| Ever since its emergence in 1981, learner autonomy has been arousing great interest all over the world. Autonomous learner training, as one of the main aspects in the research of learner autonomy, has attracted great attention. Previous research on autonomous learner training mainly focused on strategy training, while metacognitive knowledge, learners'awareness and beliefs in language learning, did not receive enough attention. Few domestic studies have been done to foster learner autonomy through enhancing metacognitive awareness. The present study aimed to explore the impact of raising metacognitive awareness instruction on autonomous English readers based on a nine-week experimental study. Subjects involved in the study were 120 first year non-English majors in Hubei University of Technology (HUT), falling into experimental group and control group. Questionnaires and reading diaries served as the instruments in the study. The training procedures consisted of in-class instruction (classroom discussion) and after-class instruction (signing learner contract and keeping reading diaries). Data obtained from the questionnaire were processed with SPSS 12.0 whereas data from reading diaries were transcribed, decoded, classified and analyzed. Results of the present study illustrated that the instruction had positive effect on the autonomous behaviors rather than the metacognitive knowledge in experimental group. Results also indicated that learners possessed some metacognitive knowledge in their English reading, yet most of them lacked initiatives in their actual reading practice. Based on the results, it is suggested that teachers should involve learners in critical thinking of their reading process. They should also play more important roles in helping students become autonomous and effective learners according to the Chinese English teaching and learning context.
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