The Application Of Metacognitive Strategies To English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High Schools

Vocabulary teaching is an important part of English teaching in senior high schools. During the past three decades, considerable researches have been undertaken to study the nature of English teaching, which has a great influence on the teaching method and learning strategy in English vocabulary. The development of the concept of metacognition and cognitive strategy provides a new angle to investigate English vocabulary learning. Metacognition and metacognitive strategies can improve students'sense of self-planning, self-monitoring, self-evaluation and facilitating their active study. Some researches also have showed that metacognitive knowledge and strategies have positive influence upon readers'enhancement of English vocabulary learning proficiency and the development of autonomous reading ability.The introductory part of this thesis makes an analysis of the present English vocabulary teaching in China, and introduces the significance, the purposes, and the frame of the paper. The main body of the thesis is divided into five chapters: Chapter One expounds the study of domestic and foreign learning strategies and introduces the research of metacognitive strategy combined with English vocabulary; Chapter Two mainly introduces metacognition and metacognitive strategy research at home and abroad and briefly explains the definition given by scholars on these terms, and introduces three modes of second language learning strategy training; Chapter Three explains the objective, tools, process of the survey of the metacognitive strategy questionnaire, and then analyzes the results of the survey; Chapter Four, upon the results and problems of the survey, the vocabulary metacognitive strategy experiment is conducted among these students, which lasts 10 weeks. And vocabulary tests are conducted before and after the experiment. The comparison of the test scores show that vocabulary metacognition training in senior high school is feasible and necessary. It also introduces the tools and the methods, the steps, and the contents of the experiment. And an interview is conducted among the students after the experiment; Chapter five is about the experimental data and analysis, and some suggestions are put forward according to the results of the experiment.The three main purposes of this study are as follows: first, to know about the situation that vocabulary metacognitive strategy is used by senior high school students and the existing problems through the survey and data analysis; second, to test whether the use of metacognitive strategy in their English vocabulary can promote their English vocabulary learning; third, to propose suggestions about reasonable application of metacognitive strategies in English vocabulary teaching in senior high school classroom.The author of this thesis delivers the questionnaire on the use of metacognitive strategies to 123 students of grade two in an ordinary senior high school in Linqing With the data collected and analyzed, an experiment of vocabulary metacognitive strategy is conducted among these students, which lasts 10 weeks. After the experiment, an interview is conducted among several students. The results show that the training had improved their vocabulary learning and their interests. The results of pre and post vocabulary tests show that explicit metacognitive strategy training does have positive effect on the vocabulary learning of senior high school students. In the end, according to the problems arisen in the experiment, some suggestions are put forward to the senior high school teachers that they should pay more attention to enhance students'metacognitive awareness and help them adopt metacognitive strategies in their English learning to be autonomous learners.