Effects Of Meta-cognitive Strategy Training On Activating Learners' Motivation

English learners' poor performance in EFL learning results,to a large degree,from their lack of intense and persistent motivation.Increasing students' motivation has become the prime concern of many English teachers.In recent years,it has been recognized by a growing number of researchers that meta-cognitive strategy training can play an active part in L2 learning.The idea of meta-cognition is introduced into researches on language learning strategies,which belongs to the field of applied linguistics,thus bring forward the term of meta-cognitive strategies,which is defined as a series of actions or measures that coordinate their own learning process by allowing them to control their own cognition, with the central factors of centering,planning and arranging,monitoring and evaluating learning(Oxford,1990).Since learning strategies are operational and trainable,the training of meta-cognitive strategies has been attached more and more importance in language learning.Although motivation and meta-cognitive strategy are such two important elements in L2 learning,not too much elaboration has been made on how to use meta-cognitive strategy training to activate students' motivation in classroom EFL teaching and learning.In order to explore the effects of meta-cognitive strategy training on learners' motivation,the author carried out an experiment in a class of Senior One in her school.By reviewing the leading theories and constructs conceming L2 motivation and meta-cognitive strategy,the thesis clarifies the basic concepts and related theory in motivation and meta-cognitive strategy.What is more,the writer reveals the relationship between strategy and motivation that the strategies can play an important key to increasing motivation.Based on the model by previous studies and the analysis of the materials that will be used in the experiment,the author takes the CALLA model as a general guidance with extensive application.During the experiment,there are some factors that need to be paid attention to,namely,goal-setting,strengthening learners' self-efficacy and the role of the teachers.To testify the hypothesis that the meta-cognitive strategy training has positive effects on activating learners' motivation,an experiment was carried out.The research aims at the Senior One students in a middle school.At the beginning of the research,the status quo of the subjects' motivation and meta-cognitive strategy application has been investigated by replying to two questionnaires.The result indicates that there is no significance between the control group and experimental group in these two aspects.Besides,they have vague ideas of language learning strategies and their English learning motivation is rather poor.Then the students of experimental group receive meta-cognitive strategy training for seventeen weeks,and the control group follows the traditional ways of teaching about the same teaching materials.It combines meta-cognitive strategies with classroom tasks,basic language skills and other learning strategies.Training after class is also a crucial component of English learning.Therefore,training should not be confined within the classroom,and it should also be reinforced in extracurricular learning.At the end of the training,both groups have finished the same questionnaires and accepted interview from the author,and the data processed by SPSS reveal that there is significant difference between experiment group and control group in the use of meta-cognitive strategy and English learning motivation,which proves that meta-cognitive strategy training can largely activate learners' motivation.