A Study Of Developing Learners' Metacognitive Language Learning Strategies In College English Teaching

Language learning strategy is a hot research subject in Applied Linguistics over the past 30 years. Language learning is a complicated process involving a lot of factors on the learner's part, therefore, language learning effects vary greatly among individual learners. However, since the late 1970's, many ESL researchers have begun to recognize the importance of the strategies good ESL students use while learning the language. It has been claimed that successful language learners share a lot in common, and have their own "special ways of doing it" (Stern, 1975). Since this premise, most of the research in the area of language learning strategies has focused on the identification, description, and classification of useful learning strategies. The results of the studies on strategy description and categorization have found their implications in language classrooms in helping teachers accelerate the language learning of their students. Most of the research in the field of learning strategy instruction has focused on cognitive strategies as one of the main categories of learning strategies. More recently, increasing importance has been attached to metacognitive strategies. According to O'Malley and Chamot, metacognitive strategies function at a higher level than cognitive and social/affective strategies (1990), and have the most central role to play in improvement of learning (Graham, 1997). Students without metacognitive approaches are essentially learners without direction and ability to review their progress, accomplishments, and future learning directions (O'Malley et al. 1985a).Thus, the instruction of metacognitive language learning strategies is to teach students learn how to learn, which is of particular importance in current English teaching and learning in China, because one of the major differences in the transition from middle school English study to college English study is the change from teacher-centered approaches to learner-centered approaches, but the current college freshmen are always at a loss as to how to adapt to their new roles and how to manage and regulate their English studies.Therefore, this study will carry out metacognitive language learning strategy training on the first year non-English majors in Shandong Jiaotong College and investigate the effect of the training on learners' learning quality.The thesis consists of four chapters.In the first chapter, a historic overview of the studies of developing metacognitive language learning strategies is offered to examine the theoretic background, the training approaches, and the research issues of metacognitive language learning strategies so as to see what is going on in these mentioned areas.In the second chapter, two case studies are conducted with the purpose of improving college freshmen's learning and reading qualities on the one hand and investigating the effect of metacognitive language learning strategies on the freshmen's English study on the other.In the third chapter, findings obtained from the questionnaire and test after the training are presented and analyzed. The findings from the questionnaire suggest the college freshmen's metacognitive ability to plan, evaluate and monitor their studies have been greatly improved, and their English scores on mid-term examination after the awareness training show that those freshmen's learning quality has been improved. The findings from the test after the reading strategy training suggest students' reading performance has been significantly improved after the training.In the last chapter, the study's pedagogical and practical implications are discussed.