A Comparative Study Of Meta-cognitive Strategies Use In English Learning By Non-english Majors Of Vocational College

In recent years, researchers and educators have shifted attention from how to teach to how to learn, and begun to conduct researches on learning strategies. In the studies on learning strategies, researchers are increasingly aware of the importance and necessity of meta-cognitive strategies. Scholars at home and abroad have done a lot of researches on the role that meta-cognitive strategies play in language learning.In China, most existing meta-cognitive strategies researches are focused on students in common universities, colleges, English majors and non-English majors. But research on vocational college students still attracted little attention. Meanwhile, those existing researches on meta-cognitive strategies are mostly linked with particular skills, such as vocabulary, listening or reading. What's more, most of these researches take single student groups as their subjects, and researches on different students groups, especially on vocational students, are even fewer.The present study intends to conduct a comparative study of meta-cognitive strategies use by non-English majors in higher vocational college. About 422 sophomores took part in the study voluntarily and there are 355 valid questionnaires obtained. By using questionnaire and learning journals and with the help of SPSS11.5 the current study tries to answers the following questions:1) What is the present situation of meta-cognitive strategies use by non-English majors in higher vocational college?2) Are there significant differences on meta-cognitive strategies use between males and females?3) Are there significant differences on meta-cognitive strategies use among students in different specialties?4) Are there significant differences on meta-cognitive strategies use among students from different types of middle schools?5) Are there significant differences on meta-cognitive strategies use among non-English majors from different districts?6) Are there significant differences on meta-cognitive strategies use among students of different educational background?The results are as follows:1) As to the overall situation of meta-cognitive strategies use, non-English majors in vocational colleges use meta-cognitive strategies more frequently and they use these strategies at a mediate level. What's more, they use monitoring strategies most frequently, and followed by the planning strategies, while evaluating strategies is the least frequently used strategies.2) The meta-cognitive strategies use of male and female students are both at a mediate level. The differences on meta-cognitive strategies use between male and female students are significant only on planning strategies.3) Liberal Arts students use meta-cognitive strategies most frequently then followed by Science students and Art students use them least frequently. There are no significant differences on meta-cognitive strategy use between students of Science and Liberal Arts, but there are significant difference between students of Art and Science, as well as between students of Art and Liberal Arts.4) Students from key middle schools use planning strategies, monitoring strategies and evaluating strategies more frequently than those from ordinary middle schools. There are no significant differences on meta-cognitive strategies use between students from key and ordinary middle schools.5) Students from villages use meta-cognitive strategies more often than students from other districts. There are no significant differences among students from cities, suburban, counties on meta-cognitive strategies use, while differences are at a significant level between students from suburban and villages as well as students from cities and villages.6) Students of secondary technical schools use meta-cognitive strategies more often and senior middle school students use these strategies least often. There are significant differences on meta-cognitive strategies use between students of senior middle schools and secondary technical schools, as well as vocational high schools. And there are no significant differences on meta-cognitive strategies use between students of secondary technical schools and vocational high schools. The findings from this research can help teachers to find out the present situation of meta-cognitive strategies use by different English learners in vocational colleges, and then they can adjust their class teaching contents, use appropriate ways and methods to develop students` ability of independent study. So it is more instructive for English teaching in vocational colleges.