On Metacognition And Cultivation Of SALL Ability

Learner autonomy has been a buzzword in foreign language teaching in recent twenty years. With the change from teacher-centeredness to learner-centeredness in education, the development of learner autonomy has received more and more attention in the field of EFL teaching and learning.The teaching and learning of College English as a foreign language has undergone a long period of history with rich achievements in both research and teaching. However, there are some negative phenomena over which both language learners and language teachers feel puzzled and depressed. From their first exposure to English at the beginning of their middle school till their graduation from the university, learners have spent around 10 years in learning English as a foreign language, but the learning effects are not satisfactory and English language learners end in different proficiency despite the similar learning environment they resort to. In recent years, with the development of China in her way to reform and to open to the outside world, a higher demand is set upon the application of graduates'English in all walks of life, and more and more criticism is pouring on the English teaching system. At the demand of the improvement of English learning efficiency, various kinds of English textbooks have come out onto the market and different teaching theories and methods have been put forward. However, the author thinks more attention should be paid to the elements relevant to the learner, because it is the learner who acts as the subject of the learning process and determines the efficiency of the learning process. The author does not deny the fact that teachers should be possibly knowledgeable, which may affect greatly the learning process. More importantly, we should be aware of the truth that it is the internal factor that motivates the leaner. An ancient proverb says:"Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and he would feed for a lifetime."Therefore, in this study, the researcher raises the notion that our English teaching should center on the cultivation of learner autonomy, the ultimate goal of language both learning and teaching.Besides introduction and conclusion, the main body of the thesis is made up of three chapters. Chapter One dwells on the theoretical framework, including the definitions and theories of learner autonomy and metacognition both at home and abroad. The writer reviews the literatures on learner autonomy, metacognition and the inter-relationship between the two concepts is also explored. Chapter Two is an empirical study, selecting at random 102 learners to participate in the questionnaire designed to further verify the hypothesis. The learners are divided into 3 groups: more advanced learners, advanced learners and poor learners. From the data analysis of the questionnaire, the author finds that the learners'metacognition level does affect their learning performance and language achievements. Based on the research findings, a model of metacognitive strategy-based instruction (MSBI) is proposed with the purpose of cultivating learner autonomy, which will be expounded in Chapter Three. The conclusive part of the paper analyzes the limitations of the research under the present circumstances and offers some suggestions for further study in this field.