learning strategies of the junior middle school students.The investigation was carried out in the form of questionnaires.The junior middle school students still lack the ability of various cognitive strategies, and they differ in choosing various cognitive strategies in English learning, some strategies are seldom used , which means the teacher should change the traditional filling-in teaching type to inspiring type of teaching, develop students' ability to learn and think independently.The different grade students are different in using cognitive strategies, the higher the grade is, the worse the using the cognitive strategies is. Comparing with the students in grade 2 and the grade 3, the freshmen are more active and more engaged in studying. Because the students in Grade 3 are busy preparing for exams, they have no time to think about learning strategies. It is very important and useful for the students in Grade 1 tohave some training in cognitive strategies. The training can help them study effectively. It's too late for students to have their learning strategies training in Grade 3.From the investigation, it is common that the student groups who got higher scores in exams got higher scores in the 11 cognitive strategies investigation. This shows that the 11 cognitive strategies play an important role in students' learning results together. I have 3 groups, one group consists of one grade , one grade consists of two parts , one part consists of the students who got higher scores in the exams of last term, the other consists of the students who got lower scores in the exams of last term. The 3 groups are different in item content and quantity of the apparent different learning strategies , this explains every one of the 13 cognitive strategies plays a role in students' learning, every one is equal to another, any one of them is helpful to students' learning and exams if it is used properly.I have interviewed some students who had got higher scores in the exams and the investigation, they were conscious of their learning process, they could speak out how they dealt with different learning tasks while the students who have got lower scores in the exams and the investigation were unconscious of their learning process .The investigation shows that the cognitive strategies are very important in developing students' scores in exams. According to this conclusion, Ihave trained the class 8 of Grade 1 which I had inquired. Training contents are some weak cognitive strategies items of the junior middle school students.From the mean of the last term exams, the class 7 of Grade 1 was much better than the class 8. The teachers of the two classes have had the same view. From the investigation, the class 7 is much better than the class 8 in 4 cognitive strategies items. I have trained the class 8 three times in all ,observing them and giving them some necessary advice in time for about one month.At last I and the class 8 have got ideal results: first, the class structure is changed; next, the means of the unit tests are developed, the class 8 is better than the class 7. In the test of unit 3 and unit 4 , the test mean of class 8 is 71, the test mean of class 7 is 63; in the test of unit 5, the test mean of class 8 is 73, the test mean of class 7 is 63. Through T test, the class 8 I have trained is apparently better than the class 7 I have not trained in the units tests.I have got the conclusion that English teachers should go on training learning strategies after the training that I have done, they could use the 5 -steps frame methods. According to students' tasks, a teacher should remind students of learning strategies, make students choose and use appropriate learning strategies, the teacher should give students continual training. At the same time, the teacher should develop students'cooperation and gradually build a learner-centered class.The last aim in learning strategies training is that students can choose and use the learning strategies without teachers' help. They can develop their ability in learning to form their own learning strategies and styles gradually.