A Study Of Metacognition In EFL Reading And Its Training: The Case Of High School Students

"Metacognition" has been a very much-concerned topic in educational psychology for the past two decades and it is argued that metacognition plays an important role in L2 reading. However, in China, few L2 researchers have touched this topic. Aware of this lacking, the author carried out the present study to explore some questions in this area. The study consists of two parts.Study One addressed the following research questions: 1) what is state of high school students' metacognitive knowledge of their English reading, and 2) is there any positive relation between students' metacognitive knowledge and their English reading performance? In this part, several means such as questionnaire and interview were used to describe students' metacognitive awareness in English reading. Furthermore, the correlation between readers' metacognitive awareness and their reading performance was examined.Study Two, an experimental training, was carried out to answer the questions: 1) does explicit training improve Chinese high school students' L2 reading metacognitive awareness? 2) does reading metacognition training improve students' L2 reading performance? 3) how can the metacognitive training in L2 reading be approached in Chinese context? In this part, the trainer/teacher used strategies of direct instruction and modeling by think-aloud to improve students' L2 reading metacognition.The major findings of the present study are:1. Chinese students' metacognitive awareness in their English reading is relatively low. 2. Metacognition plays an important role in Chinese students' English reading. 3. Explicit training can improve students' metacognitive awareness as well as their self-regulation in their L2 reading.And some implications have been drawn from the research findings for classroom applications; among them are:1. Helping students become metacognitively aware of their comprehension processes during reading is vital for helping students become independent readers.2. Teachers can play an important role in making their students become self-regulated readers who effectively monitor their reading processes.The thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter One is the theoretical background of the study. It provides an overview of the theories and models of L2 reading as well as the theory of metacognition. Chapter Two provides a selective literature review of recent studies on metacognitive awareness of L1 and L2 readers and on the training of metacognitive strategies of L1 and L2 readers. Chapter Three is concerned with the theoretical and analytical frameworks of the present study. Chapter Four is Study One. It mainly addresses two issues: one is Chinese students' L2 reading metacognitive knowledge and another one is whether positive relation exists between students' metacognitive knowledge and their L2 reading performance. Chapter Five is Study Two. It is a training research, aiming mainly at improving students' metacognitive knowledge and their L2 reading performance. Chapter Six is the conclusion part. It is concerned with the major findings, pedagogical implications, limitations of the present study, and suggestions for future research.