On Application Of Metacognitive Theory In English Reading Teaching For English Majors

Reading is one of the key proficiency in language pedagogy and learning. At present, in the field of English reading instruction, more focus is paid on teaching strategy of teacher and ignore the ability of student's individualized learning, which leads to low efficiency of using those strategy. So we should combine metacognitive theory with teaching strategy to improve it. Therefore, the meta-cognitive theory, which serves as the bridge between explicit instruction and learner's individualized learning, aims to cultivate self-autonomous learner. That is, when we show the declarative knowledge to students, the procedural knowledge and conditional knowledge also be added in. Through a reading teaching experiment, the application of metacognitive theory in English reading instruction is proved effectually. The subjects come from two intact classes of grade 2 in Foreign Language Department of Hulunbeir College, in which one class is randomly chosen as the experimental class, the other two as the controlled class. The students of experimental class was divided into three group representing intermediate, lower level and higher level readers based on their different ability. After training, the reading performance of the experimental class, compared with the controlled class, is significantly improved. The outcomes are obtained that the application of metacognitive theory in English reading instruction could improve the effect of teaching.